Home Schooling

We have finished week two, and wow am I impressed. Big kid was not only a great student, but I was a)shocked at how much he didn't know after being in the public school system for six years and b)amazed at how fast he picked things up from me! At 11 and having been on the honor roll at school the previous year, he didn't understand how to multiply three digits by three digits, or anything larger. He had no clue where Asia was, or what was in it. We made chinese fried chicken for dinner one night and he made the comment "I really love Chinese food, I wonder what Asian food tastes like". My mouth fell open. His vocabulary prevents him from reading books that are written on a sixth grade level, because he doesn't understand what he is reading. He also reads at a sixth grade level according to the school, yet when he reads aloud to me or even his brothers he is motonous and barely recognizes punctuation of any kind. No wonder this kid hates to read - books are just lots of words strung together for him, not STORIES!

To remedy the reading and vocabulary we have been traveling to the library twice a week. Big kid has been checking out small books that are aimed at boys 8+, and seem a bit below his grade level. He finishes them within an hour, but loves the stories! They are about a child spy named Jack Stalwart, and he travels the world protecting this or that while searching for his brother. I will continue to let him check out the rest of the series, because it is sparking an interest in stories!! I will work in some more complex books, this month I am reading aloud The Darkest Ages series, am on book two. Those books are very Tolkeinish, having people with mythical powers and magical swords and such. He is completely into the story, but he could never read it himself. The names alone would kill him! I hope to someday soon get him to the point where he can read the books he is interested in, not just pick it up and think "I'm not smart enough to read that".

Math is going swimmingly, we are using Saxon Math 67 and he is whizzing right through the book. I love that it is so full of review, he really needs that! Science is really fun so far, we have studied the human body for two weeks and have just moved onto space. Science is my forte, hopefully I can continue to find exciting ways to teach it to kiddo!! Geography is fun for me, sort of boring for him. I moved around so much I never really got geography classes, I had one great teacher named Mr. Festa in Pennsylvania who taught us about indians, but that is all I got! I breezed through three years of world history in one year to get regents credit in NYS so I could graduate, but it didn't really stick with me at all. I hope all of this will help kiddo become a more well rounded adult!

I honestly gave the public school more credit - I am a product of the public school system up north, and I got a good education! However, we are down south now and a lot has changed. It's pretty sad when you think about it!