The End of September

This week is the end of September, the end of our first month of homeschooling. Some thoughts:

• I'm so glad that E is not in school. I'm glad for two reasons, (neither of which have anything to do with the education provided in public school.) One, I get to be with her as she's learning, discovering, and connecting new things. And two, she's continuing to develop her relationship with her brother in a way that wouldn't be if she were at school.

• I have so many ideas, that sometimes I want to rush forward. But then I remember that E's got a lifetime to learn and I need to enjoy teaching her whatever we're doing a the moment and allow her to direct her learning now and then.
  
• I'm so grateful for the many books about homeschooling I've read so far. Quite a few of them I stumbled upon, and they've been of great benefit. Perhaps I'll get to making a list sometime, with brief reviews.

Read a sight word, get a raisin;
I get the raisin if she can't read it.

• The more Colin and I think and talk about homeschooling, the more I imagine stick ing with it for a while.
• I'm overwhelmed by the quantity of information available about homeschooling. Every family homeschools a little differently than the next. I like formulas and I need to do a lot more reading and experimenting before we settle on our family's. I'm anxious to feel settled; but I suppose that once you do feel settled, something changes. It seems I need to get used to going with the flow. (You who know me can chuckle; I did too after typing that.)

At the beginning of each day Elizabeth writes a letter and two words with that letter.
Then she gets to make an artistic representation of the letter.
She likes it more than I imagined she would,
and asks each morning what material we'll be using to make the letter!