Homeschool Update

For starters I have combined my homeschool blog with this blog, so they will no longer be in two different places.

It's been almost a year since I updated the homeschool blog.  I hate that I haven't been great at documenting Liberty's progress.  She has been doing so well and has learned so much this year.  First grade has been loads more fun for both of us and I anticipate that Second grade will be even better!

We have been using My Father's World for the past two years.  I orginally chose this curriculum because it is an all-inclusive curriculum with very structured and detailed lesson plans.  Since I wasn't quite sure what direction we were going to go with our home education, it was a great way to dive right in without a lot of stress for either of us.  Two years into it, I now have a much more research under my belt and a much clearer idea of what I want to accomplish with Liberty (and Emory) in our home education.  With a more defined philosophy of education, I have decided to go with a different curriculum (more on that later).

I do want to spend just a little time discussing the positives and negatives of MFW.  Since my girls are 5 years apart, it will take some serious brain power to remember what I did with Liberty when its Emory's turn.  Better write it down :).

Positives....

1.  Structure.  It did just what I hoped it would and allowed us to get started and get a feel for home education without a lot of stress.

2.  Phonics.  The phonics program is absolutely the best.  Slow and steady wins the race is definitely the key to this phonics program, but for us it was totally worth the mind-numbing, snail pace.  We haven't had a single moments trouble with reading.  I don't really know whether to attribute this to the phonics program or a natural reader.  I'll give a little credit to both.  We will definitely stick with the MFW phonics approach for future students!

3.  Bible.  The Bible Reader/Notebook was one of Liberty's favorite things and I think she really learned a lot by doing her stories this way.  We are taking this concept and modifying it a little for next year.

Negatives...

1.  Math.  I think the expectations were too low and the program wasn't as rigorous as I had hoped it would be.  Unfortunately, I think I waited a little too long, hoping it would get better.  We did end up switching to Math-U-See a few months ago.  That puts us behind where I was hoping we would be by now.  But, that is one of the beauties of homeschool.  We can go at our own pace without the pressure to perform.  I have full confidence that she will be on target before long.  At any rate, I think we have made a good change.

2.  Science.  I honestly felt like this was a complete waste of time.  I think its much more beneficial for children of this age to be experiencing the world around them through a more natural approach.  I wish I had had a better grasp on this concept this year.  Liberty and I are both getting better and being more perceptive of the world around us.

All-in-all I have been so pleased with Liberty's progress, with the things she's learned, and the strides we have made in developing the model for our homeschool.