We're a Homeschooling Family

Okay, I guess in order to mimic this video, we'll have to work on our "multiplication"!

Abigail has finished first grade!  She is such a great student.  This year she has learned to read, add and subtract.  We have spent countless hours together discovering how the Vikings built their homes, watching a caterpillar metemorph into a butterfly, testing gravity, and enjoying stories about kids who lived long ago.

Homeschooling Abigail has been a great privilege and I treasure being a part of her discovery of the world.  In August, Matthew will join our school.  He told me, "Mom, when I start kindergarten you need to teach me robotics."  My response, "Umm...that's above me.  How about I teach you to read and count?"  He's so eager to begin school that he's begging me every day to let him do math.  "I don't need to read, but I want to learn math," he says.  Matthew already knows so much just from observing Abagail's lessons.  His adventure in learning is about to begin!

I couldn't say enough good things about Sonlight curriculum.  It provides everything I was looking for - classical education, just the right amount of structure and flexibility, and great literature.



As much as I love homeschooling, we would prefer to send our children to Christian schools.  Well, for us here in Ukraine, there is no such opportunity.  We have been told not to send our children to local Ukrainian schools.  They say the education system is weak, the teachers don't know how to teach well, there's no classroom discipline, the students are unruly, the administration is disorganized, etc., etc.  Since we've decided to homeschool the challenge is how to keep the children interacting with other kids.  Since January, Abigail and Matthew attended an art class twice a week.  In September we would like to enroll them in dance.  We try to have friends come over at least once a week to play.  For now, this is probably sufficient but we'll have to constantly re-examine their needs.