Isn’t she lovely? She’s FIVE years old. How that happened, I’ll never know.
I have a lot to catch up on re: Cara, but we can start with her Kindergarten homeschooling this year.
Honestly, it’s going about as we expected it to. I knew, with the baby coming near the holidays (he was due 1/1/11!), that a good portion of the year would be a wash. She came out of preschool knowing rather more than she needed to, and I wasn’t afraid of her ending her K year slightly behind, since we will have the opportunity for any catch-up in grade 1. She was on the very young end to start K this year, anyway, so she really doesn’t need to be through that material, since most kids her age aren’t actually starting K until next fall.
I was strongly considering enrolling her in public school next year, but at the end of the day, it’s just not what I want for her. The decision has required a good deal of soul-searching, because I could really use the time that she (and AJ!) are in school, and I think the idea of many uninterrupted hours when all the children reach school age sounds like a little slice of heaven, but there is a big part of me that just doesn’t think it’s the right fit yet, and I’m definitely not interested in dealing with public school bureaucracy. Maybe I’ll feel differently in a few years.
Anyhow, she’s actually doing quite well, and I expect she’ll have learned what she needs to by the end of the summer. She’s doing a little reading, and we’re starting to tell time. We’ve already worked with coins a bit, but will be doing more of that in the coming months. She has been taking a phonics class one day per week since January, and she really enjoys that. She’s also still going to German school on Saturdays (which she does not enjoy as much, but that’s a whole different post, I suppose).
Our approach this year has included a little of everything, but next year we’ll be focusing on a curriculum. I’m pretty sure we’re going to use K12. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve learned this year that I’m really not suited to unschooling, and Cara really needs some more structure, too. It will be nice to have everything I need to teach right in front of me, and I think Cara is really going to enjoy the art portion!
