Living Waters Homeschool

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

2013-07-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Like it or not, as parents we are setting an example for our children every single day - right or wrong, better or worse. Since becoming a mom, setting a good example is something that I've tried to do. At times I've been more successful than at other times, but succeed or fail, I'm always an example. Over the past several years it's really dawned on me how important the example we set for our children can be. I had been being a lousy example, and I was seeing the fruit of that lousiness. How could I ask our son to do what I was not willing to model for him? I couldn't, plain and simple. I then had my light bulb moment.

As a child I was never given any household responsibilities. I didn't even have to make my bed. We had a cleaning lady that came in twice a week, and on the days she wasn't there my mom would take care of things after we left for school. So not only did I not have to do anything around the house, but since I was in school all day long I never saw anyone else doing it either. It just magically got done! How cool is that?

As an adult I've never been a "happy" housewife. Somewhere deep down inside I felt that it wasn't my responsibility to take care of the house, and I'd get downright angry about it. It took a while - a very long while - for me to figure out what was going on, but one day I finally understood. Instead of waiting around for "someone" to take care of things, I needed to step up and be "someone" and take care of things myself. That understanding has changed my attitude about lots of things, not just the housework.

Since my "aha!" moment I've noticed something else as well. Our son's attitude has been improving. He's always helped me around the house when I've asked for help, but now there is about 98% less hemming and hawing that comes along with the help. He's even begun taking the initiative to do some things on his own. And all of this has happened without any badgering from me. It's been wonderful.

So, is there an area where you'd like your child to improve or a habit you'd like them to acquire? Step back and see how that is being modeled to them. Sometimes it can pinch a little to take a look at ourselves that way, but our kids are worth it. Let them see that behavior in you and you just might be surprised at what happens.

A Good Day Starts the Night Before

2013-07-06T13:36:00.001-07:00

There are many things that go into successful homeschooling. As I've mentioned before, routines are a very important part of that success whether it's routines for school, housework, or cooking. Another very important routine is the bedtime routine. This is not only important for your children, but for you, too.

I used to have a terrible time getting to sleep at night. I'd stay up until whenever I was done with whatever I was doing and then try to get to sleep. The next day I'd feel like, well, something the cat dragged in. It was not a good thing. Then I decided to get myself into a good bedtime routine. At first it was a little difficult to exercise that self-discipline, but it's been well worth it. Now, once I start that routine, my body starts to relax and my mind starts settling down (usually). Where it used to take me forever to fall asleep, now I am able to fall asleep within a more normal period of time. It really has been a blessing for me.

Bedtime routines are a wonderful gift we can give our children as well. It will take some getting used to for everyone involved, but it will be worth the effort. Baths, bedtime stories, and snuggling can all be part of your child's routine. Once they become accustomed to it they will look forward to it and will be able to settle down quite nicely.

Now, I know that not every child will take to this like a duck to water. There are always exceptions and special circumstances. But if simple routines can be introduced, I believe any child can eventually follow and benefit from them. As with everything homeschool, make it a fun, enjoyable time for you and your family. Everyone will have a better chance at getting a good night's sleep so your days can be better.

Choosing Curriculum

2013-07-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

If you're going to be homeschooling this year, now is the time to look into curriculum (if you haven't yet decided what to use). There is a seemingly endless choice of materials out there, each one vying for the homeschool family's attention - and dollars. But how can you choose from all that is offered? And what if you make the wrong decision? First of all, don't get stressed or overwhelmed. Here are a few tips to help you narrow your selection.

First of all you'll want to look at your budget. A full year's curriculum can run anywhere from around $200 for a boxed set of worktexts to well over several thousand dollars for a private online learning experience.

Next you'll want to look at your children. Are they very active, hands-on individuals, or are they more bookworm-ish? (As a hardcore bookworm myself I use that term with all respect and dignity.) A very traditional curriculum requiring lots of sit down book work time might not be the right choice for an active child. And a course that is highly hands on might not work out well for a child who soaks up their knowledge through reading.

Then you'll want to figure out how much planning and grading you want to do. If you have one child planning and grading might not be an issue. If you have several children it might get quite time-consuming. Just remember that you are the one who knows your children, your family, and your budget best.

Once you've taken all of these things into consideration you'll be able to narrow your choices. If you're new to the homeschooling game don't let the fear of buying the wrong curriculum freeze you in your tracks. Flexibility is paramount in homeschooling and, once bought, any curriculum can be tailored to meet your children's needs. Remember, homeschooling isn't about perfection, but about fostering a love of learning in your children. We need to enjoy the journey and keep it fun. That will build memories for you and your children that will last a lifetime!

It's Never Too Early

2013-07-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Independence Day here in the United States, and that's got me thinking about the new school year. It's never too early to start planning your school year. I actually sat down and scheduled our first two months already. I know that if I leave things to the last minute I get stressed, our son gets stressed, and well, it's just no good for anyone. I guess that's really what helps homeschooling run smoothly - planning. Well, planning and routines.

During this summer I've been trying to get myself into some good routines with the housework and meal planning, two areas that have always been challenging for me. But now that our son will be starting high school (how did that get here so fast?), I knew that I needed to have my ducks in a row to give us a better chance for success this year. A little planning and good routines can make days go much more smoothly and diffuse any stress that might try to show up and spoil things. With only four more years of school to go, I want to enjoy every day with our son and not be scattered and worried about things that don't deserve that attention. I'm feeling very good about how things are shaping up so far.

Now, don't let me fool you. I know it sounds like I've got all my stuff together and everything run smooth as silk all the time. Well, no. But I have tried to say no to procrastination and get things on a better track. That's another thing about homeschooling - our children aren't the only ones who learn. We parents learn a thing or two along the way as well. With that in mind, I'm very please to announce that my new book, The No Nonsense Guide to Homeschooling, is now available on Kindle and Nook! It's packed with practical tips, ideas, and encouragement for those thinking about homeschooling, those who have decided to take the homeschooling plunge, and for anyone who might be interested in learning more about homeschooling.

2013-03-06T12:46:00.002-08:00

I am very happy to announce the release of our first unit study - Green Eggs and Ham, a Springboard Unit Study for the Very Young.

Green Eggs and Ham, a Springboard Unit Study for the Very Young, is a unit study designed to nurture a love of learning in young children. Following the story in Green Eggs and Ham, your child will learn about poetry, mammals, the water cycle, and much more. Any parent can follow this easy to use unit study to help their children have fun while learning.

The Green Eggs and Ham unit study is now available on both Nook and Kindle. Click here to get it on Nook, and here to get it on Kindle.

Find out more about Springboard Unit Studies here!

Being a Tree of Life for Our Children

2011-09-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit. - Proverbs 15:4

I was just posting to another of my blogs (Under The Shadow Of His Wing) and this verse really struck me. I can't tell you how many time I've barked at our son, wanting nothing more that immediate obedience. I don't do it too much any more as I've learned that this is completely unfruitful and counterproductive. I had to wade through mountains of "expert" child rearing data and advice including that from "expert" Christian sources. One of those sources even went so far as to say that parents need to break their children's spirits, punish them by spanking with wooden spoons, and citing Scriptural references to back up his point. (First of all, I am not citing who this was as I don't want to start a kerfuffel. Second, any verse of Scripture can be pulled out of context to support any point of view which can be very dangerous.)

Over the years I have come to a place that is challenging at best. It is a place where a parent is a hands-on, interactive parent who treats their child as a person, not a subordinate. While a child does need to learn to be obedient and respectful to their parents, I don't believe that beating them into submission is the way to go. Is is better for a child to obey out of fear or out of love and respect? This place where I've come to has lots of long talks, with the parent listening and the child sharing his hopes, dreams, concerns, and fears. It is a place where the parent sets aside him- or herself in order to nurture and encourage their child. It's a lot of work and can be quite tiring at times, but it's well worth it.

Going back to Scripture for a moment, the image of a shepherd is used quite often. The shepherd has a rod and staff. The majority of Christians now-a-days take the rod and staff Scriptures as a license and mandate to use corporal punishment in their homes. But a shepherd doesn't beat his sheep. He guides and protects them, showing them where to go and making sure their needs are met. He does use these instruments to protect his sheep from wild animals and will beat those animals, but he never beats his sheep. Then if we look at the Messiah, our Shepherd, and His treatment of the disciples we have another beautiful picture of how we should treat our children. He never beat or abused His disciples. He lovingly and patiently taught and corrected them. Yes, sometimes He got frustrated, but he never became abusive. What better example could we have?

Yes, some days I still get snippy, but when I keep in mind that I'd rather be soothing and bring life to my child rather than crush his spirit it helps me get back on track. I take a deep breath and keep on going. Remember, homeschooling goes far beyond schooling. We are nurturing and shaping our children and the way we speak has a big impact on them. Let's be trees of life!

Helpful Resources

2011-09-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

Last time I mentioned that several months ago I had to tailor our son's curriculum to accommodate his sensitivities. Until fairly recently the thought of "flying by the seat of my pants" scared me no end. But after I took a couple of days to collect my thoughts and settle it within myself that this would indeed be the very best for our son it didn't seem quite so daunting. No, I didn't just pull an outline for his studies in science or history out of thin air. I had some help!

"Home Learning Year by Year - How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School" by Rebecca Rupp is an excellent resource, even if you aren't designing your own curriculum. Ms. Rupp has broken down each school year by subject. Within those subjects she has listed what is normally required at that level along with resources for those topics.

"The Educated Child" by William J. Bennett is another nice resource, although it's geared more towards families whose children attend public or private school and what the families should expect their child to be learning.

So, in plotting out our son's education I started with these two books. I checked each year from first grade through seventh, making sure that we had covered what was suggested. If there was something that we didn't cover or that I wanted to review with our son I placed a sticky flag in the book and kept on going. Once all the flags were placed I grabbed a pencil and paper and started making a list for each subject. Then I consolidated like topics within the subjects. It really wasn't too bad at all

For history I took a little different approach. Over the years we have studied American History and some world history, but it always felt disjointed to me. How did it all fit together? What cultures were living at the same time? I wanted there to be a continuity to our son's study of history, so I decided we'd start at the beginning and work our way forward! With the help of a fairly detailed civilization timeline put together from a Biblical perspective I was able to put together our son's history curriculum for the next few years, taking our time to really explore the cultures along the way.

Our local library plays a major role in our schooling as well. I order books from them a few weeks in advance of when we'll need them. In this way we have access to just about any topic we need without breaking the bank. And our library has a wonderful inter-library loan system so if there is something that we need that they don't have, chances are one of the other libraries in the system will have it. We are using a bought pre-algebra curriculum and for grammar we're using Daily Grams/Easy Grammar.

Because we don't have text or workbooks to record our son's learning, we make lapbooks document his progress. Lapbooks are a wonderful tool and lots of fun to put together. I'll talk about those next time!

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-09-03T10:14:00.001-07:00

Here we are starting another new school year. Where has the time gone? We began our homeschooling journey ten years ago. Really? Ten years?

When our son was two years old I realized that he had somehow taught himself to read. While playing with toys was definately a fun way to pass the day, I also knew that our son needed to be challenged in order to be happy. Enter homeschooling! From our first day of homeschool until today it has truly been a learning experience, not only for our son but for me as well.

It can be tricky to stay one step ahead of a ravenous learner, especially when a "canned" curricula just won't cut it. I've tried a wide variety and while some do hold his interest for a time, none of them have worked from beginning to end. And to be fair sometimes it isn't that the curriculum has a deficiency, but that we have, well, quirks. Take biology for example.

Last term things were moving along swimmingly until that fateful day when the next chapter in the science text began a study of biology. Anatomy to be more specific. You know, things like the circulatory and nervous system. Things came to a screeching halt. Unfortunately one of the things our son inherited from me was my squeemishness. I was never cut out to be a doctor or nurse. So rather than force our son to continue down a lesson path that would cause he and I way too much stress for no good reason I simply steered our homeschool down a different path. A lovely study of birds followed and everyone was happy.

Let me just say that our son is very familiar with the inner workings of the human body. He just doesn't like thinking about it too much. If he didn't know anything about it then we'd have to take a different approach to learning the information - one that would not be offensive to his sensibilities and low tolerance for blood and guts. This is the beauty of homeschooling - being able to tailor material to the child and his way of learning. It's also wonderful to be able to explore areas that the child is interested in and letting him build his love for learning.

This school year we are using a set curriculum for Pre-Algebra, but that's about it. Everything else has been tailored by me to fit the needs and interests of our son. Is it more labor intensive and time consuming for me? It sure is! But when I see our son enjoying learning (even math!) it's all worth it.

Homeschooling can be a challenge, but our kids are worth it. Each day is a gift, a treasure to be enjoyed - challenges and all. If we put in a little effort we can shape our children into the people they were meant to be, not simply fill them full of facts. Homeschooling is so much more than book-learning. I hope you are enjoying your journey!

Year In Review

2009-06-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that the school year is almost over - four more days to go! This year we've seen some firsts with our homeschooling. It actually started at the end of last year's schooling. I told our son that he was getting to a point in his education where we really needed to choose a curriculum that we could stick with through high school so that we wouldn't miss anything important. I think he very much appreciated being included in that decision. We chose AOP's LifePacs for Language Arts, History & Geography, and Science, Horizons Math, Horizons Health, and Ariel Ministries' Come & See for Bible (I'll be sharing more about this at a later date).

With that decision I knew that I was going to have to keep better records. So another first was that this past school year I used forms to keep track of everything. The reason that this was my first year of using forms even though we've been homeschooling for eight years now is because our state doesn't require any sort of record keeping, although they do suggest it. Each year we do have to send in a form stating our intent to homeschool for the year, but that's it.

I wanted to be able to have everything planned out, see our schedule, and be able to show our son his grades. I'm very glad that I decided to do this! It really helped both of us stay motivated and not feel overwhelmed by things.

The forms that I use can be found at DonnaYoung.org. This is a fabulous site with free forms for homeschooling and just about anything else you can think of. If you're thinking about using forms for your schooling, if you need to use forms but don't relish the idea of making your own, or if you just like looking at free stuff, this site is for you! In addition to the forms she also has instructions and suggestions for using them.

Another first for us was that we made it through our math curriculum this year without any, what's the word I'm looking for? Let's use fussing! Four or five years ago we had a very bad experience with a math curriculum and it's taken our son this long to get over it. I can actually say with confidence that our son isn't math-phobic anymore!

This year was also the first time that we took a regular school year to go through the curriculum. Previously our son would speed through things as fast as he could because he just loves learning. Two years ago I calculated how long it would have taken him to get through twelfth grade at the rate he was going and he would have been done at thirteen. My husband and I didn't feel that that was either healthy or necessary so we helped him slow things down a bit and really begin to enjoy the journey.

While we're both looking forward to having lots of fun this summer, we're both looking forward to next school year, too. It's a real blessing to know that our decision to homeschool was really the right thing to do!

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Importance Of Routine

2009-06-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

One thing that I've learned over our years of homeschooling is the importance of routine. Routine is good for anybody, but it is especially important for gifted kids (and adults). Every year at this time, when we're about done with our regular school year and looking at our precious weeks of summer, I start thinking about our routine.

During the school year we have two learning sessions per day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. One summer we just threw caution to the wind and played and lazed all day. After a couple of weeks I knew I was in trouble, so I tried implementing some sort of schedule for our days. It was so-so. Then when school started again that fall it took a good month to get back into the swing of things. This year I have a plan.

For our summer program we are going to maintain our two learning sessions, but instead of our regular school stuff, we'll be having fun, fun, fun! That's the plan anyway. I even have it charted out for the whole summer! There's art, bubblology (the science of bubbles), learning about pendulums, making a worm farm, even tie-dye. I'm hoping that by keeping to our regularly scheduled times when September rolls around again we can ease on in to school without too much fuss. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

While in my dreams summer is a peaceful, relaxing time, in reality it is the time for me to get all my ducks in a row for next schoolyear. Fortunately I have some of them lined up already, but there are still a few that need to be taken care of. I'm hoping that between all the fun and relaxing I'll be able to get those things done so that I won't have to worry about them in September. Here's hoping!

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Craziness in California

2008-03-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

So what else is new, right? Speaking as someone who was born and raised in southern California I would like to say that I am very glad we now live elsewhere. The recent court decision involving a parent's right to homeschool their children is just amazing to me - amazingly stupid.

This morning I saw a report about it on Fox News. I had heard about it before this morning, but one of the comments made by a woman with an organization to help protect children really shocked me. She said (I'm paraphrasing here) that judges need to have the ability to demand that children are put in either public or private schools if the children are in danger. She also mentioned that there are 500,000 children who have been identified as being "in danger" in homeschool situations. Who these children are, she didn't say. But after the report I realized that what she seemed to be saying inbetween the lines is that children who attend public or private schools are not in danger. I never realized that this was the case, but am so very happy to hear that children who attend public and private schools, and their families, apparently live in Shangrila!

Are there problems in some homeschool families? Yes. Are there problems in some public/private school families? Yes. Should these children be helped? Of course! But I have yet to hear anyone say that all children in public or private schools should be homeschooled when something terrible happens to a child - or because of a child - who is in public or private school. Remember Columbine? And if you really want to be realistic, there does seem to be more problems with children in public schools than with those who are homeschooled.

If you follow the logic that is apparently being used in California you might come to some interesting conclusions. Alcohol would be outlawed because of those who abuse it and subsequently injure others. Tobacco would be outlawed because of the harm done to the smoker and to those around them. In fact, we wouldn't really have to think at all as the government would think for us, telling us what we should and shouldn't do because we really can't figure that out for ourselves. Wait a minute! Maybe that's why they want all the children in public schools - so that they can be conditioned to have the government think for them. Hmmmm.... I just wonder.

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Learning to be Messy

2008-03-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's funny. Sometimes I don't know who learns more in the course of a day - me or our son. Take this morning for instance. It was time for art and a review of the primary and secondary colors. I know that he knows those like the back of his hand, but I wanted him to get painting. You see, our son is one of those kids who never liked getting dirty.

I remember his first birthday. We gave him a cupcake, took off his shirt, and let him go for it. But he didn't. He poked at it, but never really got messy with it. He really has gotten better with getting messy. Now I'm the one who has to loosen up a bit.

I guess I was spoiled by his innate neatness. But now I know that it's really good for him to get messy so I have to let him. It's not like there's anything that can't be cleaned up - our son included. It's amazing what the Lord will use to teach us more about ourselves and to help us over our little hurdles so that we can be free - and be messy!

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Life!

2008-03-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

I bet you thought I disappeared for good. Nope! Just been busy with life! It's really not hard to have happen - especially when you're homeschooling a gifted child.

One thing that I've come to see as a constant in our homeschooling journey (it's been about seven years now) is change. If you've read the history of our homeschool on the website you know what I mean. We've been through a number of schooling methods and curricula, all in an attempt to keep up with the ever changing needs of our highly gifted son. Just last week we made another one of those changes.

In talking with those who don't homeschool, they just don't understand why I go to the lengths I do when it comes to schooling our son. First of all I look at it as a privilege and not as the arduous task that they seem to think it is. Well, some days it does feel rather overwhelming, but that's okay. All I have to do is think about what our son would be facing if he were in public school. It wouldn't be pretty. Just thinking about it makes me thank the Lord that we have the honor of being able to teach our son at home.

So this is the second week of our newest schedule and things are actually going much better than I had hoped. Not that I thought things would be bad, but you never know exactly how "change" is going to be taken. This time, at least, it was embraced and for that I am very thankful. When I think about the fact that by law our son will need to be actively educated for the next nine years I take every success as a huge bit of encouragement and lock it away for later when things might get a little bumpy. But for now I'm just trying to enjoy each day that I have with our son as I watch him grow and learn. I really couldn't ask for anything more!

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What Now?

2007-10-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

When we began reading information on gifted children things really started to fall into place for us. We had gotten to a point of being tired almost all of the time. It seemed that every waking moment was spent trying to keep our son challenged. After we began reading about gifted kids we understood why we were tired all of the time and why it seemed as though we were the parents of three boys instead of only one.

Virtually all gifted children have extra energy. For some (like me) that energy is focused inward and the thought life becomes very vivid. I remember when I was in school how I was bored to tears, but I’d sit and behave in class because my mind was busy “elsewhere.” Our son’s energy, however, is focused outward. He can and does sit for hours if he is interested and engaged in what he’s doing, but if he’s not, he starts looking like a runaway super bouncy ball. The funny thing is, that even when he gets like that and needs to get his “monkey” energy out, he’s listening to every word you say.

At this point in our son’s education, I was becoming rather nervous. I now realized that we were dealing with a highly gifted child and that he truly required being challenged or he would get bored and we’d all be sorry. So I turned to eBay and ordered a full first grade curriculum. When it arrived I traipsed upstairs with the books and my notebook. I began mapping out our school year. While I was doing this our son came up for a visit.

“What’cha doin’?”

“Your new school books are here and I’m trying to get organized.”

“Oh! Science!”

He grabbed the science book and read it cover to cover three days in a row. So much for my planning! At that time I really had nothing to model our homeschooling on besides my public school experience. During those three days I knew that something was going to have to change. I went into fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants mode.

I began looking on the internet for information about different style of homeschooling and was amazed at what I found. There were many, many different ways to teach at home, and not all of them looked like public school at home. I was starting to feel a little encouraged.

One thing that I knew we needed was a way to teach without spending big bucks on a full year’s curriculum every eight weeks or so. So we decided to give the Charlotte Mason method a try. This worked well for a while. Our local library became our home away from home. Our son and I would curl up with a good book and learn about all sorts of things. But our son isn’t one to sit still for too long day after day. We needed something a little more hands-on and since I wasn’t terribly experienced at the whole homeschooling thing yet, I went back to the internet for help. It was then that we first heard about The Weaver curriculum – a curriculum that is designed for multi-children households, but perfect for a single child who spans several grade levels. We made the switch and were in for some fun!

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Kindergarten in a Flash

2007-09-30T06:53:00.001-07:00

As I said last time, after our son devoured his full year of pre-school a very short amount of time, I purchased a full year’s kindergarten curriculum. There were worksheets for him to use, and I knew that I could find lots of interesting things on the internet that could supplement what we would be studying. When the curriculum arrived we were both rather excited.

Up until this time, everything that I had read about children our son’s age was that their attention spans were about 15 – 20 minutes and that a child shouldn’t be expected to go beyond that point. Unfortunately, our son hadn’t read any of that and was quite unaware that he was supposed to last that length of time. Our first day of kindergarten was quite interesting for both of us. Our son loved the curriculum and wanted to look at all of it right then. I explained that we would take it in order and, disappointed though he was, he acquiesced. We got through the first lesson. I started to wrap things up for the day, but our son had other plans.

“More, Mama! Do more!”

“Honey, we’re done for today.”

“No! Do more!”

Well, what can you say to an eager learner? I rolled up my sleeves and we ploughed on, and on, and on! After three hours I told our son that we needed to stop for the day.

“No, Mama! More!”

“No, no more for today.”

“Mama, please!”

“Mama needs a break, Sweetie.”

At this our son gave me the once over, rolled his eyes in disgust as if to say, “Wimp,” and he toddled out of the room. It was then that I knew that we were in for quite a time. After another six weeks and the completion of the kindergarten curriculum, I was about at my wits end. It was then that I started reading up on gifted children, and my eyes were opened.

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Our New Blog Home!

2007-09-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally made the move with our homeschool blog. If you've been a reader of ours you will no doubt have noticed that my consistency in posting has been rather lacking. Well, I'm going to make an effort to post at least once a week to our new blog. I can't make any promises, but that's what I'm shooting for! You can also subscribe to this blog by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)."

With our son's ninth birthday fast approaching, I've been thinking about our homeschool journey lately. Not only has our son learned a lot, but I've learned a lot, too - about our son, about our family, about myself, and about homeschooling. I'd like to take a look back at our beginnings. Well, our formal homeschool beginnings.

Our children's journey of learning really does start at birth. I remember the times we would spend with our son on the floor, playing with brightly colored toys. At nine months of age our son was sitting on my lap at the computer playing a Dr. Seuss game. Even so, when I think of our homeschool beginnings I have to fast forward to when our son was the ripe old age of 2 1/2.

By this time he knew his shapes, his colors, his numbers, and was doing addition in that little head of his. To be honest, part of my motivation for starting his "formal" education so soon was because I was running out of clever ideas for him, so I figured a nice pre-school curriculum would be of great benefit. Well, it was a mixed blessing.

I still remember when the CD-Rom arrived. There was a full year's pre-school curriculum on it and I quickly printed out the first four weeks' worth of lessons. Each day's instruction was to last about fifteen minutes. I bought poster board and made up posters to decorate our school area. I was so excited I could hardly stand it! Then the day finally arrived. We were going to start school!

We sat down at our son's little table, which was a wonderful fit for him. I felt like my knees were up around my ears, but that was fine. We were going to have fifteen minutes of school time, which would hopefully satisfy his insatiable appetite for learning for a bit longer than that so that I could take a bit of a mental break. So we began...

After about fifteen minutes, I told him that we were done for the day. Well, he had other ideas. That first day of school we covered a week's worth of lessons. It really was exciting to see him devour the information, but at the same time I got a little concerned. It only took him about six weeks to get through a full year of pre-school curriculum. It was at this point that I knew something funny was going on. Much praying ensued, along with the purchase of a full year's kindergarten curriculum. Our adventure had officially began!

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