We’ve been homeschooling right from the start! M is now in fifth grade (she has an October birthday, so if she were in public school, she’d be in fourth grade), and F is in second. They’re growing up too quickly!
Our schooling routine goes through phases and always leans toward unschooling (no set curriculum), but we’ve been in a good groove since this past spring and kept it up through the summer. In the morning, the girls have to do math and reading before they’re allowed any screens. Math is often Prodigy (a game), but we’ve also gone back to Khan Academy when they’ve needed extra help from me to grasp a concept. It’s nice that I can do the teaching, but then they can be fairly independent when it comes to practicing. And gamifying it makes it tolerable to them!
Reading is reading — they have to do fifteen minutes but usually go longer. We didn’t use to have a daily reading requirement, but I’ve noticed so much improvement since we started with it! Especially with F. She went from early/easy readers in January to now reading the same Warriors graphic novels as M. She also recently read The Last Firehawk (book one) and is looking forward to getting more in that series. M loves graphic novels, especially more realistic ones about girls her age or a bit older. Raina Telgemeier is one of her favorites. She had it in her head that she didn’t like fantasy, but her love of cats eventually won out, and she started reading the Warriors series. The graphic novels were first, but now she’s working on the regular books.
Everything else gets worked into our daily lives. The girls have always been intrigued by Greek myths (we’ve read a few different versions of some of the popular ones), so we’ve been reading about ancient Greece at bedtime. It seems like a funny place to jump into world history (though we have learned a bit about earlier civilizations here and there), but it works because they’re interested in it.
Other random stuff pops up from time to time. M has been mildly interested in the different quarters, and she pulled out all her coins when my mom gave her the US state quarter collecting board in the photo above. I had randomly seen something about a rare Wisconsin quarter, which piqued M’s interest in rare (and, more importantly, VALUABLE) coins, and she had to look at them all to see if she had any treasure on her hands. That has led to learning about the different markings on coins, where they’re made, and how they’re made. It’s neat to see what comes up naturally!
The girls are growing up so fast! They are so lucky to have you as their mom – you are a wonder. :<) Reading is such a great skill to support in children. I know that it has been important to me my entire life and brought me much joy. I had not seen the quarter collection board before – I was collecting them for a long time and then gave them all away. I get quarters all the time to do my laundry, are there certain states that she needs? I can keep a lookout for them. :<)
I think a lot of the fun comes from digging through the coins when we get change back, like a treasure hunt. So we’ll leave the quarter collecting up to chance, but thank you for the offer!