End of Year Postcards
Stewart planted loads of garlic this year. It went in late, to be sure, but because we could find no onions to plant, we planted plenty.
This little ma’am is nearing the five month mark. 
Are my children the only ones who put everything into a bowl with milk and call it cereal?
We now have a 7th, 5th and 2nd grader filling my days with math questions, book-checking, and spelling quizzes. Not to mention the Kindergarten girl named Ruthie who is the most enthusiastic about school of all of them.
I remember when the boys first started to homeschool at around age four. Like many things, it seemed overwhelming then and, like many things, has only become more time-consuming as the ranks of the educated grow in our home. Though explaining long division and geometry and sentence diagramming and proper cursive penmanship take up a good part of my day, it feels far less overwhelming.
I think somewhere along the way I learned to start them in math and teach them to read and write and everything else will flow from there.
And we are in proper wood stove weather now. Though it is nothing like what my northern friends and family experience, it is a few days of cozy fires and hot tea and all of our children ecstatic at the prospect of having a winter’s day… even if it is more like the fall Minnesota days of my youth.
But here, in Texas, they call it winter.
Do you all have plenty of trees in the area for firewood?
Do you have any advice on teaching reading? My 6 yr old took to math like a duck to water but she fiercely fights reading. I’m at my wits end.
Adele – I don’t know if I can call advice, but I can tell you what worked for us. 🙂 We now have three readers, ages 12, 10, and almost 7 and everyone has come at it differently. There have been tears and frustrations with every one but with some perseverance eventually each one had a break through point and the Lord allowed us to finish up the job.
I have used The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading with all three and I really like it. It literally takes you step by step from letter recognition to phonics to all of the digraphs, consonant blends, etc. necessary to the english language… plus all of the “disobedient” sounds and words so prevalent. Here is the link to that: https://amzn.to/2REWRsb
One of our children sounds a lot like yours. 🙂 With that one I actually ended up taking a break from the program for a bit. We were both very frustrated at one point and so I just decided backing off was our best option. So we did that and not long after that I saw them reading a young readers book. We have books all over our house and they had just picked them up over the maybe two months of our break and started reading on their own, no pressure from me, no regimented program. I asked this child to read aloud to me and it was clear they were now reading, on their own terms. I’m not saying that will happen every time, but this particular child seems to thrive with a little less structure and pressure in general and I think it worked for them.
I hope that helps. I’m no expert but I’m happy to field any other questions. 🙂
p.s. not trying to be mysterious, just want to protect the childrens’ privacy. 🙂