We have a reader!

We started our Homeschool schedule the second week in January. I remember at the time thinking maybe it was too early or maybe they (Nathan more so) should just play all day. The problem that I was seeing with this is that he soon became bored and restless with playing. It was as though he needed something to focus on.

If I'm honest I also had in the back of me mind that we needed to get some sort of structure in our lives as come June we will have our baby girl joining us. With this in the back of my mind it made sense to try to install a routine now rather than when I also have a new baby. There was also the fact that Nathan turns 5 in August and legally would be required to start school come September.

There are many different ways that people homeschool which opens up a wealth of opportunity but can also bog you down with too much information. I struggled with this in the beginning and was pulled from place to place but I decided I needed to be true to myself, a creature of routine and habit. Therefore what I decided to trial was a set time in the morning where we would concentrate of reading, writing and maths. For me personally, as long as these are covered in a structured way all other aspects can be interest led and more flexible. I also add in the Montessori approach for other aspects of our day which I love.

Back in January we started with this and some days we worked for 20 minutes, yesterday was an hour and a half as Nathan was enjoying it so much. We've worked on sight words introducing a couple of new ones a week and CVC word blends and I wasn't sure that he was picking these up. The sight words he manages with very well as long as we take it slowly and don't introduce too many at any one time.

5 days ago he asked if he could read a story at bedtime and we agreed he could so he went off and got a book titled 'Toms mad mop' It's utter rubbish and we were given it from bookstart I think. Nonetheless he worked through it and although it was full of words he'd never seen he managed to sound the letters out and blend them by himself. He read the book again the following day and then I got out some of our beginner reader books. We have the BOB books, Biff and Chip and also the Big Cat books. Nathan chose a Bob book and read it no problem. He brought another one down yesterday and said I'm going to read 'The Vet' now and he sat and read that to me. When I looked at the cover to make a note of which book it was in the set it was book 12. The hardest one.

What I find amazing is his ease of blending, adapting and trying. Rightly or wrongly it's very important for me that our children can read and I'm hoping they will enjoy it. Nathan seems to be loving it and I love seeing how he evolves and comes along each day.

To say I'm proud would be an understatement!

A Schedule is formed.

I decided that over the Christmas break I wanted to get a rough schedule in place so that we started covering a bit of the basics. Reading, writing and math. As it happened what with family being over, spending time generally being with the boys and Kenny time ran away with me (quell surprise) and it didn't get looked at.

I set aside Saturday morning to have a look through it and after 3 hours I had a rough schedule in place. Not a long period of time, just 15 minutes for each. I'm not sure how it's going to go and to be fair I tried to implement it after having 3 hours sleep which was crazy-I certainly didn't have the enthusiasm required and it rubbed off onto Nathan. I also had a  few activities in place for Ethan but mainly a couple of Montessori activities.

I would class this morning as an epic fail and I have completely doubted having a schedule at all. After all one of the reasons we're homeschooling is to make the boys learning fun and not have them sitting doing worksheets-exactly what I had Nathan doing this morning although to be fair, I only wanted him to do a couple of pages but he seemed to enjoy it and did 6.

I'm also at a loss on how to introduce ideas to them to spark an interest so that we can go down an 'interest lead' route? It'll come to me but any ideas/suggestions are greatly received!

Thanks :-) x