Homeschooling Officially Started

We started officially homeschooling. A friend asked how 'officially homeschooling' looks like and I just said, I am aiming for more structure now.

Having purchased the Kindergarten curriculum at Bearth Institute, I plan to ease Yakee into having more of a rhythm at home and provide activities of alternating qualities. That includes regular gardening time (for an outdoor activity), regular arts and crafts (he can already sew well enough so I should take advantage of that), incorporating the seasons and festivals (I am targetting lantern making for Martinmas and a Jesse Tree for Advent) and more guided play (because before, we just really played with no educational goal).

I also plan to supplement (or wreck, haha) the Waldorf curriculum by teaching Yakee to read using our Ball-Stick-Bird books. He actually did well for our first attempt (I think I sweated more over it... it's like giving birth again and again as he made sense of each new word and attempted to string together the sounds he was producing!). I wouldn't be surprised if homeschoolers make the best la tutors!

A huge part of me still really wants a Waldorf/unschooling approach but I have to balance that with the current standards and this is the best compromise we can come up with right now. Yakee will be starting Kindergarten later than his counterparts, and that is okay, but he also must start putting in the work for all those academics.

He did seem to fall in love with the word 'homeschooling' and keeps mentioning it in connection with activities (even in playing with their new wooden toys).

Sigh.

The journey to VarsityTutors updates and specializations and career plans has just begun for us. I am still intimidated but it is quite a nice challenge for our family.