Homeschool Year Kick-Off 2013



The older three Brownies started school the day after Labor Day.  We were thrilled the week before when our Sonlight box arrived at our door!  We haven't celebrated a real Box Day in a couple of years; we haven't started a new core in a couple of years, so Box Day felt momentous.

This year, we are studying through Core F, which covers a study of the Eastern Hemisphere.  The first country we are studying is China, so we certainly kicked off with a bang!  It's been fun to study a "far-away" country we just happened to have visited for a month.  We are looking forward to the next 5 weeks exploring China!

TJ, labeling brain parts while Mater keeps him company.
A huge change this year has been how TJ does school.  About a year ago, I started to accept the fact that TJ had some challenges with writing.

This year, I've totally revamped how TJ does school and the results have brought me to grateful tears more than once.  TJ logs the majority of his schoolwork on the computer.  

I have to say that I haven't been surprised at TJ's success.  I knew he had the cognitive ability to do the work.  For example, the kids love Sequential Spelling.  They actually beg to do it. In the past, when TJ sat down to do a lesson with us, he would give up before he would finish numbering his page 1-25.  I would be so frustrated, thinking he was just lazy and mad about having to do the work.  Oh, how wrong I was!  Now, TJ zooms through the spelling lessons with no problem at all. He's good at spelling, which sometimes is not the case with kids with dyslexic dysgraphia.  His struggle seems to center in on just the physical act of writing from memory.  His typing speed has improved several words per minute just in the last week, so I can't wait to see what all he will accomplish this year.

All year, the kids will be adding to their Eastern Hemisphere notebooks, praying for these countries, and learning about the human body. Each is working through their level of Teaching Textbooks, a company and math curriculum we highly recommend.  And, of course, we will be reading lots and lots of really good books, which is one of my favorite parts of "doing school."

Here's to all of you homeschool warriors out there!  Have an excellent year!

Comments

  1. PennySeptember 14, 2013 at 9:32 PM

    Loved Sonlight!

    Haven't been to your blog for a bit and can't believe how big your kids look!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TeamOehlkersSeptember 15, 2013 at 6:32 AM

    Ooh I'm so excited to hear how you like the Core F ~ we started homeschooling this year and are using Sonlight and love love LOVE it. Core F sounds amazing. And as soon as we can get back to our homeschool enrichment program (once the floodwaters recede around here), we should receive our Teaching Textbooks program so I'm glad to hear that you recommend that too :)

    Happy School!
    ~chris in colorado

    ReplyDelete
  3. MandySeptember 17, 2013 at 11:51 PM

    I can't tell you how excited I am to have found your blog and learn about your beautiful family! My husband and I recently adopted 2 little girls from China who are both deaf and I have been searching for other parents journeys to follow. Gosh I have so many questions! I will definitely be going back through your posts. I can't wait to show pictures to my daughters!

    ReplyDelete
  4. DarlaSeptember 18, 2013 at 7:48 AM

    Dear Sarah and all the Brownies,

    When you study South Asia, let us know if there are any questions we can answer or maybe anything we can send you. It'd be fun to participate in your school year even though we are so far away, or because of it. We're several years from this core since we take 1 1/2 years to do each one (to make it easier on me :o)).

    Love, Darla

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SarahSeptember 27, 2013 at 8:41 PM

      I had that very thought! We would LOVE to do that. We'll have to skype this year, too. We will certainly be in touch about that.
      Hey, we took 3 years to get through Core D and E. We are taking it slower with Core F, too. This is a lot of content! Rushing through it doesn't work for any of us. :)

      Delete
  5. HeatherSeptember 23, 2013 at 3:19 PM

    Hi Sarah! I hope everyone is enjoying school! My name is Heather and I have a question about your blog! If you could email me at Lifesabanquet1(at)gmail(dot)com I would greatly appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete

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