A Little Bit About Homeschooling My Kindergarten Kid

Our fall schedule is in FULL swing. Here is a basic view of what Dash's life is like right now. One day a week, he attends a music class at a local arts academy. I like this for him a lot, his teacher is fun, and he really enjoys it!

He is also playing soccer for the 3rd year. He continues to love it deeply. He has practice one night a week and games on Saturdays.

He would rather be out on the soccer field than anywhere else. It reminds me why I never turned into a hardcore athlete. It's so hot out, and I'm thinking wow, I'd rather be sitting down, relaxing right now. But not him. He's fully invested and thrives in it.

I love that Dash and Sissy get to spend so much time together while homeschooling. They have so many fun moments (like above - they are so alike in so many ways). However, they fight as hard as they love, which isn't easy on me.

Dash is attending a local homeschool co-op two days a week. The classes he attends are Abeka Phonics, Abeka Math, and P.E. (I am teaching 1st grade Saxon Math at the co-op.) The teacher does lessons with them, and then he has homework to complete at home with me. This was his first day of school. See - he looks pretty proud and excited, right? Honestly, it was pretty awful for me the first couple of weeks.

He has NEVER been good with drop-offs. Even when he was a toddler, he would scream and protest. He would also RUN. HE is the reason our church nursery has a child safety knob. (We bought it for them.) He has gotten no better about new situations. I do believe he wanted to go. He has been talking about "kindergarten" since last year. He just gets really shy and nervous, and it comes out of his body in the form of running and protesting.

Fingers crossed - his last three or four drop-offs have been SUPERB. I think he has started making friends and is comfortable now. He has around 5 or 6 kids in his class, which I think is perfect. He also has P.E. with his class and the first and second graders, which I also think is really great.

Reptiles, amphibians, and insects still make their way into our home on a regular basis. This is one toad he brought in to show me. And the other day, I opened the toilet lid downstairs, and there was a pudgy toad sitting on the seat. I hollered. I'm not actually scared of critters; it just took me off guard. The toad hopped to the floor, and I was having a hard time catching it. Dash came to check what was going on, he declared, "I've got this!" And he did. After the toad peed on my floor.

We are using The Workbox System. I actually purchased Sue Patrick's ebook with printables and the plastic tubs the year before last when we were still homeschooling Tornado. We used them for a couple of months, then put them away last year after Tornado started public school and Dash was in preschool.

They work really well for Dash. He is a child who needs constant activity, or he gets himself into "T"rouble. Now he can see right in front of him what is expected. I fill each box (between 8-12) with a variety of activities - workbook pages, mazes, file folder games, puzzles, alphabet cards, etc.

This is his completed magnet building. I love that he made it symmetrical on his own. And then of course, we could talk about the definition of "symmetrical."

When he completes the activity in the box, he takes the velcro number off the box and puts it on his chart.

Sissy has workboxes, too, but she doesn't really like to do anything by herself. And she's going through a "crying when frustrated in the least little bit" phase. I give her about 4 boxes a day and then to prepare to pretty much do it right along side of her. Dash is actually really patient with helping her, too.

This particular box: he had to go through the book and make all of the letters with the foam pieces provided. I was proud of him because he took it upon himself to also form the lower case letters, too, even though they aren't included in the book.

This is the book.

He doesn't always agree to me taking his picture, though.

Here is just an activity the kids have done several times with Daddy. I bought the Mentos experiment package (for around $5) at Hobby Lobby a couple of times, but I know you can do it without that.

It makes it easier with the string to pull, though.

You pull it, then run out of the way. You can read the scientific explanation here.

This was actually one of their wimpier "explosions."

It never gets old.

Linking up to Weekly Wrap-up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I hope to start joining in regularly.