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Kindergarten Graduates

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Please let me take a moment to brag on Turkey and Bunny.

Today was their last day of Kindergarten!

It has been an interesting journey over the last year–it was almost exactly a year ago that we made the shocking decision to homeschool.  Frankly, there are times when I am still surprised that we are doing this.  I had no idea what to expect when we started this adventure–would Turkey and Bunny learn well? Listen to me? Be able to accomplish all the things they needed to do? Would they like homeschooling? Would I? There were so many unknowns stretching out in front of me on that day last September when they had their first day of school, and yet here we are, at the end of our school year.

Let me just say that they both far exceeded my expectations.  From how quickly they both picked up reading, to Bunny’s almost frightening abilities with geography, to Turkey’s precise printing that puts my own to shame, they both excelled in their first year of school. I got to observe many interesting things about them, some of which were no surprise (Turkey is a very precise color-er, from crayon selection to staying in the lines, while Bunny doesn’t take even a moment to contemplate color choice before scribbling across a picture–nothing new there!), and some which shocked me (their abilities in the areas of memory work and learning the Six Chief Parts of the Catechism blew even me away!).

I also discovered that they are almost completely different people when we enter our schoolroom–more respectful to me, far more polite to one another. They also listen better and follow directions with less trouble when we’re in school. I know that for children who go away to school, whether public or private, they often display far different behavior from what they exhibit in the home, but I didn’t expect to see that dichotomy within my own home, as we transitioned from playroom to schoolroom.

So, I count this year as a success.  I still consider myself to be doing this on a year-by-year basis–if things ever really turn south, for whatever reason, including me not doing an adequate job of teaching them, or them losing respect for me as teacher, I will consider enrolling them in the public school. For now, though, I think it’s safe to say that this is working out just fine, and we’ll be staring First Grade in our little schoolroom come August.

A Milestone, Sort Of

We still have a few weeks of Sonlight’s Core P 4/5, so I can’t say we’ve finished (survived?) our first year of homeschooling yet. That will come when we’ve finished the whole core, and I can say Turkey and Bunny have moved on from Kindergarten to First Grade (how did that happen so fast, anyway?).

But this week we are finishing Language Arts K.  I began realizing about a month ago–maybe six weeks–that Turkey and Bunny were getting bored, that the pacing of L.A. K was getting to be too slow.  So I accelerated the program considerably (one of the many benefits of Sonlight–it’s so easy to adjust the pacing to fit your children), and this week we’ll be done with it, and next week we’ll be moving on to L.A. 1.

It’s a weird feeling knowing we’ve finished something. I had so many doubts about my abilities to teach them when we started last year–I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to teach them to read; that I’d have to admit defeat and send them to the public school.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a whole new set of doubts and fears as I look at L.A. 1, and all of the new stuff that will be my responsibility to teach (and don’t even get me started on my fears relating to the Core K that I ordered yesterday!). Now that we’ve been doing this for almost a year, and we’ve actually successfully completed something, I am gaining confidence in myself, in them, and in my choice of curriculum (which was never really in question, but it’s nice to have that kind of confirmation).

Next stop–saying goodbye to Kindergarten!