Journey to Excellence

On Tuesday, Brynne had her Girls Club Christmas Tea. She woke up that morning so crabby, which is not like her, and was crabby all day. As we were getting ready for the party, she started getting teary and weepy. She said she just didn't feel very good. I asked her if she wanted to stay home, but she really wanted to go. She got all dressed up and I was able to snap a photo of her and Eli before we left (he was on his way to his Boys Club Christmas party). The tea was absolutely lovely! The tablescapes were beautiful! And so was this little girl. The girls decorated "gingerbread" people and then took turns telling about the cookie they brought to share. By this time Brynne was really not feeling good, and was shivering. She wouldn't take off her coat. I felt her head and, yep, she was warm. We stayed separated from the rest of the girls so that she could participate in the gift exchange. She just sat with me, covered with a quilt, sipping hot cocoa. In t...

Because Brynne came home from kindergarten after school started, I didn't purchase any formal curriculum for her. I already knew she was advanced in many areas, so I really just used this year to let her teach me! I wanted to get a good feel for what she already knew, what she was interested in and what style of teaching worked best with her. I already had an interest in the Charlotte Mason method, which worked especially great since I didn't have any formal curriculum to use. We stuck with the 3 R's and did science and social studies units based on her interest, doing lots and lots of reading! And with all of the reading we did she learned to, well, read! In math we used a 1st grade book that the school gave us, but it was boring to her so we incorporated as much hands-on math as we could. We tried to work off of our social studies and science units and do math activities related to them. She liked that! In public school she would be in 1st grade next year, maybe e...

1.  We tend to start later and later every day, thus ending later and later every day. 2.  Without designated times to work with Dawson, Brynne monopolizes my time. 3.  To concentrate, Dawson needs to be in a "school" setting. Sitting on the couch causes him to think lazy. 4.  This teacher feels like we have spun our wheels all day and accomplished nothing. Unschooling could just never happen here. So, I'm going to have to find a way to use the Charlotte Mason philosophy on a schedule . That's what's great about homeschooling .... do what works for you!

I already had lots of resources available to me because Brynne has always been into doing school. I just made sure to add some 1st grade worksbooks to challenge her. I have two really good ones I am drawing from. Otherwise, I am winging it. Here is the gist of her daily curriculum: The 3 R's ~ R eading, W R iting and A R ithmetic Here I am using the Workboxes. I go through our many workbooks and tab ones that I want her to do that day, about 3 or 4 of them. Each afternoon I copy Eli's homework (he's in public school first grade) and she does those two pages the following day. They are waiting for her in her Workbox. We are doing a Letter-of-the-Week, just for a theme. We started with A and will work our way through the alphabet. We do the following activities: Monday ~ Rainbow letter, Tracer page, Muffin Tin  Tuesday ~ Letter wall collages, Letter bag Wednesday ~ Show letter bag items, Mini book Thursday ~ Word search, Letter spiral We have some early reader phon...

I had a reader ask, "Why did you decide to bring her home from going to Kindergarten and with homeschool teach her as a 1st grader?" Thanks for the question, Kris ! This was actually one of the main reasons we brought her home from kindergarten in the first place. Brynne had the unusual situation of being one of the youngest in her class (she turned 5 just before school started) but also smarter than most 2nd graders. Eli, our son, is in the First Grade. He and Brynne are 19 months apart. She has always learned right along with him. Therefore, she has always been quite advanced for her age. She has done everything early. She is a very determined little girl. At school, she was bored to tears. Her preschool teacher, when she was 3, knew it. Her Pre-K teacher last year said she could easily test out of kindergarten then . And it took about 10 minutes for her kindergarten teacher to realize she already knew all there was to learn in kindergarten. We have never pushed ...

Monday was Brynne's first day of First Grade at Journey to Excellence. We are schooling her as a first grader instead of as a kindergartener. Because our decision to bring her home was a quick one, I had to scramble to put together a set of lessons for her and a work station. But, we did pretty good with the amount of time we had. Because we did some bedroom furniture changes this weekend (you can read about that in an upcoming post on Taulman Times ), we had a desk available for her. Here it is right with Dawson and my desks. Our little one room schoolhouse. This came from Eli's room and it works perfectly for her. The height isn't exactly right when she is doing handwriting, so I have her sit at our antique school desk for that. She had a great first day learning about "A", reading and doing math. We also made a trip to the library to get us prepared for the upcoming week. I'll be posting about her schedule and curriculum in another post.

This afternoon Brynne started running a fever. She went to bed at 6:15 p.m. Is she sick of me already?

This is Brynne. She is 5 years old. In public school she was in kindergarten. At our school she's in the 1st grade. She is very bright and advanced for a kindergarten student. I think that has more to do with having older brothers and a sister than anything. She seems to have a very mathematical and analytical mind. That would be her daddy and mommy combined. She is now my student. And she's a go-getter. Pray for me.