Last year, we started our homeschooling journey with a simple challenge… “If you could teach him to read before Kindergarten…”  It was ON!  Little did we know, we – my husband and I – would begin researching risks and benefits, techniques, statistics and more.  What we definitely didn’t expect was to both agree that homeschooling might be our best option. The obvious starting point, in a journey to reading, seemed to be letter recognition.  I planned daily lessons, in advance, which included youTube videos, learning games, crafts and books.  Day by day, we knew what to expect, and planning was as simple as addressing the next week of letters.  Then……

We have been focusing on letter recognition, lately, as the first major undertaking in our Homeschool Journey. Each day, I planned “school time,” which consisted of various letter-specific youtube videos and printables. We also did a letter-specific craft and a tactile activity (drawing letters in salt or making them with blocks) each day. My daughter adores learning time and loves to make people happy, so she was more focused on opportunities to learn, than she was with what HAD been learned or HADN’T.  My son, on the other hand, likes knowing exactly how much progress has been made and what is left.  He often asks how long it will take,…

This year, we opted to homeschool instead of enrolling our son in standard Pre-K.  We did this for many reasons, both financial and personal.  My husband, in an effort to encourage me away from homeschooling, did some research and read some studies.  He finally reported that, of all of the studies that he considered legitimate, a handful showed that homeschooled children out-performed their publicly schooled counterparts.  The remainder of the studies showed that they did the same.  He found no convincing data suggesting that homeschooled children were behind in ANY area – EVEN SOCIAL!  We agreed that it was worth considering. Ultimately, I’ve always felt led to homeschool our children…