Wednesday, August 27, 2008

First Day of School


We started our second year of homeschooling. Jacob is in first grade now. He really surprised me today when he was sounding out words during reading time. I am amazed at how much he remembered from kindergarten last year. Ellie is working on her letters and numbers this year. I switched to Sonlight curriculum and am really pleased so far. Jacob isn't a worksheet kid (we did a lot of those with Lifepacs...fit my personality perfectly, but not his), so I decided on one that is more hands on. Sonlight is A LOT of reading, but it teaches almost all of the subjects through picture and chapter books. Today we read a Magic Schoolbus book for science (Jacob's favorite) and started on Charlotte's Web during read-aloud time. It also does a good job of integrating Bible throughout the different subjects. Somedays I'm ready to pack up the kids and send them off to school, but I know that I would miss those "A-HA" moments when they learn something new. Overall, I really enjoy homeschooling and can't wait to see how much they grow and change over this next school year.

Gabrielle (with her baby doll)

Jacob (he posed himself)

Ellie practices her name

Jacob works on handwriting

2 comments:

Emily said...

Is that Handwriting Without Tears? I used that program when I was working in the schools and loved it - I plan to use it with my kids to do handwriting at home.

Jen said...

Yes, it is. We've had some struggles with it because it is different than what we used in kindergarten, so it hasn't been "without tears". I know that it will get easier as the year goes on. And, it is great for special-needs kids, so I'm planning on using it with Emmaline with the time comes.