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CathinCoffeland
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| Posted: July 05 2006 at 6:01pm | IP Logged
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Ok Im having a series of mini panic attacks about this.
My god daughter uses chc and loves in and we have enjoyed all their "hand me downs" to dd. but mostly we have just sort of lived life together.
Dh and i have always just assumed that we would use their stuff when time came to "offically" start homeschooling. Which is this fall since all her age group is trucking off to the full day-kindergartens we have around here.
But our daughter is is a least a year ahead in her ability to read as well as a lot of other things.
Having 4 grandparents in education I have received several copies of the state standard and dd is ahead or at least of level for 90 percent of the stuff.
But she is just barely five( as of last week) and i dont want to ramp up a bunch of formal academics and she doesnt fit into any of the lesson plans ive seen,
So now i just have to be brave and do my own thing which is what we have been doing with her all along but somehow is seen as "innapropriate" after kids get to formal school age.
I guess also im very forgetful and and tend to go off on tangents and i worry that with out a lesson plan to follow we wont really get anywhere or even remember to do lessons.
So any thoughts or kind words would be apreciated .
Im also worried because i am expecting a baby in january and I can see lessons being tossed out the window entirely.
At any rate that was a long and rambly post 
I just cant understand why all of a sudden this is scary stuff when we have been raising her it for 5 yrs
now!
Mags
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ShawnaB
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| Posted: July 05 2006 at 9:12pm | IP Logged
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First of all, how blessed you are to have one of those easy children who manifest their intelligence so obviously! I can relate, as my ds, age almost 6, taught himself to read at the age of 4.5. And, his mathmatical understanding has always been way beyond his years. This last year was our "official" first year of school, and I have learned so much.
Our third baby was born last June, and I spent the summer nursing my newborn and planning our school year. My planning included some rather elaborate unit studies for social studies and science, as well as a thorough plan for math and language arts. For my 3 year old dd, I had plenty of fun preschool activities and resources at the ready.
Then, much to our surprise, the Lord clearly led us to adopt a precious baby boy 10 weeks after our baby girl was born.
I had planned to begin my first "official" year on Sept 6th. I attended baby Jonathan's birth on September 5th. I still wonder at God's humor!
So, this year looked a lot different than I had originally thought. I found that the systems of natural learning that we had created within our home from the beginning were very valuable, and that learning continued despite my distracted state.
I have beem very grateful to have an "early" academic bloomer. Instead of teaching him to read and leading him through kindergarten math concepts, I relaxed, and guess what? He continued to build upon his abilities! We focused on unit studies that peaked his interest. I read REAL LEARNING and discovered how to let the literature drive the unit. I began to allow the activities to naturally flow from the great books we used, rather than the other way around. I learned to use the library!
I learned to allow ds the freedom to choose books that he was interested in reading, and just read for the pure joy of it. I learned the value and simplicity of using narration to check for comprehension and develop critical thinking (and you can listen to narration while nursing 2 babies at once!). And I learned that while planning a home education plan for my children is not easy, it is more natural and simple than I had previously thought.
It sounds like you are already a natural. And with your first child being already ahead of what the standards say is "normal", you should get plenty of positive results. My advice...stay in prayer, follow your God-given instincts, and glean wisdom from this wonderful board! God bless you!
__________________
Shawna, wife of Jacob, mom to Abraham 8 Amelia 5 and Jillian & Jonathan age 3 years http://www.psalm121family.com
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Karen E.
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| Posted: July 06 2006 at 9:24am | IP Logged
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CathinCoffeland wrote:
So now i just have to be brave and do my own thing which is what we have been doing with her all along but somehow is seen as "innapropriate" after kids get to formal school age
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It's only seen as inappropriate in certain circles.  Keep coming here, and you'll get lots of encouragement for just how appropriate it is.
Also, when it comes to answering questions about what you're doing, natural learning can be made to sound quite complex, with the right linguistical tweaking. 
For example:
"What did you two study today?"
"Oh, we covered botany and in particular, we discussed the parts of a flower."
(Translation: you enjoyed a delightful nature walk together, picked some flowers, identified them, looked them over, talked about the different parts, and then went home and put them in a vase. No grading necessary.)
Enjoy these years with your bright little girl!
__________________
God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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ALmom
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| Posted: July 06 2006 at 3:28pm | IP Logged
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I have to encourage you to keep on doing what you are doing and enjoying your precious dd. They'll be plenty of time to get serious, the longer you can put it off, the better, imo. In our state, we don't have to record keep for the state until the year they turn 7 before Sept. or some such date. In our house that means I don't hit the panic you speak of until my dc are about 8 and in 2nd grade (we list them for the state in the grade they would be in by birthdate even if they are ahead academically)
Be prepared, this same panic hits again in middle school when you start thinking about high school and having a high school transcript.
My dc that have done the best academically, are the ones I have "neglected" the most. How does that do for an ego boost - poor mom is such a dunce teacher that we're better off without her . Anyways, if the dc is exploring, learning, progressing and retaining and delighted to boot, why change what is obviously working quite well!
Don't worry at 5 for sure!
Janet
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Oh no now its for real...
