Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Socialization


Interestingly enough, when people find out that we are going to home school, socialization is the first concern. I am glad that everyone is sure of my abilities to teach my children, that of course is the most important part, right?

I don't mind that people ask, because I think that it brings up a great conversation. I ran across an article the other day that I find helpful for anyone that is interested. It basically says what I probably would anyway. There are also a lot of great books that talk about this subject, a good one is The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling by Rachel Gathercole.


Another thing to point out, is that already in the first few weeks of summer vacation, in which we do not have school, we have spent time playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, played at the park with friends and kids we don't know, interacted with people on shopping trips and in church and had plenty of friends over to play. There are still plenty of opportunities in everyday life for our children to learn the "socialization" skills that are necessary for them to lead a wonderful life. Thanks to all those with concerns and PLEASE keep asking questions, we like them.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Math and More . . .

For the last couple of weeks, I have been getting our math ready. I wanted to wait to prepare this until the girls were done with school so that I could be certain what concepts they know and don't know. So we will start out with a little review of where they left off and then go on from there. I am looking forward to using different manipulatives to help them with their math journey. They both seem to enjoy math, so I think that makes it a lot more enjoyable.

I have been preparing myself for history. I love history and would love for my children to enjoy it also. I am currently reading 1776 by David McCullough. It is a great book and the way it is written makes it easy to follow and enjoy. I do feel a little like I got a raw deal with History growing up as we were not taught things in depth. My oldest came to me asking what we were doing for history because she thought it was boring. So I read her a passage out of one of our books, American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt, and explained to her how we will use narration to study and learn the material while incorporating art and reading of biographies and she got excited. Let's just hope she keeps that same excitement as we go on.