EEEK...has it really been that long and It's okay if they aren't ready

So today while commenting on another blog I signed in using my Google acct. It's been a long time since being on my Google account so I clicked on my name and it brought me to my blog. My blog that I haven't wrote on since my baby was really a baby. My blog that I said I would post on every day and then maybe just once a week, etc. Well, I guess I didn't do so well on that. I am going to forgive myself though. Heck I am raising 5 children (the youngest 3 now and the oldest 15), and not only am I raising 5 kids but now that my husband is traveling for work I am responsible for them on my own a good percentage of the time. So I think I will come back to my blog, it's a nice release of my thoughts. However I make no promises that I will post every day or even every week. I will post when I can, when I have something to say and when it's possible.

So It's July now and I am gearing up for our new school year. I haven't really came down from last years though. I am doing kindergarten and pre-k with my two youngest over the summer. Last fall I was all set to start kindergarten with my 5 year old and guess what....she wasn't. She was absolutely not ready to start. I freaked out for a very short period of time and then remembered one of the great benefits of homeschooling, she didn't have to be ready yet. So we stopped, no begging for her to try, no frustration, we just stopped. The world didn't end, no one was putting me down, she wasn't all of a sudden sooooo far behind others. She played and did normal kid things and I continued life as normal. Then earlier this year a light bulb came on, she started soaking things up and had this amazing desire to learn. SHE was ready. We started slow, just getting a feel for what she knew. Amazingly she has a natural gift in math. Easily doing 1st grade math problems...in her head. However her reading skills were less than stellar :) (no honey, c c c does not say dog). Once summer hit and the other kids were done with school I started with Zoey. We are doing "How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" and using a pre-k/k workbook to work on other concepts. I also print out 1st grade math worksheets to keep her passion of math alive. Lilly (3) loves to sit with us and does the work right along side us. She isn't grasping the reading part but is definitely grasping the letter sounds and that is great. Back to Zoey though, I really cannot emphasize enough the difference 6 months made in her desire to learn and her ability to learn. I think what I really want to say is it is okay to not follow the traditional school schedules. It's the beauty of homeschool, working with the strengths of your child. Not fitting them into a box and expecting them to accomplish everything they can on our schedule but allowing them to accomplish things on their schedule. Learning isn't a chore to Zoey now, it's not confusing and frustrating, it's fun and exciting. Her eyes light up with amazement in herself when she grasps a new concept instead of getting upset because she didn't understand before.

I have to go feed these children now but my next post I will tell you all about the surplus of free curriculum I got and what I did with it :) It's really a great story and you won't want to miss it

Until then,