Kinder - What I Would Do Different

I'm wrapping up my first year of homeschool. WOW! I honestly wasn't sure I could make it through! I'm not there yet, but I'm fairly confident I can get through 6 more units. We've got it down at this point! I've been running through some things I would change.

- Trust your curriculum. Give it a chance to work. Those tedious, super simple things really add up. Don't discredit them and don't stop doing them too early. Until something has been mastered it is beneficial to continue reviewing (and I'm sure even after mastered). My Father's World Kinder has been criticized as being slow or weak. Their method for teaching letters isn't going to win the most pins on Pinterest, but it is so effective. I've seen this over and over again.

- Give it more effort in the fall. I spent too much time outside of the home in the fall. I had cut way back from previous years, but I wasn't home enough to consistently school. I wish I had been. I would be much closer to finishing now. When January hit we cut WAY back. We don't leave the house near as much as we used to. This is probably the happiest I have been as a mom. The more I cut back the happier I get.

- Get started earlier. We didn't get started until September, mainly due to funds for buying the curriculum. I have spent a lot of time trying to "catch up" and always feeling behind. Doing so I breezed over some of the fun stuff.

- Set a time. This is another thing I didn't do in the fall. Once I decided to get school out of the way in the mornings I became a whole lot more productive. It's too easy to let school fall when it isn't the priority for the day. We still have flexibility, but it is the priority. I am educating my children, it has to be. My husband challenged me to do this and I wanted to listen to his leading so I did, I've been very blessed by it.

- Don't skip the fun stuff. I mean, there are going to be things you'll skip or substitute for other things. But, in the end of it, kinder should be fun! Learning in general should be fun. Much of what we were trying to accomplish this year was developing a love for learning. It's really easy to skip the fun activities in order to finish all the worksheets but I'm not convinced it's more productive. At this point, I've accepted that we are still several weeks from finishing and I'm not going to skimp on the fun stuff just to finish earlier. We'll finish when we finish. Now I sound like a true homeschooler!

- Be a better model. No, I'm talking about flattening out my stomach, but that would be ok too. When we first started reading on the blend ladder I helped out a little. But, then I really wanted to see how much he could do without my prompting. I realize now that he hadn't done this before and he needed me to model how you sound things out and blend things together. (Once again, trust your curriculum, they do tell you how to do it).

- Don't discredit building confidence. Early on we had a major battle. He needed to draw some fish but he wouldn't try. I wouldn't help him because he wouldn't try. We fought. It was ugly. I recently decided to pick up a Draw Write Now book. We still have some frustrations when we work through it. I have realized though, he needs me to help him get it right now. Even if I draw it for him and he traces it that will build his confidence and eventually he will feel like he can do it on his own. After the fish incident I realized if I would have just drawn a fish for him to copy we could have avoided the whole fight.

- Stop for attitude or other issues. One of my great homeschool mama friends is often saying this. Some days, we have to address the heart before we can do our schoolwork. This is the beauty of homeschool! Having a bad day? Let's stop and pray about it and take a minute before we move on. It works! Nobody else can do that for my kid.

- Plan a little more for Sister. I'm planning on adding a few things for her next year that are academic. Rod and Staff preschool is looking really good. It's cheap, it's simple, it's recommended. The main thing I think I'm going to do though is develop several quiet time boxes as recommended on the 1+1+1=1 blog. See her link about preschool boxes here.

Some things I would do again:
- I used a highlighter to highlight some things in the curriculum that I didn't get to. I want to use summer time to go back and do some of that stuff. Book activities I thought sounded fun, etc.


-Probably half way through the year it occurred to me to add tabs for quick reference in the book.

- We went to the library. A lot. We are checking out at least 100 books a month I'm sure. We love the library. Beemer and I have decided to set a regular date for us to go to the library alone on Friday afternoons.

- Take time for nice weather. One of my best friends is a great fellow homeschool mama. She likes to do school in the summer when it's miserably hot and take it easier when it's nice outside. This is one of many plays I'm taking out of her book.

- Have a good support group. The MFW Kinder facebook page has been extremely helpful as have been great friends who also homeschool. I've learned so much from watching other mamas.

- Learn as you go. Who says you have to practice letter sounds at the kitchen table? You can do that on your trip to the grocery store!

- Last, but not least, don't sell yourself short. God will make up for your weaknesses, just ask for His help! You can read more about that in my post here if you need some encouragement!

It has been a great year. I have loved it so much. I am somewhat intimidated by first grade. But truly, I can't wrap my mind around public school at this point. My first grader will be learning Bible history and using his Bible reader to learn how to read, I just can't let go of that benefit! I'm not opposed to public, we may end up there eventually. But for now, I think we're settled in!

We celebrated big for our 100th day, read that post here!