Successes
November 22, 2023
While we have had our struggles, we have also experienced success. There are times when Rooster and SneakySnake will take it upon themselves to help the little ones, by reading the directions for them. This is something that will always count as a win in our books. Cooperation between siblings is so rare it seems that this small action is so helpful for Dad, who is the primary teacher. It allows him to finish a project he was working on. In the few months since the beginning of the school year, Charizard is actually starting read. It's AWESOME! That was one of our biggest fears was not being able to teach them to read. Skittle is doing really well with her reading as well. I am so proud of them. I have loved being able to physically show them how to add and subtract fractions in the kitchen with pizza. That was both tasty and informative.
"Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."
Skittle is technically too young to officially be homeschooled at 4, but that doesn't mean she isn't learning. That little girl is 4 years old and loves adding and subtracting. We've even done basic algebra with her. (What is Skittle + SneakySnake? 4+9) She has done very well with that. She just wants to be a part of it all. She is a sponge. We wrote letters to some of our family and she was eager to put them in the mail. Now she even pretends to mail things but ensures we have the stamp on it before we put it in the post. It's amazing to watch all of this come back into her daily play.
We have seen a remarkable decrease in outbursts from our 9 year old daughter, who shall be known as SneakySnake. Her behavior has been significantly better and we have more control to provide her options during the day. We've noticed that she prefers project based assignments like lapbooks and that is awesome as well as giving her a say in her schedule. It's been quiet refreshing. When I asked her what she knew about foxes, her reply was "nothing". As we asked questions though, it was clear she learned so much about them. We just needed to ask the right questions.
Our son, who shall be known as Charizard, is 6 years old and as soon as he started Kindergarten he started having accidents daily. Well I am pleased to say that he has found his way back to the toilet after starting homeschooling in January. Additionally, he is actually reading simple books to us. This is a huge win for us. He could recognize some sight words before but he has improved leaps and bounds in that aspect.
Now Rooster is our 12 year old daughter. She is a little more difficult to gauge this early on but I will say she has taken a liking to culinary things. She enjoys cooking and baking and so we are attempting to connect some lesson's to that. It's nice that she is able to expand her experience within the kitchen. She's started making grocery lists and budgets for food, which has been an amazing lesson in inflation and supply and demand.
