Wednesday, August 29, 2012

School is coming!

EEK!  There's only a couple more days of summer!  How did that happen?  Well, we have done some school during the summer, but mostly my focus was on the newest member of our class and his arrival. Introducing baby William!:


 It was nice to have a baby in the summer because I felt no guilt in dropping the ball on everything but being BIG and pregnant, and on getting to know our sweet new family member.

As for school, it will start on Labor day (monday!---gulp) and I am more or less ready.  Well less then ready to be honest, but I figure I'll ease into this year.

This year we are studying Biology, the New Testament, and Modern World History.  Hyrum will be our kindergardener, and Maxwell will be in 2nd grade.

I'm not going to stress with Hyrum (age 5), however.  He has been diagnosed as having a "Language processing disorder" which I now believe is really not accurate.  I think he's just extremely right brained.  I just got a book called "Disconnected Kids" which is supposed to help children learn how to use their whole brain and connect synapses between the two halves of the brain. Let's hope it helps.

I was going to language therapy with Hyrum, but it seemed pointless.  It was only a half an hour twice a month, and she almost never gave me things to work with at home.  She would say "look how much he's improved because I did such and such" and I would be thinking "That was a month ago, I think he's improved because time has passed and because I do my little preschool."

I'm not sure if I even want to do it this year.  They are frustrated with me that I'm homeschooling because that throws a kink in their system (even though kindergarten is NOT required or subsidized by the homeschool organization.)  It's funny. They say things like "he'll have trouble in large groups" "he needs lots of one on one" "he needs a quiet atmosphere to focus" and in the next breath want him in public school.

I'm not worried about Hyrum in the long run.  He is incredibly creative, artistic, and has amazing dexterity.  He is writing his name very well, and I know he'll do Handwriting Without Tears excellently this year.  He knows the letters and their sounds, but I really don't know how reading will go.  We'll just take it one day at a time.  Math----I'm a bit worried about math.  (See why I think he is severely right brained?) Last year at this time he couldn't count to four.  Now, after drilling and drilling, he can count to ten, but well---let's just say Daniel (3) might be at a higher math level then Hyrum.

The good news is, he's a summer birthday. Really, if he was going to public school, I would hold him back until next year.  That way, instead of being the youngest, he would be the oldest.  I will still try to have him on a kindergarten curriculum, but I'm not going worry if he doesn't accomplish everything I'm planning on right now.

Hyrum & William

Maxwell (age 7), my homeschool guinea pig, I have many expectations for, however, and many of it will be catching up in reading and writing.

Daniel (age 3), well, I don't think I'll ever have to do any kind of preschool with Daniel.  He just picks it all up through osmosis. I have to tell him not to help Hyrum when I'm doing school with Hyrum.


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