A new school year

In case you don't already know our story, here is a summary: When my eldest child was two, our peers began to talk about preschools. At the time, I couldn't fathom sending my child away for the whole day, or even half of it, on a regular basis. At the time, I read a little about homeschooling, and it simply felt right. I "discussed" the idea with my husband, who was resistant. We decided that if I still wanted to, I would homeschool our daughter for her kindergarten year. If it didn't work out, she could do kinder the following fall, or start first grade, whatever felt right.

At four, the spring before her kindergarten year, we decided to try pre-k. The went well enough, though the teacher recommended another year of pre-k. That was well and fine, since I wanted to homeschool anyway. We proceeded to have two years of kinder at home, one independently, and one through a charter that was a part of our local school district. The year we were with the charter was very hard. Pregnancy, a new baby, a move, and an advisory teacher that didn't mesh well with either of us.

Fall of '05 rolled around and I couldn't see us having another rough year at home. We tried our local public school for first grade. At first it was a 2 week trial, and then we decided to continue and see how it went. By the time December rolled around, neither myself nor my daughter wanted to muck around with school anymore. It was tough, as Jade had made friends and she enjoyed some of the aspects of school- recess and choice time, mostly.

Now it is fall of '06, and we have decided on another year of homeschooling. I think we are happy with this decision. I am, although I have my moments of doubt, as all of us do.

Plans

We're of the unschoolish sort, so many of our plans are pretty laid back. Play a variety of games, cook, travel, swim, write stories and letters, read books, listen to audio books, go shopping, hold family meetings, and so on. I bought several new audiobooks that we are enjoying when we drive places in the car. Right now it's the unabriged version of the Wizard of Oz. I bought a felt board which has the alphabet up on it, and we (Nova and I, and sometimes Jade) have been singing the ABCs while pointing out the letters. I also bought Nova the BOB books, as she enjoys reading them over and over, and I thought she might enjoy coloring her own set. I also ordered finger paints, which we haven't opened yet, and felt dolls for making up stories with. We have Games for Math and Games for Learning books which I will crack open soon to see what kinds of fun games we might play. And in the mornings the girls often get into the craft cabin and have at it- crafting with construction paper, glue, markers, pens, tape, etc. I need to get them some more stickers and maybe sequins or glitter too.

For our first day of school, the girls each got a "Not-Back-To-School Present" of Sculpy Clay and accessories. They enjoyed those, and have been playing with them every day or two. We also went and had a nice play date with a homeschool family that lives across the bay. In the evening Nick and I went out and left the kids with a sitter. Mostly they played with their neighborhood friends, or so I'm told.

I think we'll keep busy this fall, with reading and writing and art and park days. Plus there is swimming and Game Days and traveling, movie nights and just all kinds of fun things. Life is good.