Furby

You'd think I'd listen to my own advice, wouldn't you?  Yeah, well, it appears you'd be wrong.  I didn't notice it wasn't working until my son was in tears and I was ready to scream.  Once emotions cooled, I realized that the beauty of homeschooling is that I DON'T HAVE TO pound my triangular child into a square hole.  I need to find a curriculum that works for him, not the other way around.

See, Jack is my special ed student.  He's a bright boy, and very affectionate, sweet and fun.  But he's speech delayed, and he's a horrible speller, partly because he's not a strong reader.  At. All.

Most of the kids went to school, either public or private, for kindergarten.  Jack did not, because I knew he would not have passed the entrance exam for our private school (I know, I know; don't get me started) and I could not bear to send my baby to public school.  I just felt like he wasn't ready yet. I think we did him a disservice by keeping him home.

So much of parenting is guesswork.  We make the best choices we can, based on what we know, how we feel, and outside influences.  I'd read over and over that little boys just aren't ready to sit still and read at 5 years old.  And yet, he's almost 9 now.  Not reading at 8 is different than not reading at 5.  I feel like I've failed him somehow.

All these thoughts and feelings were swirling around my head when I decided to implement some changes in our homeschool.  I decided to switch Jack from Aleks math to A Beka math.  I also realized that although I read aloud to the kids a LOT with our curriculum, Jack doesn't have any sort of reading program this year.  :major headsmack:  HOW did I not notice this??

Oh, he's doing the The Complete Book of Animals as his animal science this year, but because the reading level is 2nd-3rd grade, and he's not quite there yet, we've gotten in the habit of me reading the material TO him.

I started looking online at reading curriculum, and then I stopped myself.  Our school room has EIGHT bookcases in it.  Surely, one could find something appropriate for an emerging reader in this very room!  I went through our impressive stack of readers and sorted them by level.  And Jack and I have been plowing through the Level One books each day since then.

I'm seeing progress.  Tonight's Biscuit book only required a few helps, and many pages required no help at all.  I've also noticed that listening to him read each day helps me to correct his pronunciation.  So far, we haven't had any tears with the new math book he started on Tuesday.  Things are looking better.

I'm glad that homeschooling allows me the chance to see where he's struggling and address it, as opposed to him being swept along with the rest of the class in a traditional school.

If you could pray for me?  I'm starting to write down ideas for next school year.  Obviously nothing set in stone yet, as the dynamics will be very different around here.  But I would ask that you pray God will guide our family as we make choices about who will go to school, where they will go, and what materials we will use here at home next year.  With Annaliese graduating high school, Hannah graduating kindergarten, and Katie's arrival, it's hard to foresee what will work best for everyone.  Thank you.



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