Saturday, December 22, 2007

December 23, 2007

I can't believe it's the end of tthe year and only 2 months since I've been officially homeschooling.

We've been doing so much it's hard to keep up.

We visited the Museum of Natural History today. Nala won tickets from a contest with the library last month. We got free admission into the museum and admission to a special exhibit. We chose the Space show. It was great. The whole museum is just amazing. The creations are so real and life like. It's just too big to do in one day. All the kids seemed to enjoy it. In the African exhibit Nala recognized the Nile River and knew it ran through Egypt. We've been learning about Ancient Civilizations in Egypt so I was glad to know that she remembered the river.

I'm making more connections with groups and such and therefore adding more activities to our calendar. I'm trying to keep trips at 2 days a week and now with swimming and recorder weekly, some monthly geography (2 country presenations clubs and 1 state clubs), monthly science group and possible a weekly history class it's just getting really busy. I may need to pick and choose some activities so it won't be too hectic. I just want Nala to be around the same kids weekly in some group so that she will make some friends. I know this will take time and just hopefully through joining different things she'll meet people.

Our homeschooling experience is really very good. Homeschooling has really brought out the best in my daughter. She carries her notebooks around with her to write and draw. While we are reading (currently Charlotte's Web) she's noticing the language being used and most importantly the spelling words I'm giving her she notices in the book. It really helps with ehr learning the words faster and learning new words that come up often. She liked school, she has her days where she still wants to go back but when we talk about all of the wonderful experiences we've had so far homeschooling, the freedom she has in what she learns and all the creative ways she can express her learning, she has told me how much she loves homeschooling and does not want to go back to school.

Although we still do "school" how she has learned and feels comfortable with, (She still calls her spelling list word study like school) she has more control over what she does each day and how she does it. She doesn't have to do math sheets how she did in school because she doesn't like sheets. Instead we play scrabble or dice games to learn math. I found a grammar book that she loves where she corrects the sentences and does a bar graph at the end to show her progress. I read with her or to her sometimes and we discuss what we read. Her vocabulary is growing and she is doing alot of hands on learning, because I know this is how she learns best.

I'm looking forward to another year of continued success and more learning for both of us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say hello and I am enjoying your blog and your wonderful moments with your daughter.

Sha Bish said...

Thanks so much for reading Kysha!