A note from the Teacher….

A note from the Teacher….

Merry Christmas! I thought I would answer a few question about Aurora’s progress and how homeschooling is working. And a bit about her grades, too, since those are our three most common questions. Now that we have settled into a routine we spend about 3 hours a day, four days a week on directed lessons. That is where I am working one on one with her on core subjects. Then Aurora does self-guided work in art, reading and some project work without me. Her two dance classes and paper route count as PE and we do some field trips to the museum and art gallery too. We love the laid back pace and do work in the morning and evening only. Aurora picked all her own topics within the subjects and picks her own novels and poets to study, too. So the reading comes easier.

The result has been some great progress in areas where Aurora was really struggling. In September she struggled to write even a few sentences in her morning paragraph. So we backed it up and did brainstorming every day instead, then worked on topic sentences together and adjectives. She has written over 60 morning paragraphs now (filling a whole book already!!) and her paragraphs are descriptive and well formed. No more struggle – YAY! We backed up and redid a whole month of math over when it was clear she just wasn’t getting it. That helped and we have had 2 weeks off in math we got so far ahead!

As far as grades, testing and progress I am happy to report she is getting all A’s! Just kidding! We actually don’t have to submit tests, projects, essays or anything to anyone. We chose a homeschooling route that left us really open and free to do what we want. I chose texts and workbooks that fit the District 73 grade 5 program and other than that we just plug along. We get updates from her friends and use Adin’s homework as a guide sometimes to check in that we are on the right path but so far we have been ahead most of the time! The plan is still to return to Beattie for grade six and I am confident she’ll be ready and fine. We have done some math and science tests that were included in the workbook but I do them as open tests as I think it is more important that she learns how to find the information than it is to memorize it and spit it out at random. We do lots of research projects for that reason. Also lots of computer searches and games to help her use technology to learn. She is lucky to get the computer time. In school she would get it once a week….

So far we are loving it! She still goes to her book club and Guides, has lots of friends and playdates and does get out of the house a lot. Lots of people ask if we are worried about socializing her…. But she is pretty social all on her own and has lots of friends! That hasn’t changed! She enjoys the pace and the quiet mornings. Going back to school will be quite a change for sure but I am glad we took the year to get her ahead and reading really well. I think it’s been great!