Smart Kids!

Madalynn is now a second-grader and Justis is a first-grader. Our first year of home schooling is mainly wrapped-up and I'm already planning for next school year's materials. I wanted to share our excitement in what the kids have accomplished this year.

Madalynn started the school year from scratch, going back to square one with reading and math so she could benefit from repetition and solidify her reading and math skills. She now reads books at a written for a 2nd-4th grade level and can pick up a menu, card, or any book and read from it. She read a 55-page book to me two days ago! She also reads for information. She looks up topics in her children's encyclopedia/dictionary when she wants to know more about a word or topic. She shares books that she finds particularly special by reading them to the family before bed sometimes. Math and Madalynn get along as well as Madalynn and reading. She has her addition facts memorized, can identify, write and read numbers from 0-999. She is currently finishing up memorizing her subtraction facts. Here's the impressive part. She does the subtraction facts by using her addition problems and solving for the unknown in her head. That's right! She's doing them algebraically. For instance. When she is given the problem 18-9, she thinks "Nine plus what equals eighteen? That's nine." Needless to say, she is breezing through subtraction! Her math and reading foundations are being built strong.

Justis's reading/phonics progress has quickly and steadily gone from ABC's to reading thirty-some page books! He finished the Kindergarten level of Sing, Spell Read and write by November and is about 1/3 of the way through the 1st-grade level Madalynn is finishing up now. He couldn't even write and tell me the letter names when we started in the fall, but he now reads well above Kindergarten-level expectations. Justis thinks Math is a fun game. You think I'm exaggerating? He learned how to solve for the unknown two weeks ago. He was doing a problem when he said, "What plus five equals ten? That's five. This is a fun game, mom!" He should breeze through next year's math book, because most of it is a review of the "Primer" level he did this year. He also knows place value to 999, simple addition facts, skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s and he will be finishing up by his telling time lessons in the next few weeks.

I have informally taught social studies and science through the use of "real" (not textbooks) children's books this year. I have a curriculum called Five in a Row that provides lists of excellent classic children's books with lessons in geography, science, math, social studies, literature, etc. to do based on each book. The kids have grown a LOVE of these classic children's books and being read to/reading. They have also learned about China, Italy, cranberries, monks, France, Boston, lightening, to watercolor paint, Russia and on and on. Justis can find Louisiana and Italy on a world map! Madalynn focuses more on the social and cultural part of the story, like what time period the story happens in and what the people do, eat and wear. Science has been painless. We have learned about weather, hurricanes, the human body, the five senses, the earth, space, electricity and water through a series of books called the Magic School Bus.

The kids didn't miss out on a social life this school year, either! In fact our social calendar has remained quite full even through the summer. PE, Home School Co-Op, field trips and play dates/trips with other home school families have provided excellent opportunity for social connections and real-world experiences. Madalynn has always been a natural in the social arena, but Justis has been hesitant until this year to jump right in to a social situation. His co-op classes WITHOUT Madalynn driving his social life gave him confidence in his own friendship-building skills and interactions with teachers and others.

Dawson did "school" for the first semester, until he lost interest for a few months. I didn't and won't push it at his age, so I let him play during school this semester. He started asking to do school again about a month ago, so I'm guessing he'll be ready to do practice the basics again next fall. I read all kinds of books to him, which is his favorite part of the day and possibly mine, too!

Jillian still naps or plays with Dawson during home school, although she LOVES to color. On an interesting note, she seems to be left-handed. That means Justis and I (right-handers) are in the minority with Travis, Dawson, Madalynn and Jillian being left-handed! Four lefties in a family! Wow, huh!?

The best thing I heard all year from my children was this comment from Madalynn a few weeks ago. We were driving to Covington for a doctor's appointment, when she said out of the blue, "Mom, I want to be home schooled forever. I like being home schooled and being with you and my brothers and sister all day." Justis chimed in with, "Me, too. I like home school." "Me, too!" Dawson said.

We will be addressing school arrangements with prayer and one-year-at-a-time while the kids mature, and we've never talked about how long we'll home school with the kids. Knowing Justis and Madalynn have experienced both a wonderful private school experience and a year of home school and ask to continue to be home schooled means a lot to me, not just as a home school teacher, but a mom. Without question, we will be home schooling again next year, though. We are all looking forward to it, but have plenty of summer trips and plans to keep us busy. After all, learning is a year-round process, right?!