Homeschooling Update

After a very long break from homeschooling, we are back at it! I have to confess that this is our first full week of "school" since Esme was born! We did do a little here and there over the holidays, but we were not very disciplined. Now that Esme is two months old and a little more predictable (not that babies are ever really predictable), it’s time to dive back in. We have all really missed the routine that "school" provides. (Especially me)


Lucy has been making great progress with her reading lately. I don’t expect her to be a great reader, or even to learn how to read at all, at age 5. It is far more important to us that she develops a lifelong passion for reading. Earlier this year, Lucy asked me if I would teach her to read, and so I have been - little by little. We started out with Mother Goose rhymes, and now she has moved on to books. Not “the cat sat on the mat”-type beginner readers, which she found to be repetitive and boring, but beautiful literature. Children, even those who are just starting out, are perfectly capable of learning to read books of good literary value! (Stepping off my soapbox now...)

Reading lesson in progress...

I would be lying if I said that Lucy enjoys her reading lessons 100% of the time. Learning how to read is strenuous work for the child. That's why we keep our lessons short (only 10 minutes a day), and if she gets frustrated, we move on to something else. Better to shut the book mid-lesson and preserve her love of books than to have her burn out at age 5. 

But, for the most part, Lucy ends her 10 minutes feeling confidant and proud of her own hard work. As she should! Morgan and I realized the other day that we can no longer spell words to keep secrets from our children ("Do we have any i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m?") - that phase of parenting is gone forever because we have a reader now!