I really wish I knew how to personalize this site better. I don't like this layout/template. Ahh well...I'll work on it.

So in future homeschooling news...I went ahead an purchased Handwriting without Tears. I wasn't going to get a formal handwriting curric, but after helping Jonathan with his valentines a couple weeks ago, I decided it was a M-U-S-T! Personally, I feel like handwriting is developmental and although kids must be 'taught' how to form letters, their ability to do so in the correct way is based on their developmental fine motor abilities. Jonathan knows his letters and numbers with no problem, but his writing is terrible. However, I've said before that Jonathan does NOT like writing/drawing/coloring of any sort =(. So I want to tread lightly in the area of 'handwriting'. I don't want him to dread it, but I do want him to learn how to write correctly. HWT looks like it was made just for us. I think spending just a few minutes a day (or every other day) will help.

I've also decided that I want to school year-round. I live on a schedule and consistency, so that's how I want my house to run. Sure we may take breaks here and there, but for the most part I want consistent days. I've put together a rough schedule of our days. Basically doing Bible, FIAR, and reading instruction every day. Then alternating Math u See and HWT each day. That's my thoughts for now, but I fully expect to revise this as we get going. My "plans" are hardly ever the final product! I really want to be laid back this first year of schooling, but I don't want to underestimate Jonathan's abilities, so I wanted to be prepared with adequate curriculum. I may end up scrapping half of it this year, and hold off until next year, and that's okay!

I think that for the most part, Jonathan is going to love being home schooled. One problem is that he has gone to "preschool" (at our church) 1/2 days for the past 2 years. He LOVES it there. The one thing that I'm afraid I'm going to constantly be battling is the "friends" issue. Anytime we talk about him being home schooled, he always ends up asking about his friends. "Where will his friends be?" "Who will he play with?" "Will he have a friend?" When we decided a while back to do this, I had no idea that Jonathan would be so worried about having friends!! Of course I tell him that he'll still have all his church friends, and we have tons of neighborhood kids (one in particular) that he plays with a lot. I guess it's because Jonathan has been to school - and he loves it being there with his friends, so he just doesn't understand why he has to be home without those friends.

Anyway, that's what I'm going to be dealing with. I'm praying that this will work itself out and he'll appreciate the opportunity to be home schooled and the reasons behind it. Jonathan wanting to be around "friends" is certainly NO reason to reconsider our decision!! That's one of the many reasons why we are keeping our kids HOME!