Homeschooling is going very well around here, I’m happy to report. The Momma is happy, the daugher is happy, stuff is being learned and stuff is still getting done around the house. Really, what more could I want?

As a reference, here’s my last homeschooling update post.

More specifically, Emma is reading now, and has been reading for a couple months. In the last month or so, she’s started reading signs, packages, glasses (our everyday drinking glasses are from various breweries so they have stuff written on them - unfortunately none so entertaining as Dy’s though), and whatever else comes before her. She can comfortably read her daily lessons from 100 Easy Lessons (almost done - only 14 more to go!) and she’s reading other books as well. We’re still working on this book because we took some time spending two days on each lesson, because I was encountering a lot of resistance. Where she was at, she was having a lot of trouble reading the practice words and the story on the same day (this started around lesson 60 or so) and so we slowed the pace down and things improved dramatically. (As an aside, this is where I came to the important realization that it is not a race - learning, and learning without massive frustration, is the goal here, not finishing a set of lessons as quickly as possible!) On Sunday night she read Go, Dog, Go and only stumbled over “two”, “night” and a couple other words. (These words will show up on copywork in the near future - nothing like a tailored education!) She’s not sitting down yet and reading entire books on her own, she still needs a little prompting for that, but she’s reading the titles of books and reading parts of them when she wants to know more about what is happening on a particular page.

Her handwriting is coming along nicely too. She’s now holding her pencil correctly without a pencil grip (hooray!) and her writing is looking quite nice for a five year old. I don’t make her do much writing, and I think this is a good thing. She just writes one sentence once a day, but then she also writes her own words on her pictures and a couple times a week she’ll write one to three sentence stories about a picture without prompting. So I think we’re at a good place with the writing - she’s improving and she still enjoys doing it on her own - so I think we’re striking the right balance.

Math is going well too. We’re on lesson 25 (out of 30) of the Math-U-See Primer level, and she’s still enjoying it. She’s also using the concepts she’s learning in day to day life, so I think it is soaking in too. She likes to look ahead to see what she’ll be doing next, which I figure is a good sign. We’re very pleased with Math-U-See’s program and I definitely plan on continuing with it.

The Bible stories with narration is going well too - she’s still a little reluctant to narrate at times, but it is more because she wants to ask a zillion questions before narrating. Right now I’m having her narrate first then ask questions, because it seems like she can answer some of her own questions that way, but sometimes I wonder if I am stiffling her questions a little too much by doing it in that order.

Saint stories are still going well, we’re reading through Amy Wellborn’s Book of Saints again. We read through some other books for awhile - mostly ones about individual saints from the library - but now we’re back to this book again. I want to put a little more thought into this section for next year though, because I think we could be doing more. It will require more planning though, and I’m not sure how realistic that is going to be with what is on the horizon. Maybe the year after that. :-)

I think that’s everything I set out to do last fall, and we’ve also added a couple of things along the way. My brother gave Emma a small intro to chemistry experiment book for her birthday so we’ve been doing experiments from that nearly every day since then.

We’ve also started listening to a hymn from Hymns for a Kid’s Heart every day in hopes that Emma and I can start to pick up some of songs. I’m not exactly completely thrilled with the book (the Christmas one was a lot better) but it’ll do for now. At what point though do children start being able to pick up the fact that there is a tune - or is it more a matter of innate ability? If it is innate ability I’m afraid that Emma’s a little short on that one. I guess I can’t be too surprised, this is the child who, as a baby, would scream when I put music on in the car.

The other thing I’ve added is some memorization. We’ve done a little scripture (But be doers of the word, not hearers only (James 1:22) - this was suggested along with Amazing Grace in the hymns book) and the Sign of the Cross as well as Our Father. She has the Sign of the Cross down, and the Our Father is almost there - she just trips up in one place now (she leaves out the “as we forgive those who tresspass against us”).

Things I’m lacking in all this? Well, art, for one, and I’d like to be doing more music than what we’re currently doing. We do listen to various classical pieces in the late afternoon, but I’m in despirate need of expanding my music collection. The selection at my local library was laughable (and horrid) so I think I need to start making some purchases. Any suggestions?

But as it stands, we’re making good progress, and I think we’re on target for finishing up sometime around mid to late May… which is perfect because we’ll be moving shortly thereafter! (another reason the moving delay has turned out to be a good thing)

I’m going to start planning next year soon, as I don’t think I’ll be in any position to do that come July/August… so I’m looking forward to that. The main thing I’ll need to do is make sure I can find my notes and materials when we get started again in September!