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January 23, 2002 - Age four years and 7 months

There's a very popular charter school in our area and my husband and I have decided that we will to enroll Julian for the upcoming school year. It's exciting! I've spoken with three moms who are enrolled and all have only positive things to say about it. The one drawback they all mention is that it can take awhile to receive items they order. Here in California, we receive $1400 dollars per school year, $700.00 per semester to spend on education as we wish, as long as it's through an approved vendor. Non-consumables, such as a video cam, or a musical instrument, must be returned to the school when you leave the charter program. Consumables, such as workbooks, you keep. Well no one can use them after you do anyway. Initially I was wanting to go with Sonlight for kindergarten but my husband heard on the radio about William Bennett's K12 curriculum and wanted to use that one. I checked it out and it looks very good. I joined the K12 Users list at Yahoo just to see what moms who are using it now have to say about it.

I've learned that in some circles there are homeschoolers who claim that if you homeschool through a charter then you are not homeschooling at all and you should not call yourself a homeschooler. But, if it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, and it looks like a duck, then it's a duck. We will be providing the education of our choice to our son in our own home. It's no skin off my nose to keep track of attendance. We're doing the schooling anyway so it's no big deal to check off a calendar. Regarding religion, you cannot purchase religous materials with the funds the charter school provides, but that doesn't pose a problem for us. I need neither money nor curriculum to nurture our son's spirituality. If we don't like the program we only need to fill out a form to drop. As a proponent of choice in education, I think the more options parents have in educating their children, the better. Someday we may do file our own R4 affidavit, but for now I want to try out the charter school. It'll be time to start before we know it!

The two most exciting things happening around here are 1) Julian is learning to read, and 2) soon we are beginning Suzuki violin lessons together. First I'll expound upon the reading...

I'm teaching Julian to read. Why am I teaching him? Is it because he's so incredibly smart that I can't hold him back and he's doing it all by himself? Nope. Is it because I want him to get a head start? Nope. We're homeschooling so how do you define head start? Head start compared to what? Is it because I want other people to think he's smart? Nah. I'll tell you why I'm teaching him to read. It's...because...I WANT TO! That's the only reason and there is no other. We're doing it and it is so much fun. I don't think I can put into words how magical, how fantastical it is to hear your kid sound out three letter words. It's indescribable. It's music to my ears. All these years I never questioned the public schools about their reading programs. In my mind it was something so complicated, so esoteric, that I should never even question how it's done, or expect that I, a mere parent, could ever accomplish such a feat. What a ripoff. We homeschooling parents totally have to get the word out that all parents, everywhere, can teach their own kids to read. It's a highly protected secret you know. Well doesn't it seem like it!

We're using Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I bought the book, read the introduction and thought, dang, what's all this mean. I did not understand what to do at all. I had to read the intro about three times. lol! Anywho, like so many things, you just jump in and start. That's what I did. It came together in my mind as we went along and I refer to the front when I need to. We're on lesson 49 and Julian is loving it. He tries to read things all over the house, and today he tried to sound out words in his Teletubbie book. (Oh I hate the Teletubbies but he likes them.) That's evidence to me that the most important thing, his love of reading, is being fed. He likes to read the short stories in 100 Easy Lessons the best. They're very dorky stories, but he likes that he can read them. In the beginning I followed the pink text (the parent's script) to a tee. As we moved along though, I changed wording to fit us - some of the what they have the parent say is just too contrived. I don't have Julian do the rereading if it's too redundant. Remember, the curriculum is supposed to make it easier on you, the teacher, not harder. The curriculum works for us, not the other way around. We do the lessons at bedtime. We get in bed together and do the lesson for as long as Julian wants. Usually half a lesson or so. Tonight we did a whole lesson. He seems to be kind of taking off so to speak. I should add, the book includes writing practice but we don't do it. He does some writing but pretty much whenever he wants to. We have a chalkboard in the living room and that's where he does a lot of his writing. We do the lessons at bedtime because the first time we got the book out we did a lesson at bedtime. It just stuck.

And on to violin lessons. I have found the teacher whom I will probably sign us up with. She's a Suzuki teacher in a music program through a local private university. I'm utterly thrilled that we can enrich Julian's life with music lessons. I am going to learn with him too. Yes, violins for both of us! I, wife, mother, age 42, am taking Suzuki lessons with my 4 1/2 year old boy! I took lessons, ever so briefly, in third grade. I have my dear husband to thank for this opportunity to pick up on my heart's unfinished promise thirty-five years after the fact.

Best wishes to you and yours.