Kindergarten!
That seems to be a hot topic lately with my friends. Jocelyn turns 5 on August 14th and she meets Nebraska’s current cut-off for Kindergarten. Am I starting her with kindergarten too early…many people think so? She is going to be the youngest in her class of 1 person! What on earth is Kindergarten anyways? I have researched and researched and researched some more. I have found several public school teachers who have posted their yearly syllabus online—and let me tell you—I am really, really surprised at what is taught or not taught in Kindergarten. It seems really, really basic to me. Maybe that is just me or maybe I taught her too much too early. Maybe she just picks up easily on things. I really don’t know. I didn’t really research what kids are taught in public schools until recently to see if I was on track. So yes, I am starting Jocelyn with Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd…whatever you want to label it. I am just going with the flow of what she is ready to learn. When she is ready to move onto something else, we will move on.
So what am I going to teach her?
I don’t have any set curriculum by any specific publisher. One of these days I am sure we will. I have several workbooks…I honestly HATE workbooks…and I don’t think Jocelyn is a fan either of busy work, but I found them cheap at garage sales—not used—maybe that was my first clue that someone else didn’t find them useful. I have several hands on activities that I am planning on doing to teach different life skills and daily living tasks. I have quite a few art and science activities that we are going to try. Of course we will continue to focus on reading and math. She loves reading and wants to learn how to read bigger words so we will focus on that. She also likes to write so we will continue to practice handwriting. We will also continue to read Bible stories, devotions, and learn Bible verses.
I have been telling myself I need to sit down and write out lesson plans for each week. When I was teaching high school—I hated writing out my lesson plans. Hated it, hated it, hated it. I guess I am the type of person that keeps things in my head. Probably not a good thing, but that is just me. I have a check list of things I want to accomplish this year with Jocelyn and Katelyn, but I decided not to put days to these things. If something comes up or we need to go somewhere, we will go.
Preschool and what about Katelyn?
So technically I guess you can say Jocelyn has completed preschool if she is moving onto the labeled grade kindergarten. Katelyn started preschool last year too, but we will again work with her on some things. So if you talk with her sometime she will say she is in preschool. It is cute! Anyways, she knows what her letters are, looks like, and the sounds. I think I might just continue doing letter activities and work on counting higher than 20. She will be participating in the activities that I do with Jocelyn.
What about socialization?
To be honest with you, when someone brings this up, I just want to throw up. This is a common thing that someone brings up and I quickly learn they do not have a clue about homeschooling or have only met maybe one person who has homeschooled—or no one at all. I taught in the public schools and let me tell you there are kids who don’t talk and there are kids who talk in a not-so-pleasant manner. There are kids who have no friends and there are kids who have quite a few. There are kids that bullies and there are kids that get bullied. I can guarantee you, we don’t sit at home and stare at the walls…we get out plenty and my kids have plenty of friends. Sometimes we have good experiences and sometimes I have to retrain when we get home. We try to hang out with kids of all ages and not just kids who are the ages of my kids. So if you want to have a conversation about socialization with me…do your research…hang out with quite a few different homeschooling families….then we can talk. Also, don’t bring to me a “high school dropout…no good sorry case” that is not a homeschooler…I know a few of those also.
So some questions for you….why do you think people these days are so interested in getting their kids “socialized”. I don’t get it. Maybe someone can explain it to me. I thought being socialized should come from the parents and standards set at home. When have you come home and thought wow those other kids “socialized” my kids really well? I guess I just don’t get it.
Please don’t take offense by this blog. I am not against in any way shape or form what you do or don’t do with your kids. They are your kids. It just gets kind of old when people are telling me what I should or shouldn’t be doing with my own regarding their education at home.
Super excited to start the school year again…only a few more weeks…I think…really not decided yet on when we begin…enjoying the summer way too much!
Off my soapbox now…opinions welcomeJ
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