Rolling Along

Things are going amazing well with homeschooling. It's not as hard as some people think. The nice thing is I can take the time my children need to understand something instead of just having to move on. I can know where their weaknesses and strengths are. I'm looking forward to next year because I will start teaching Rebeka how to do independent studies. I feel it is important to know how to find answers to questions and research topics of interest. This is how I learn things all the time. I do a lot of research on the internet to become knowledgable about certain things in my everyday life. This skill has come in handy so many times as I have been able to apply it. It's also important to know how to weed out the bad and good information. These skills will help her immensely in college, if she chooses to go, with her studies. I've started to teach her cursive and having her use the letters she has learned with her normal printing. She has caught on very quickly and is eager to learn. I've read so many times from other homeschooling moms that the first year is the hardest. For me the hardest part isn't in teaching my children, but trying to decide which method to use. So far I'm pretty much eclectic. I use any method I want to teach a particular topic. I like doing unit studies for science, and worksheets/books for math, language arts, and social studies. I'm still trying to figure out how to teach U.S. history to Rebeka. I'm more on the high school level as far as how in depth I like to go, but obviously I can't do that with a first grader. The first year seems to just be a learning period for everyone. We're doing great and having fun and the three older kids look forward to school everyday and get very excited when they hear me declare, "It's time for school!"