Decision Made!

I have decided to homeschool Lyla this year..and I am super excited about it!
Now it isn't "legal" but we are doing it!

Lyla isn't "legally" supposed to start public school until Aug of 2014 ...which means she has a whole year of waiting...and me being the preschool teacher I am can NOT let my child just sit for a year without doing some kind of learning...not to mention she LIKES learning.

I am telling you...
I am so blessed with her!!

She loves...even asks.. if we can sit down and do schoolwork.
She loves to try to read..and starting to get good at it.

She knows

• all her letters and sounds.
• 11 color sight words and can rattle them off within seconds of seeing the word
•  a lot of the regular sight words
• how to count out syllables of a word
• how to count to 100 with slight help on the 10's
• count to 10 in Spanish
• simple addition
• recognizes numbers 0-20
• all her shapes and colors of course
• top of the hour time telling like 9:00, 2:00, etc
• among other things....

I am so proud of her! She picks up things very quickly!
Jesus does love me.. he gave me such a blessing when he gave me Lyla.

oh yea.. and Gregg too!

She is interested in the human body and right now she is loving the series North America that has been coming on TV.

I, of course, have been researching homeschooling like a mad woman...
I am convinced it is the absolute better option for Lyla ..

I do think she would thrive in public school and do well..but I think we could enhance her learning by touching more on whatever subject she is interested about at the time in homeschool...while in public school..understandably, the teacher has to follow a curriculum plan.. so she can't spend four weeks on the habits of migration of birds because the kids are interested about it.. she has to move on and stay on course.

Please don't send me hate mail.. I am in no way blaming the teachers. A lot of my friends are teachers and I am in the process of getting my teaching degree...it is just part of the job that they have to do. I'm sure many teachers would love to go off on a tail spin about what their students are interested in ...but you have to do what you have to do.

Moving on:
My husband on the other hand isn't "as quite on board" as I am with the subject of homeschooling. He thinks she will miss out on childhood friends and memories by not having a prom or big graduation.

Sorry homeschool friends.. yes.. my husband is "one of those" who worry about socialization.
and Yes.. I have told him about the homeschool groups..but once this man gets his mind set on something..it is hard to change it....but I'm working on it.

So for this "free" year we have before Lyla starts Kindergarten legally .. I have decided to "act" as though we are officially homeschooling.

Step 1: pick a style of teaching
we will be doing more of a traditional style (where the student learns at a desk from a book or work book and the environment is more teacher directed) ...it is comfortable for me  since I have taught PreK that way..and comfortable for her because she knows when she is at the desk is "school time" not play time...

I know that this style isn't what everyone else would have picked and that is A-OK .. every family is different but I think this style will work with us the best. I do plan on doing a post listing other styles of homeschooling in case any of my readers might want to know a quick overview.

Step 2: pick a curriculum
Yay! This so far has been my FAV part! There so many good ones! It was very overwhelming at first .. but eventually I started making my way down the curriculum way of life. I have just about got a whole K5 Abeka curriculum pieced together for her.. learning games, visuals and all. I think we will breeze by the first few weeks pretty quickly so if we need to start Grade 1 before our school year is over then that would just be great!
I have also found a GREAT Christian curriculum online that is completely free called Easy Peasy. We have already started that and are on Getting Ready 1 Day 173. That is about where the reader starts and so far she is loving it!! Not to mention there is wonderful support facebook groups for those using this curriculum with great ideas on how to use it!

I love the homeschool community. It seems so far to be so loving and so helpful. I have not met anyone who has been ugly or rude to me no matter how many questions I ask ...nor how many times they have probably answered that same question from someone else asking.

There are also great blogs with curriculum resources that I will probably supplement if needed for an extra worksheet here or there until I get going good with Abeka.

I am also joining a homeschool group in my area to give Lyla socialization and even more friends to play with than she already has. We plan on starting piano lessons in August also.

I am praying that this year will show my husband and maybe even a few friends/family that homeschool isn't what the stigma says it is. Homeschooling is no longer "the weird kid"...but if being the weird kid makes you the smart kid who can easily be accepted into a great college...then so be it... Prom isn't more important than your whole education in my book...not in the world we live in today.

Homeschooling is getting tremendously more popular as the years, even days, go on. I have family/friends who go to public school sending me articles on homeschooling and how great it is now. I love it. Maybe I can pull a few facts from here and there and make a post about it one day. I was actually shocked at how many just in my community homeschool. You might be shocked too at how many weird homeschoolers you have in your community.

So ...
the decision is made!

we are in "acting" homeschool this upcoming year..
we will be using Abeka K5, Easy Peasy, and maybe a few blogs
and we are going to ROCK HOMESCHOOL! and show Dad what's up!!!!!

Hope you have Blessings Unlimited!