First Grade

We've finally decided that we're going to home school L next year, through 1st grade. Wow. It's taken me a while to admit to myself that this is what I want to do. Not that we had much choice; private school is still not an option financially (even if we could have found a spot in one, which is highly unlikely), the local alternative schools I was marginally happy with have no space in first grade, and there is some question as to whether L would be able to get back into the gifted-and-talented program due to changes in the board of Ed regulations which took the final decision out of the hands of the individual school (Previously, we were assured that if she wanted to come back she would be able to). We have basically worked ourselves into a corner as far as this district is concerned.

And who knows, maybe this is all sour grapes. I am just not impressed with the schools in this area and don't have the overwhelming feeling of panic other parents seem to experience, that if my child doesn't do what everyone else is doing that it's going to damage her. On the other hand, I don't think, like some homeschooling parents I've spoken to do, that sending my kid to school is going to damage her either. I'm just not that worried about all this.

Which worries me. Shouldn't I be worried?

In any event, now that the decision has been made (with the full blessing of the baby daddy, by the way), I am feeling some pressure to pick a curriculum for next year. This year I kept telling myself and everyone else who expressed concern, "Hell, it's just kindergarten. It's not even legally required!" We do school and, on days we have better things to do, we don't. Almost every day we do math and reading. The rest of it I figure comes up naturally through the course of our daily life -- we draw, we sing, we cook. Museums and books and movies bring up questions and answers that lead us to science and history with enough regularity that I don't feel that we're missing out if I don't sit her down and do structured activities with her every week.

But next year is the real deal. That's when we need to start keeping records and have paper work to file and the potential of truant officer home visits looming over our heads. I've invested in a home school record keeping software program to help me with the paper work. I'm trawling all the user groups online to figure out what curriculum would fit us best, whether we keep going on in our unstructured, meandering way or go for structure. I think I want more direction than I had this year, but not so much structure that I'll chafe under it. I'm not the best at following directions and she definitely takes after me in that respect.

There are so many choices that I'm sort of in paralysis. The two that I'm wavering between is K12, which a friend uses and loves, and Sonlight, which looks great as well. K12 is very very structured, basically a school out of a box. They send you everything you need, text books and equipment. There's a course schedule, lessons done on computer, online tracking and assessments. It's heavily influenced by the Core Knowledge Foundation, the folks behind the What Your X Grader Needs to Know series and the idea of Cultural Literacy, so it gives a pretty solid education. It is also quite expensive, running over $500 a month if you take the full plate of six classes (There are several different pricing options, but it's definitely on the pricier end of the curriculum spectrum). I also think we'd find it too scripted and have a hard time keeping on task. I also happen to prefer the math we're doing (Singapore Math), having originally tried the math textbook they offer.

Sonlight leans more toward the Classical Education and Charlotte Mason philosophies (which deserves posting of their own). The focus is on learning via "living books", by which it means reading and using classic stories and books, such as The House at Pooh Corner and Little House on the Prairie, as well as The Odyssey and The Iliad, rather than workbooks and abridged versions. It also focuses on history as the backbone of the program, so that all the literature you read is connected to a period on time that the child is studying (for example, reading greek myths and The Odyssey while studying the Greco-Roman period.) The program comes with all the books you need, plus instructor guides and a schedule. It's less structured than K12, I like the idea of reading good books with L, and the list of material covered is impressive. The con? It's a Christian curriculum. Granted, you can leave out the Bible study portion, but many of the books seem to have a God-is-good slant, tales of pure-hearted missionaries who save souls around the world. I don't actually mind reading Bible stories to L, since it has had an enormous influence on our literature and society. Not to be familiar with the Bible shows a certain type of cultural illiteracy, but I don't want to have to be forever putting Christian theology into a cultural context for L all the time so that she understands that this is not what all people believe, just what some do. She's already praying to Osiris and Anubis after the Egyptian gods lessons. Lord knows what she'll do after a year of Jesus study.

I don't know. Maybe I'll have to keep looking.