Here is the whole gang, ready for a new year! For those of you just joining me, Alex is my only official student, but Ryan gets to join the class this year. We live in Oklahoma where the homeschool laws are incredibly minimal. I have total freedom in what we learn, when we learn, and how we learn. It is both liberating and terrifying all at the same time, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Alex is 6 years old. I am calling him a first grader since that would be his year in public school, but as any homeschooler knows – that doesn’t mean he is doing first grade work for every subject.
Alex’s challenges for this year include strengthening his handwriting skills and learning to spell. He loves to read and has an extremely active imagination. He enjoys any activity that allows him to narrate whatever is in his head.
We get to explore science and history this year as well as tinkering with piano and drawing. He is super excited about that and continues to love school just as long as I don’t make him write too much.
Ryan will be 3 years old in September. I have prepared preschool activities for him so he can be with us and ‘do school’ too, but I do not require him to participate.
When he is interested, we will work on identifying letters and counting. I imagine he will spend a good deal of his mornings playing outside in the dirt. He also suffers from a moderate case of iPad addiction. I let him play games or watch some shows if Alex and I need quiet time to finish a difficult lesson.
His big boy job this year is learning to use the potty.
And finally, my latest student is baby Cooper! He is all of four months old right now. His job is to be cute and giggle at his brothers. I think he will get an A+!
I am so excited to settle into our second year of homeschooling! Good luck to everyone else and have a great year.
P.S. Please don’t send me flaming emails about the Bumbo chair. I know they have been recalled. Who didn’t see that one coming, right?
~Catie
This post is linked up at iHomeschool Network’s 2012 Not Back-to-School Blog Hop. Check out the other blogs!
I was crushed when I heard the Bumbo was recalled, as I had been about to buy one for a friend who is having her first baby – but really, it’s not all that surprising. If you read the details of the recall, you will discover that most (if not all) of the injuries came from people leaving their babies in Bumbos on chairs or in other high places, and presumably leaving them unsupervised.