Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Bringing Her Home

Well, we thought God was preparing our hearts and home for homeschooling Peep3 next school year. It looks like it will be much sooner! My heart is ready. My mind is ready. I feel overwhelmed with the list of to-dos that need to get done in order to make this happen though.

Here's a break down of where we are today.

Reading: We tested her the end of last school year and she was at 4.6 reading level (fourth grade). She just started 5th grade and is now reading at a 5th grade level! WOW! Thank you, Lord! This is amazing for her. So this means she will graduate from her IEP in reading soon!

Math: She still needs help. So the IEP remains. And we will take her to these classes 4 days a week while homeschooling until she meets her goals there.

We will start out with Handwriting Without Tears and Writing Strands. We will be reading some great classics starting with Anne of Green Gables and including reading responses, a report, and spelling words with this. I'm excited to start a Unit study on Anne of Green Gables for other subjects! Independent reading of her choice. And Bible reading, discussion, and writing verses weekly. I want to introduce to Peep3 women of the Bible and how we can learn from them!

Although we're still searching for a complete math curriculum, we've signed her up with IXLfor lots of math practice. IXL is a great program for kids to practice all areas of math from K-8. It will give the parents reports of how well they did in each area and how long they practiced. You're able to see what areas need more instruction. This is a great resource for all school aged kids. And it's on the computer! Not a workbook. "L's" teacher is using this for her class homework. And she recommends it because there is detailed help for the questions they get wrong. Also, we will be purchasing Times Tales from Trigger Memory. This was highly recommended for to make math more fun and for those with dyslexia!

I will be implementing a workbox system . I read Sue Patrick's Workbox System and it was helpful, but I will be creating our own system from these ideas. Here's a link to Rockin' Granola's workbox post for more ideas. I think I will keep the same boxes out in order for a weeks time. And will change it up a bit here and there. This will help lessen my planning time. I'll have a couple of boxes set aside to add in during the week to keep it fresh. I also need to get a couple of timers to help her know how much time to spend on an activity. She can spend an hour on one assignment as it is. This could be really freeing to her. Also this should cut down on distractions as I will place all the needed items for that subject in that box. Nothing else but a timer will be left out of a box, including pencils, paper and erasers. This is a huge stumbling block for Peep3 right now at school.

We are considering hiring someone to come in one day a week as a Mother's Helper to give Peep3 and I more instuctional time during the week. I am hoping that my Mother-in-law can come one day a week as well. We are talking about this. I was all gun-ho to find someone and then this morning I realized that I want to try Nana coming in first and really see what our needs will be and time frame before hiring someone. So I will put that on hold for a bit, but will still ask around. Here's a great post from Steady Mom that talks about how when something looks perfect, "except when it isn't!" Thanks Jamie, I needed to read that today!

Friday School will start up in February and give Peep3  a chance to choose some classes and get to see old friends and make new ones at our church. I will quit MOPS at that time so that we can stay home 4 days a week and keep Fridays as our big day out. I'm hoping to replace MOPS with an evening bible study so that I can be fed and have some fellowship once a week. We'll see if Daddy Rooster is on board with that! The big peeps already go to church at that time, so it's perfect timing.

This list is long, but most of it is done! I'm very excited and writing it down really helps. That way I can look back and see what our goals were and what's working or not! This list is just about Academics which is only half of the reasons why we want to bring her home! I'll post more about that next!

Look for these upcoming posts: The "D" Word - Dyslexia - How learning disabilites have impacted our children and our family! and The Most Important Reasons to Bring Her Home!

1 comment:

  1. Hi,
    I love reading your blog! Your story is fascinating and so encouraging. Really it is.
    I wanted to share if you haven't found a math curriculum yet, we LOVE Teaching Textbooks. It's on the computer and the child does it all on their own. It's visual, auditory and hands on too. Our kids have loved our change from Lifepacs to Teaching Textbooks.
    Christine @ Live to Learn

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