How's It Going - RRR

How's homeschooling going? What is Poodle actually doing in school?

A lot of times, this is the question people want to know. Does she do what others her age are doing in "regular" school?

(Side Bar: from time to time, you may catch me saying "outside" school, instead of "regular" school. I got that phraseology from my church friend, Karen, who used that with her kids when they were younger. I didn't want to say normal school or regular school to Poodle, because who wants to think that their education is somehow odd or not normal, you know?)

Back to the original question - I can tell you what she's doing, but I can't tell you if it's the same thing as what she would get at ABC Elementary School. I mean, I know she's not doing what she would be doing if she were in the regular school system, because she would have been in Kindergarten this year due to her late birthday. And, obviously, she's doing work that is past the Kindergarten level. But is she doing full on first grade work? That's what I don't really know. Because I don't know what qualifies as first grade work!

We read a Bible story every day. We read a poem every day. (Currently reading from A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young). Our history involves reading good living books. We're currently reading Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. But I'm beginning to see that history, at this age, needs to really be more of a broad stroke of a subject. I think I've spent too much of this year thinking we needed to be more detailed than we were being. And spent too much time stressing about it, as usual!

Geography is also being handled by a living book. Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling. Science is supposed to be handled by Nature Study right now. Here is where I'm lacking, because I have not been getting her out every week with Nature Study as our focus. The weather and the baby have thrown us for a loop there. While I totally agree with the Charlotte Mason approach to learning about the scientific/natural world through this method when the children are young, I have decided that we also need some actual science books to help jumpstart us (read: jumpstart me). I'm looking into Apologia, but I need to know that they will pass the "living books" test well enough to go along with what we already do.

We do Math every day (here's a pic of the test that she had today, so that gives you an idea of what she's doing for math). She practices handwriting every day. She reads aloud to me every day. (We're currently reading a Junie B. Jones book, but the cutsie, and incorrect, 5-year-old grammar in it is driving me crazy).

Yeah, she actually missed #14. I graded that in a big hurry with a sleepy, fussy baby in my arms. Whoops! She figured out the correct answer quickly once I caught this.

Is she doing first grade work? Again, I have no idea. I think that she's probably average with her spelling and average with her word recognition as she reads aloud, but I genuinely am not sure. I know her comprehension is good, because she narrates to me when I read to her. (Not every time, but we do at least one narration a day so that she gets practice with not just comprehension but also with communicating that comprehension).

There is a very active part of me that wants to KNOW that she is on par with her first grade counterparts. Via some sort of test or evaluation or something-or-other. But, that's one of those hang-ups that I try to not to indulge. I will likely have her take the the Stanford Achievement Test eventually, just to satisfy my and Jmk's curiosity. In a year or two. Maybe. (Nothing like having a solid plan, eh?)

This is genuinely one of the harder things for me about a home education. Except for Math, nothing else can really be "graded" in the traditional sense. Add to that, the general course of curriculum that I use with her tends to not have a lot of worksheet "busy work" that might otherwise give me something concrete to hold in my hands. Plus, again, I don't have someone else telling me how she's doing. I have to trust that I'm doing the right things with her.

It's a pickle. And I know that I've only sort of answered that original question. Hey - if you're a first grade teacher and want to come to my house and reassure me that she's just doing swimmingly, come on ov-ah! :-)