Homeschool Round-up: October 2024

We are nearing the end of our first full homeschool month. In a video I posted on YouTube last month, I shared that I had been sick at the start of September exactly when I had planned to start our school year. October turned out to be when we really got into things so I want to take some time to share a little round up of our activities.

School has been going fantastic. Mai has caught on to reading so quickly, already surpassing the two phonics books I had gotten for her. She is working on remembering all the concepts, but when presented to her she is showing she understands. We've been working casually on blends (think "ch, str, br") for close to a year now, so when we began our formal work through it, she picked it up as easy as can be. I decided to let the phonics work go for now and focus on reading books. She is beginning to read to herself and works on the blends through stories which are more interesting than rote memory work. She is even catching onto blended vowels as well with this approach, but I do plan to focus more on them soon.

Another area I am so proud to see her improving in is her telling time. We've begun practicing reading an analog clock nearly every morning.

A favorite spot of mine is the Japanese Tea Garden. We rounded up some friends and explored as a group. It was a little work to keep track of everyone but the kids had a great time. Visiting local attractions is something I want to keep on rotation with our homeschool. Its one of the greatest perks of the approach after all, learning through doing!

For our nature studies we are attending many of the programs put out by Hardberger Park. During our first visit we learned about raptors. Did you know owls have bones inside their eyeballs? I sure didn't!

We visit our local library every week, its the only way to keep up with Mai Rose's developing reading appetite! Last week we went twice since they were hosting a special Halloween Party. On that particular day we had the special treat of a mother daughter trip while Jacob stayed home with Volund for his nap time.

We are extremely fortunate to have an equestrian center only five minutes from our house on post! Mai rode for the first time on Wednesday this week. This is another activity I plan to do monthly. As I have time, I hope to work in a few animal husbandry lessons, but really I want Mai to experience the fun of it. Fun sticks with you longer than worksheets.

October has been a month of discovery. Since we are doing kindergarten and Mai isn't officially school age yet, I've been taking it easy with the formal work and trying to understand how I will be able to manage the commitment to homeschooling in the future. I'm tracking the days we do book work, (which is a little bit most days) and which days we go exploring. I'm also focusing on understanding my own energy levels as well as the kids so I know how much down time I will need to plan for. One thing my husband Jacob has helped me to learn over the years is to protect my time.

I want to learn how much time do we need/have for school? Some homeschoolers go year around, some four days a week, some two weeks on, two weeks off and etc. I chose "Integrity" as our focus word until the New Year. Mai recites this word every morning and we define it together, "Doing the right thing, even when no one is watching". Then we recite Proverbs 11:3 "Integrity guides good people; dishonesty destroys treacherous people." I chose this more for myself than for Mai because I want to approach homeschooling with integrity.

I wrote about my fear of failure in my blog post, "Are We Going to Homeschool?". I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle motherhood and homeschooling at the same time, so understanding my limitations is crucial to homeschooling with integrity. There is no one checking behind me each day to make sure we do our school. My children's education is in my hands so I have to learn how I can be successful in the long term.

I've learned so much in this first month already and I'm eager to keep moving forward. I think the biggest lesson I've learned so far is that my capacity for this is much more than I realized. Both in the flurry of activity and in the emotional investment with new friends. There is no good way to do homeschooling alone so I was anxious about finding the space for new people in our lives. My past attempts as finding community haven't worked out, but I'm learning when you find the right people, the space just grows on its own.

All in all, this is turning out to be absolutely wonderful. I am blessed beyond measure!