Preschool Graduate!

It doesn't seem like that long ago that my little man and I started doing preschool together.  This week was our final week!  During the year I worried that we took too many "personal days" (ie: we were out of town, had family visiting, were sick, or just plain slackers) but we actually finished up just a week and a half after public schools here let out for the summer.  We celebrated C's preschool graduation with a trip to the zoo and dinner at Red Robin, which he picked for their balloons.

I would say our first year of homeschooling was a success.  My boy sometimes needs lots of motivation to stay focused and work hard.  And I do think he benefits from one-on-one attention.  I'm also just really grateful for the ability to be my child's first teacher (although I believe every parent is a child's first teacher!  I'm just squeezing more time out of the title) :) 

C can identify all his letters and letter sounds.  For instance, I can hold up a flashcard and he can tell me the name of the letter and the sound that it makes.  He can name words that start with a certain letter, point out objects around the house and tell me what letter they start with, and even occasionally pick out certain letter sounds within a word.  He can phonetically sound out words based on the letter sounds we have learned...which means he is reading a little bit!  His handwriting has improved since we started but definitely has a long way to go.  (He is, after all, still only 4!)  He's got some basic math concepts under his belt.  Simple addition and subtraction using objects.  Less and more, patterns, shape identification.  And I'm sure he would want me to mention that he can now count to his favorite number, 100.  He's learned a lot this year!  The thing I love the most though is how much more he has learned about God.  I'm glad I chose a curriculum written from a Christian world view.  It has really helped me be intentional about teaching C things I want him to know.

I remembered to snap a few pictures from our last week so I could look back and see how much he's changed over this school year.

 

When he colors in his workbooks he usually just haphazardly scribbles, but one of the cats on this page had stripes and he was really concerned with making it look like a tiger.  He asked me to color it.  I told him to just slow down and take his time.

 As you can see, he totally has untapped potential to be revealed just by slowing down.  Typical boy. :)

 Thumbs up!  We did it!!!

I picked up a workbook today full of bridge activities for the summer between preschool and kindergarten.  We'll do a few pages each day to keep us from becoming too undisciplined over the summer.  In the fall, C will officially be a kindergartner.  Like, on the books with the school district, official!  Complete with meetings with a representative from the district and portfolio reviews throughout the year.  Eek!  I considered doing what Maryland calls a delayed entry (aka "holding him back") because C's birthday is at the end of August and he will be very newly five when the school year starts.  However, I feel like he can handle kindergarten academically, especially when done at home with less distractions, more attention, and plenty of time during the day spent just being a kid and burning off that energy!  Right now, (plans always subject to change!) we think we'll send C to public school in the fall of 2012.  My biggest fear with homeschooling him for kindergarten and then sending him off to school was that C would be ready to do the work in first grade, but not be up-to-par socially.  So, in order to expose him to a more structured learning environment, the teaching styles of others, being amongst his peers, and the fact that he has asked numerous times if next year is when he gets to go to "real school" we enrolled him in The Nature Preschool at Irvine Nature Center.  (He'll go two afternoons a week from September-May)  We've been to the nature center a few times and C loves it.  Their preschool program is for children ages 3-5 and seems like it will be right up C's alley with things like nature hikes and animal encounters on the agenda.  We attended their open house in the spring where we got the chance to play in the classroom and talk with the teacher who will actually be in C's class.  I came away feeling like it's going to be a very good fit for our little man.

I am nervous (mainly that I'm permanently screwing up my kid...but that is not specific to my decision to home school...I worry about that when it comes to most things) ;)  And I'm also looking forward to another year at home with C.  My husband remarked the other day that "the laundry isn't going anywhere."  "But his childhood is" I replied.  These days are precious and I'm very thankful that C and I get to spend them together.