Let it Snow

We had our first significant snow fall of the season yesterday with a full 25-30cm. Public schools were canceled because the roads weren't yet plowed.
Well, we still did our school work this morning, but spent the afternoon playing in the snow. My daughter is definitely a winter baby, she goes nuts when it snows until she gets to go out and play. So of course we spent the afternoon outside.

Well, I guess we better get the cross country skies out. Guess I will have to put off teaching her downhill skiing until next winter :-) (see here for an explanation)


Beth

Miracles

I have always believed in miracles, but until a couple of weeks ago had never experienced anything like this in my own life.
You see, I had always wanted a large family with at least 4 kids, but unfortunately life wasn't going to work out that way. After 5 years of trying for children, I finally became pregnant and gave birth to my beautiful little Monkey only after the use of fertility medication. We then continued trying for more children but were never able to get pregnant, and I wasn't willing to do the medication again as I didn't like the side effects the first time around and couldn't go through that while caring for a toddler. Also, I am considered high risk as my first pregnancy came with  many complications and the delivery of my Monkey a full 6 weeks early.
After a couple of years of trying we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would only ever have one child and realized that there were a lot of benefits to having only one child.
At least until a couple of weeks ago. For the last couple of months I haven't been feeling like myself and was believing I may need to go back on anti-depressant medication. My husband apparently had other thoughts and instead of me going to the doctor for a prescription, he went out and bought a pregnancy test. Apparently this time Hubby knew best as the test came back positive.
WOW! was the first thing that went through my head. I am still finding it hard to believe that I could be pregnant. I am still in a daze that this could be real, but the little beating heart in the ultrasound definitely confirmed it.
So over the last couple of weeks of doctor appointments, full blown pregnancy symptoms and mindblowing disbelief, we haven't been doing much school work. We are just starting to get back into doing school some the last couple of days, and should be up and running full force next week when I will start more regular posting about our activities.

Thanks
Beth

Organizing

It is amazing how much stuff is used on a daily basis when homeschooling. And in a small house without room for a separate school room, it is challenging finding space for everything. I have really enjoyed seeing some of the posts over the last few months of peoples school rooms. I like looking closely at any pictures people post to try to see what ideas they have used in their rooms to organize things, and what I might be able to incorporate here.

Most of our school work is done at the kitchen table, but everything can't stay there since it is our only table to eat at. I have been trying to come up with some ways to store things so that it is super easy to get out and put back away.

Enter: the shower caddy!

I was strolling through our local wal-mart shortly after starting our homeschool journey and happened upon this shower caddy that was on sale for $3. I realized instantly the potential. This holds our glue, scissors, pens, pencils, crayons, notebooks, stapler, etc. Now when we start our school work, I just grab the handle and carry it to the table. Then, when we finish, I can set it back on its shelf.

First Linky Party with Living Life Intentionally

Super Teacher Worksheets

During one of my many searches of the internet for free things to help with homeschooling my Monkey, I came across the super teacher worksheets site. So far all of the sheets I have looked at are quite good. It has become my go to site if I need extra sheets to reinforce a topic.

Monkey is definitely a child who loves doing worksheets. When she was three I printed off some pre-printing worksheets that I had found on the internet for free and she became obsessed with worksheets. I had put them in page protectors so she could use a dry erase marker with them and do them over and over and over again. She would beg me to do her "special binder" every day when I would get home from work.

Anyway, back to the super teacher worksheets site. Mainly I have been using them for their phonics sheets. They have quite a few to choose from for each letter, so it is easy to find ones she enjoys doing. With a DD who is very reluctant to practice her printing, I can disguise her printing as phonics worksheets. She is doing so well with these sheets that I will be using them for each letter.

One of the worksheets for each letter sound is this one. She cuts out the provided letter tiles that will make the two words that are pictured. Then she sounds out the letters to figure out how to spell the words and gets to glue the letters in place. This is the letter "m" sheet. She truly amazes me at how she can figure out the words from the letter sounds since only 8 weeks ago she wanted nothing to do with learning how to read. I am so proud of her!

Have a peek at their site. There are lots of worksheets for language arts, math, science and social studies for different grade levels. I know I will be using their worksheets many times in the weeks, months and probably years to come.

Happy Homeschooling All
Beth

Reading Can Be Fun

One concern I had when beginning to homeschool was how to go about teaching my Monkey to read. Even though she has always seemed to somehow learn so much just by living life; she had showed no interest what so ever in learning to read. Thankfully the right tools have come along at the right time and my DH is doing great with her reading.
First of all, thanks to Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for her You Can Read program that she offers for free. My Monkey loves the sheets that go with each unit. I have then taken paint chips and wrote the sight words on the chips that she uses for review and for spelling practice.

Here is Monkey using the word tiles in the unit to spell her words for her Giant Word Book that we are working on since we are in a tiny house and don't have the space for a Word Wall. I then laminate each page once it is full of sight words that she knows, and she loves referring back to it to show Daddy what she knows.

Of course sight words alone aren't enough to teach her to read. Luckily, the Time 4 Learning program she has been using has a phonics course in the language arts curriculum. Now, there are definitely some negatives to using a computer based education, one of which is what I like to call the "fun factor". So along with the phonics on the computer, we then do a craft for the letters covered that week.

I always try to make things as hands on and fun as possible. I don't always get to do as much of this type of thing as I would like because I also work 30-40 hours each week. But we always do our best and as long as she is learning, having lots of fun, and is loving learning, then I must be doing something right. Right?

Thanks
Beth

Wordless Wednesday

The One Box Wonder

In a matter of 3 days, this box went from hideaway, to house, to boat, and to airplane. I love how their imaginations work!

Halloween Party Food

With Halloween fast approaching, the kids playgroup tomorrow is having their halloween party. Typically I am only in charge of bringing a treat from my own daughter, but since my sister has two little ones to contend with, I decided to borrow my niece for the day to help make the treats to take.
First we made some green pudding that we scooped into little clear plastic cups and put Oreo cookie crumbs on top. Then we drew Frankenstein faces on the cups. Next we took Oreo cookies, inserted lollipop sticks, dipped them in chocolate and put on some Halloween sprinkles.

 

So, of course after all of the messy fun was over, any good cook has to try their creations before allowing guests to taste them.

It was a lot of fun having Miss M here for the day.

Have a great Halloween All
Beth and Monkey

Frustrated Family

Usually our lessons run very smoothly. Monkey wakes in the morning and begs for her school work before she is even finished getting dressed. Those are the days that I love. Unfortunately, not every day is a perfect picture of bliss.
Take today for example. I have just finished working two night shifts on almost no sleep. I returned home at 6:30 this morning and crawled my tired self into bed, only to wake 2 hours later when Monkey woke up. Thankfully she can go to the washroom and get her clothes and get dressed on her own (at least when I work nights she can, not sure why it doesn't work the rest of the week!), this gives me an extra 1/2 hour to convince myself that I can somehow crawl out of bed.
Now, unfortunately she has also had a couple of nights of not so great sleep. So, 1 tired momma + 1 tired Monkey = very little patience!
All had been going well until getting near the end of our very short phonics lesson, reading a simple book from the Time 4 Learning lesson plan that I had printed. Just like the books she has read to me before by sounding out the letters. For some reason today the phonics part of her brain must have stayed behind in bed because she just couldn't seem to sound out the simplest words like "sad", even though she has done it before.
Well, with us both running on very little patience and her both of us getting more frustrated by the second, it was time for a break:

ENTER - THE HULA HOOP

This seems to be working great for those moments when we need to take a personal time out to re-group. She goes and does the hula hoop and I pour a coffee. Usually after only about 5 minutes we are back where we left off ready to continue.
It has been hard for me to admit that we sometimes need to do this as I am the type of person who keeps plugging away until I get it. My DH calls it stubborn, I call it persistence. Where Monkey is the type of person who needs to switch focus for a few minutes, and then comes back refreshed and ready to go.
After the frustrations this morning, I decided to do an additional fun activity this afternoon to ensure we ended on a happy note. I feel it very important to end each school session positively. I decided to pull out one of our halloween activities that wasn't scheduled until next week. And, besides, who doesn't love playing with legos!

And what is more fun then a lego ghost - Thank you Pinterest.
I would love to know what some of you do when you or your little ones have a bad day. At least I hope I am not the only one who has days like today.

Thanks
Beth

Working Mom trying to Homeschool

I always wanted to be a mom. I always new how I wanted to raise my children and what type of person I hoped they would be. Rather than having many children to raise, I have been blessed with one absolutely amazing little angel.
I was a full time working woman with a great job that I loved and a great husband. Wow, how everything changed when we finally received our angel. I took the year maternity leave and loved being a stay at home mom, but also missed the connections to the adult world that working gave me; so, with family to babysit, I returned to work full time.
Things went along quite well, although I missed her dearly each day, until she started talking and repeating some of the things that were going on during the day while I was at work. This is when we decided it really needed to be DH and I who raised her, not family or babysitters. Of course with bills to pay and trying to buy a house, I couldn't just walk away from my job.
Finally, with the house bought, and the downturn in the economy causing cutbacks at work, I was able to once again become a stay at home mom and could appreciate even more than I could believe. While off work we had to decide whether I would find another job, or become a full time sahm. Financially we could barely afford for me to stay home; but it would mean no extra activities for anyone, and giving up our favorite past-time of camping. With these things on the line, I started looking for a job that would fit with my life, rather than fitting my life around a job.

I was lucky enough to find the perfect job. I went from an 8am - 4:30pm desk job to working shift work in a special care home for elderly persons with the most amazing boss ever. My boss is so family oriented it is wonderful. I get holidays off to be with my family and I don't work during the day. On the rare occasion that I go to work before DH gets home from his job, I am able to take my Angel to work with me and he just picks her up on the way home.
With my career change, it means we can homeschool our angel, and we can be the ones to raise her instead of babysitters and teachers. There are certainly many times when it can be challenging, especially if I need to work a couple of extra shifts if someone is on vacation, but so far we are making it work and having as much fun as we can (quite often at the expense of the housework) while she is young.

New Addition

WOW! There is nothing like a new addition to the family to throw a monkey wrench in school plans for the week. But; before you get ready to congratulate me, the new baby isn't mine. Congratulations to my little Sister on the birth of her second beautiful baby girl.

With an 18 month old and a new baby to adjust to; we have spent some extra time with my Sister and her family. It never fails to amaze me at just how wonderful it feels to hold a newborn baby. And with Monkey being so much older this time, she is taking the new baby in stride and loves to be near her and hold her.

So here is a picture of Monkey proudly holding her new baby cousin. Thank goodness my Sister is able to have children, and lives close enough to visit almost every day, since I am not able to have more children.

As you can see, this year for Thanksgiving we all had a lot to be thankful for. Yes, I said Thanksgiving as I live in beautiful Canada.

Beth

Printing Practice

It is amazing how much my Monkey can despise a particular area of school as much as she does. She does not like printing. It is not easy coming up with ways for her to practice this area that she actually enjoys. I have now found a couple of things that work.

She really enjoys learning her sight words from 1+1+1=1 I can read program and each set comes with a printing practice worksheet. The only actual printing worksheet my DD will do. So I put them in page protectors in a booklet with a dry erase marker and make it available to her whenever she is ready to work on them. This seems to be the only printing worksheets that she will even think of doing.

The next thing I have started with her is journaling. She has both a regular journal and a math journal where I write questions in it and she writes the full sentence to answer that question. I help her with the spelling, and it has been a great way to introduce the period at the end of her sentences. Because we call this journal time she does not view it as printing practice and is more than happy to do the work.

I can already tell a big difference in her printing compared to what she was doing last year at preschool. This is definitely going to be the bulk of our printing practice for this year. As the year progresses I will use questions that will require longer answers, and will also start some copy work using some small poems that she enjoys and quotes from her favorite stories.

Just as a side note, the little book with the  early printing lined paper was picked up last fall when school supplies when on sale. I was able to get four of these books for less than $1. I was even able to pick up 4 more this fall on sale for $.10 each. I love a good deal.

This has to be why I love homeschool so much as compared to public school. If a child does not like to learn something one way, you can try something else. In public school, if they don't get it the way it is taught, then you need to spend the extra time at home to do it and the poor child is stuck doing nothing but school work all day and doesn't have any time left to just be a kid!

This Week

Wow, what a productive week. After spending the first month of school trying to plan everything out myself, it is amazing how much time we had been wasting. This week we started using the Time 4 Learning program for Language Arts, Math and Science. It is great to be able to have a better flow to our work and it lets me make sure I don't miss something.

It is amazing how much she loves to use a computer. She gets so excited when I tell her it is time to do her computer lessons; and the Time 4 Learning program is so simple to use that even a kindergartner has no trouble.

Another great aspect of the Time 4 Learning program is that there are worksheets you can print off to reinforce the lessons that have been taught. This way she not only sees and hears the information, but she gets hands on work for the lessons as well. This is definitely the most effective way for my Monkey to learn. Besides, who doesn't enjoy scissors and glue:-).

Of course there is always additional fun stuff to do each week, like going for a nature walk to gather up a bunch of goodies so we can spend even more time playing with the glue.

Over all I feel that this was the most productive week of school we have had yet; and I am still amazed at how much I am learning about my Monkey during this process. I am certain now that this is the correct path for her learning and am looking forward to all the other fun projects we will be doing in the weeks to come.

Beth

Pinterest

I had to take a minute to say a huge thank you to Homeschool Creations for her great article on Pinterest. I had never heard of this before and just had to check it out.

What a modern day digital marvel. It is the equivalent of having a giant pin-board on your wall divided into sections that you can go through magazines and pin-up pictures of things that interest or inspire you so that you will always have that information at your fingertips.  Well, now the internet is our magazine and we can pin pictures from it to our appropriately titled board, and it links back to the web page that the image came from.

This idea is so much better for someone like me who is very visual. I can glance through the photos for the idea or inspiration I am looking for, and then either put my own twist on how I would like to do the project, or go to the link and see exactly how they  did it. And even better is that it is free!

So go check it out for yourself - it is sooo much better than your standard bookmarks!

Kindergarten Curriculum

It has not been easy trying to decide what to teach and what method to use to teach it. There are so many wonderful free resources out there it is mind boggling at times. I have a real problem with looking at what others are doing and thinking I can do all that, as well as everything from the other dozen blogs that I have been looking at.

I have spent the first few weeks this year seeing how this would work and trying a few different school methods to see how my daughter will best learn. I have learned that she is a lot like me and an eclectic approach is definitely going to work the best with her.

I have realized that with the plethora of information out there, soo much of which is soo good, that it is not going to be possible for me to do all the planning and pulling together of resources for Monkeys Kindergarten year since I also work 30 to 40 hours each week. So after much thought and research, and very limited funds, I have chosen the following for our educational framework:

Language Arts - Time 4 Learning
Math - Time 4 Learning (level K and Gr 1)
Science - Time 4 Learning and Mr Q science program. Right now I only have the free book of elementary life science which I will use before deciding to purchase the rest of the program but so far it looks like a pretty good match for us.
Spanish - Online Free Spanish. In Canada our official languages are English and French, but Monkey is determined to learn Spanish - Thanks Diego.
Sight Words - The You Can Read program that is at 1+1+1=1 is amazing, and it is even more amazing that she is willing to offer this program to everyone for free...Thank you!
Geography - We aren't following a particular curriculum, but our goals are to learn the continents, oceans, and all the provinces and territories with their capitals, and as much other information about Canada as we can get in.
We are also working on her printing skills through journaling.


Even though the Time 4 Learning program is a subscription site, it looks like a really great fit for my DD; and since I am paying monthly rather than a yearly fee, if it doesn't work out I can cancel at any time. Also with the Time 4 Learning program we can also access the Grade 1 work where needed. This will be great since I have already had a local teacher tell me that Monkey would need to be in Grade 1 if she were to attend public school. It seems that she is already advanced for our local education system.

I only hope that I haven't gotten overly ambitious, after all, this is kindergarten, not graduating year. I will be continually evaluating our routine and methods. While I want to ensure she has a good foundation in reading, writing and arithmetic to set her up properly for all her future learning goals, above all I want her to have lots of time to have fun, play games, and be creative!

Extra-Curricular Activities

It is not always easy to choose activities to do; there seems to be a lot to choose from. When I grew up the only extra activities were those offered by the school you attended. Being from a very tiny school out in the country, that meant the only activity was basketball.

Now there are lots of activities to choose from for any age group you could imagine. At least so long as I don't mind driving in to town for them. The only problem now though is the cost for these activities. We decided that we would only choose one activity per season at this point for a few reasons. 1. Monkey does not like to run the roads too much, and 2. it gets very expensive for fees and equipment depending on the activity, not to mention the cost of gas for all the driving.

With home educating my DD, I feel it is that much more important though that she be involved in activities outside of the home. With a lot of discussion, we had narrowed it down to two activities; figure skating or ballet dancing. For this term we have chosen the dancing class and so far it is a big hit.

This is also the time of year when one of the free activities she attends get started up again as well. Since the age of 2 she has been attending the "Pop-Up" program put on by "Maggie's Place" that takes place Tuesday mornings from 9-11am at the Elementary School where Monkey would have gone to school. It is a great program for ages 0-5 which allows for free play time, craft time, circle time, story time and snack time.


Now most of the children she did do this program with the last few years have all started public school this year so there is only one child close to her age. I am not even sure if we will attend this year on a regular basis as she may find it way too boring.

Another wonderful activity that we were able to attend quite regularly last winter was the free tot skate at our local stadium in town. It took place once per week and her friend from pop-up would go with us as well. Hopefully she will be able to attend the skating this year as well since she does not attend public school until next fall.

We are now just hoping that the price of gas doesn't go too high this winter. These activities are free to attend, but the fuel to get to them certainly isn't.

Last Weeks Work

Well, now that we have been at this for a couple of weeks, we are starting to get the hang of things and fall into a pretty easy going routine. Last week we had a blast doing a camping theme. We found some amazing printables at 1+1+1=1 and also from 2teachingmommies. It is so wonderful that so many home-schoolers are willing to share their amazing work with all of us for free. I have actually been looking at the 1+1+1=1 website for quite some time and have been thoroughly enjoying it.

We decided on a camping theme since summer is pretty much over here so we decided to try to hold on to it a little bit longer. The graphing activity from 2teaching mommies camping theme was definately the highlight of the theme.

She is also quite enjoying the READ, BUILD, WRITE idea that I found from Homeschool Creations; another blog that I am in love with. The letter tiles she was using are from her Alphabet Scoop Scrabble game that we picked up at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago.

We had planned on having a bonfire in our back yard fire pit to make s'mores as we had done numerous times throughout the summer, but our weather just wouldn't cooperate so we ended up making s'mores in the oven instead. At least they are still yummy and gooey too eat!

We really had a great time with our theme unit last week. I only wish I had taken more pictures. I really need to remember that in the future. It will be great looking back on these at the end of the school year to see how things went.

Surprise Phone Call

So, yesterday I am sitting at my computer working on Monkeys lessons to print for her next unit study when the phone rings. To my surprise it is the lady who taught the preschool class that my DD attended last year. Apparently the school contacted her after finding out we were homeschooling. She told the school that it did not surprise her in the least and then congratulated me on our decision.

I have to admit I was VERY surprised considering she is a teacher in our school system. She then told me the only concern the school had about our decision was that it was lowering their numbers meaning they would not get as much funding as their funding is based on enrollment. At no time were they concerned with whether or not I would be able to successfully educate her at home. I was sooo glad to know that someone was on my side, and she offered to help me in any way she could. Anything I am looking for she will try to get for me, and will even get the book orders to me.

After talking with her yesterday, I really had a renewed confidence that I could actually do this. She even told me that from her experience with Monkey last year in preschool, if I were to put her in school this year for primary she would be bored and would really need to be in grade one. She figured that if I was able to teach her that much at home without even trying that I should have no trouble providing an adequate education at home with a bit of planning and goal setting.

At least I had a renewed confidence - until this morning. I am still working part time outside the home and currently doing three night shifts in a row so the regular night girl can have some vacation time. Since I am human and do require sleep I made arrangements for DD to have a sleepover at Nana's house tonight. I am thinking that is going to be a big mistake.  You see, the last time Nana (my mother) looked after her for an afternoon a couple of weeks ago she kept telling Monkey how she should not be home schooled and that she should be in "big school" as we call public school in our home. So this morning when I was making sure she was around before taking her down, I mentioned the call from her preschool teacher. BIG MISTAKE! She instantly started on how this was a mistake and she should be in public school so she can be socialized. I said that there are other was to accomplish that and she says she needs the routine of school. Being very tired from working all night I decided that now was not the time to get into a debate.

It is unfortunate that my own mother cannot understand why we have chosen this for our DD, and I hope that she will soon open her mind enough to try to understand and at least listen to our reasons. She doesn't have to agree, but she could at least be willing to hear me out and let me answer any concerns that she has. Anyway, just needed to do some rambling and get some issues off my chest.

Not looking forward to what my DD will be saying tomorrow about what Nana will be putting in her head. May be her last visit for a while. It is too bad that Monkey will be put in the middle when it really doesn't have to be that way.

Beth

First Day of Public School

Hard to believe that today was the first day of school for those going to public school. Yesterday our neighbor was over with her little girl to see if Monkey was going to be going to school on the bus today or if I would be driving her. The poor little girl looked so disappointed to find out Monkey wouldn't be going to school at all as she was being homeschooled. They would have both been going to school for the first time today on the bus together if Monkey had gone to public school.

I wish all the best to all the little ones out there who are starting school today for the very first time. Good Luck

Trying something new

It is amazing how much homeschool is a learning process for me as much as it is for Monkey. Thankfully one of the best advantages is that if something doesn't work you can stop and try something different. My family though seems to think that we need to sit at a table and do "school at home" for like 5 hours each day. I love my family even though I get minimal support from them, but boy do we have a difference of opinion when it comes to what homeschool entails. One family member basically thinks I should be "training" her to be put in public school. NOT! My method for her school is that I know what I want her to learn, and whatever fun ways we can come up with to accomplish this is what I will use.

Last week we started our homeschooling very slowly, doing one subject each day for 5 days for no more than 1/2 an hour per day. Math and science related activities are definitely her favorite subjects as they tend to be more hands-on activities and using manipulatives. Some of what we did last week was more traditional schooling, which did not go well for either of us.

I decided this week to completely change gears. Doing a different subject each day just didn't have a nice flow to it, so for this week I am doing things really differently. I decided to try my first unit study. A while back Hands of a Child was giving away their Butterflies project pack, so I downloaded it to try at some point. Who knew that point would come so soon. We are doing a section of it each day with most of the activities, (not quite all of the activities are suitable to kindergarten), and she is having a blast and begging me to do her "school work" first thing when she gets up.

While I am trying to homeschool for almost free, I can see me purchasing a few of their project packs over the next year. Monkey is having such a great time with the Butterfly project pack that it completely justifies the cost of purchasing a few more. Besides, their prices are very reasonable; and since I am also working outside the home it will save me hours of time.

Since this is our first lapbook experience, I am anxious to see what the final project will look like. Now if I can only remember to get some pictures so I can remember forever this experience.

Quick note to self: when deciding to do lapbooks, it would be great to have some colored paper for printing the projects on, and some nice colored file folders!

Beth

The First Week

It has been a lot of fun easing into a homeschool routine. I really like that if she doesn't understand something the first time, I can change tactics to a method that she will understand.

It was fun the other day doing our math lesson and learning the place values for ones and tens. Once she figured it out she didn't want to stop working on it. That was two days ago and this morning when she got up she went to our "makeshift" white board to practice place values more all on her own. Another advantage of our "white board" is that she hates to do printing worksheets, but loves doing printing on the window.

This little impromptu learning session then turned into a spelling assignment for the sight words we are working on this week. This is part of the reason I wanted to homeschool, instead of a set time where she is required to do "school work" it just seems to happen during the day. Usually after breakfast she will ask me to do her lessons.

I should add a little note about our makeshift white board. You see, I have a very small budget for homeschool supplies and buying a nice size board for school just wasn't in the budget, so I had a great idea the other day. My aunt gave Monkey a package of crayola window crayons a while back, and I have a nice big window in my living room that is only a couple of feet off the ground so she is able to reach really well to use it too. She really enjoys being able to write on the window to "do school".

Our First "Official" School Lesson

     I have decided that we need to move into the homeschool lessons slowly so yesterday we did a short science lesson about scientists and what they do. We also took a notebook and designated it as her "science journal" to put all of her science stuff in. Since my husband isn't completely on board and we are trying homeschooling for this year to see how it goes, I will need some concrete proof for him of the stuff we are doing, otherwise I would continue in the same way we did preschool - just living life and learning as we went.
     Even though we are having some structure to her grade primary education, I still plan on it being quite relaxed with lots of cuddle time on the couch reading favorite books, as we have been doing since birth.
     I am really hoping that as the year progresses and family sees what we are doing, they will at least accept our decision even if they don't agree with it. It would be nice if they were willing to discuss my reasons for homeschooling. They think I am doing this just because she is shy so I don't want to put in her public school. They don't realize that this is something I have wanted to do since she was born. Who knows, maybe someday they will read these posts and finally understand.

Beth

The Big Decision

I have known in my heart since my Monkey was born that I wanted to homeschool her, but who knew putting that final signature on the form that needed to be mailed in would be difficult.

I am sure if you are considering homeschooling, one of the first things you did was google the pros and cons of homeschooling vs public school. I know when I did this it really confirmed why I was going to homeschool. Then it turns out that my Monkey is extremely shy and I started second guessing wanting to homeschool. I unofficially homeschooled preschool when she was three as she was really showing signs that she wanted to learn and would beg me to do her "special binder", which was just a few printing and math worksheets I had printed off one day and put into page protectors so they could be reused.

Once I started second guessing myself about whether she would be better in public school, I did enroll her in their preschool program for the 2010-2011 school year so that if I put her in public school she would at least already know the school and be used to going there without me. Thankfully preschool was only 2 hours a day for 2 days a week. Also, I have to admit that with living in the country the school she would have gone to is quite small with a total of only 60 students for the entire school.

Once preschool ended in the spring I realized that I really had to make the final decision about whether to homeschool or send her to public school. I finally started talking to my DH seriously about what we wanted for our Monkey and decided that since I felt so strongly about homeschooling that it was really worth a good try to see how it went.

I still continued to second guess myself after the "Big Decision" was made, and just got up the courage last week to finally mail the form for registering for homeschooling to our provincial department of education.

Now the only issue left is all the objections from my family as there are only a couple of people who actually agree with my decision. They think that because she is so shy she should be in public school.  Oh well, nothing I can do about their beliefs. Here's hoping I can prove that homeschooling is a good option for my family.

Beth

About Me

     Hi. My name is Beth and I am married with one child. I live in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada. I am starting this blog because I have decided to homeschool my little Monkey (my daughter) and was looking for a convenient way to keep myself organized. Also, since I am just starting this journey, I thought I might be able to help out others who are starting this journey, and even get advice from fellow homeschoolers.
I have looked at a lot of websites about homeschooling through the couple of years and will be adding links to the ones that have been the most help and that I visit regularly.
     One thing that seems to be a bit different about my homeschooling compared to the other moms that I have read about is that I work outside of the home. My boss has always been very considerate of the fact that I have a young child at home as I only work evenings, after my husband is home from work. This really helps save money on babysitters. On the rare occasion I need a sitter I am lucky enough to have family only 1km away who loves having Monkey over to play and visit.
     I hope you will enjoy this website as it grows.