A New Way

Frazzled. Irritated. Confused. Frustrated. Done. 

That pretty much sums up how I feel about homeschooling my oldest son. He's almost 9. He's in 3rd grade. He cannot effectively read, write or spell on a 3rd grade level. I am not the only one facing this problem. After reading on the Scholastic website this morning that in an average public school class half of the students will be reading above grade-level and half will be reading a grade or more below grade-level, I understand that this is considered "normal". We, however, do not settle for mediocrity in our house. 

As a homeschooling parent, one of the biggest reasons I desire to teach my children at home is to cater to their individual learning styles to ensure they are getting the most out of their education. What happens when there is not a curriculum out there that suits a child's needs? What if, after trying multiple curriculums, nothing seems to be teaching this child to be an effective reader, writer or speller?

Well, after much consulting, Googling, and research, I have decided to use my good old intuition and teach my children to read, write, and spell the way I learned before I even began kindergarten: by being read to, reading on my own, and writing down my thoughts and ideas. 

Now let me give some background on why I am abandoning the workbooks and going for more of a structured, unschooling approach.

My oldest son's first years of school were riddled with anxiety...from me.  I was so worried that I would be judged as a parent based on his performance, his attitude, his every action; I could not calm my anxiety enough to place my focus where it need to be: on him.  Patience was lacking to say the least as I drove him like an army general to complete his "lessons".  Bless his poor, developing heart.  He has surprisingly turned out alright despite my ignorance, but needless to say, he is at a disadvantage because of it.

I have come a long way since then.  Celebrate Calm has been a tool that is worth its weight in gold for our family.  Life in general has become more enjoyable since I have subdued my own anxieties about parenting and many other perfectionistic expectations. Now it is time to correct my mistakes and give my son every resource and opportunity he needs to become a confident reader.  Writing and spelling will come in time if he is reading 3 hours a day at minimum.

We have a new goal for Oldest Son's completion of third grade. If he can read a chapter book and write a report on it with minimal spelling and grammatical errors, I will consider this year a success.

But what about math, science, history, etc.? Well, I have cleverly integrated that into our school day.  I will post again about our schedule and creative curriculum guide for Oldest Son. I will also include the schedule and creative curriculum guide for 1st Grade Daughter and Youngest Son, who is in Kindergarten.

We are making a change. We are thinking outside of the educational box. We are creating a "New Way" for Creative Curriculum Homeschool students to learn and succeed! #GoUs (haha!)