This year we have two big kids in school! Eliana starts her 3rd grade year and Will starts kindergarten. The 2020/2021 school year is off to a crazy start. Our school district has chosen to start with all virtual learning called "Enhanced Distanced Learning." Hopefully by the end of September, the school will go to a hybrid model of some in-person learning and some distance learning. Because of this large virtual component of school this year, we have decided to pull William from the public school, and I am home schooling him. I feel very lucky that we are in a situation where I am able to mostly stay home and teach Will myself. This is definitely not something that I ever pictured myself doing, but I am surprised to say it is going pretty well so far. I purchased a kindergarten curriculum from Seton Home Study and then am also supplementing with material from Catholic Heritage Curricula. I am excited about being able to do some teaching with all of the kids together. Will's science this year consists of studying animals and their habitats, lots of nature walks, and some experiments. All the kids have been excited to participate in that. The religion class, supplemented with Eliana's PSR program from St. Brendan's, is also something we are doing as a whole family. I can definitely see the appeal of homeschooling - this faith based and value centered learning is not something that can be taught in public school. While the pandemic has definitely made things more challenging, I am actually looking forward to making the best of our distanced learning and homeschooling adventure.
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First day of school!
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Preschool hasn't started yet, but Laney didn't want to be left out of first day pictures. She wants to "take care of babies with Coronavirus" when she grows up.
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Eliana is in 3rd grade with Ms. Moore. She says her best subject is math. She would like to be a doctor or an author when she grows up.
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| Will is in kindergarten with Mom. We have dubbed our school St. Windermere Home School. Will is looking forward to learning how to read. He wants to be a construction worker or police officer when he grows up. |
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| Our homeschool hub is located in the basement. My mom gave us a great dining room table and chairs to set up for learning. We have added an iPad stand (very essential for distance learning), chalkboard (Will's favorite place to work), and back pack hooks to the homeschool space. It looks a lot like school down there! |
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