What are you glad that you did in your homeschool?

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm so glad that I've read aloud to my children from the time they were babies.

 

I'm so glad that I've done a 4 year cycle of history.

 

I'm so glad that I taught phonics as well as sight words.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I'm glad that we did a lot of reading aloud.

 

I'm glad that we did unit studies for the first few years.

 

I'm glad that we found the CM method early and stuck with it.

[Michelle in MO]

we also read aloud a lot as a family, especially when the kids were little.

 

I'm very glad for the flexibility of homeschooling, which allowed us to take family trips, even during the school year. It bonded our family together in a way that would have been much more difficult with traditional school.

 

I'm also very glad we followed the four-year cycle of history. History makes so much sense now!

 

I'm glad that my girls had the time to develop a passion for their interests: the older two really love reading, literature, and writing; my youngest loves science and math.

 

I'm glad we did Omnibus II last year. It was a big plus! Having a writing tutorial last year also helped tremendously.

 

Good thread, Jean!

[Michelle in AL]

I'm glad for reading aloud a lot.

I'm so glad I tried online classes for high school (Potter's & Scholars Online). It is wonderful to find teachers that are passionate about their subject. You can tell that both Dr. McNemonys love to teach just from orientation. Not only that they have great credentials. This way, I can teach what I'm passionate about and outsource others that I'm not so good at. Can't afford to outsource it all though, so a couple subjects we muddle through.

[VaKim]

Repeating everybody else: glad we read aloud so much, and good books.

[OnTheBrink]

I'm glad we spent the time filling in math gaps with Ds, and I'm glad I made him take logic and Latin.

 

I'm glad I read so much to the dc when they were little.

[Guest Katia]

I'm glad that we did a lot of reading aloud.

 

I'm glad that we did unit studies for the first few years.

 

I'm glad that we found the CM method early and stuck with it.

 

 

:iagree: with Dayle :001_smile: She said it so nicely.

[WTMindy]

Like everyone, I'm glad that we have always read out loud a ton!! I'm also glad we did SOTW because I think it has set a foundation for my kids loving history. I'm glad we have laughed a lot. I'm glad we have memorized poetry.

[WTMCassandra]

This may be trite on this board, but I am SOOOO glad I found WTM when my children were small and tried to follow it the best I can.

 

I'm glad I am doing Latin and Professor B Math.

 

I'm glad I was picky about handwriting.

 

I'm glad I found Classical Writing through this board.

 

I'm glad for the support of this board through the years--it helps me keep on keeping on.

[StephanieZ]

I am really happy that we have started Suzuki instrument study early (age 3) and that we've taken music seriously and supported it.

 

I am also really happy that we taught our dc to read well and early using good phonics program (100EZL) and that we read to them a lot.

 

I am thankful we haven't had TV, nor video games. Keeping screen time to a minimum allows so much else to blossom.

[danielle]

I'm glad I made the decision to put other things (the bulk of my own work)on hold and free her from being incarcerated in traditional school. I'm glad that she knows I voted with my feet, and the vote was for her.

 

I'm glad we've always done 2 languages. Now that she's finally getting to a reading level, all the work has really paid off. Here's one area where I'm so happy we were able to be consistent.

 

I'm glad we began nature/field studies last year and that she has some outdoors knowledge to go with all the book-smart science.

 

I'm glad she's got self confidence combined with kindness and good judgment about boys/drugs/booze and a lot of things I don't need to worry about.

 

I'm glad that we are so close. I never had that with my own mother, and I wanted to believe that we didn't have to be at war in the teen years. We get along beautifully.

 

I'm glad that I made her stick with music lessons now that her love for music and her playing fills our house with beautiful music. I hated the yelling and the nagging, but I'm glad I did it and didn't let her quit. I'm really glad I don't have to nag her to practice anymore (the switch flipped about a year ago--8th grade--for those of you who are still hoping!) Now she fights for time to practice.

 

I'm glad that, thanks to WTM, her head is just stuffed full of literature and history and science and that she has so much material to think with.

 

Danielle

[Jane Elliot]

I'm glad I got the dc reading as early as possible (well...most of them).

 

I'm glad we had a daily schedule.

 

I'm glad we focused on the 3 R's in the early years when we just couldn't do it all. (i.e. I'm glad that in the early years I didn't worry so much about science and history and art and music that we sacrificed the 3 R's just to get them "done.")

 

I'm glad we laid a foundation for rhetoric stage great books study with retellings in the grammar and logic stages. (IMO, this is one of the most brilliant concepts in WTM.)

 

I'm glad I insisted on outlining.

 

I'm especially glad we followed so much of the WTM.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Some more-

 

I'm glad that I use a timer (for myself and the kids) on our recesses because otherwise we'd never get back to studying!

 

I'm glad that we do lots of science in the kitchen (or the bathroom):001_huh:

 

I'm glad that I've taught my older child how to follow a schedule so that he can be more independent.

[Chris in VA]

I'm glad I did devotions with dd every day, and insisted that ds18 do them, too.

 

I'm glad ds read so widely, esp in the Ancients.

 

I'm glad we used Saxon to give dd an excellent math foundation.

 

I'm glad we used Phonics Pathways (best, cheapest way on the planet, imho, to learn to read) and also read above her level aloud to her, setting a pattern for her ear--good quality lit gave her an excellent vocab and love of reading.

 

I'm glad we were more unstructured with Science, allowing lots of time in the creek, outside, and "collecting" things like rocks and flowers.

 

I'm glad I had that first 3 years, K-2, with dd before sending her to ps.

 

I'm glad I had the time with ds18, too, before he leaves for college.

 

Gosh, I guess I'm pretty glad we homeschooled!!

[laughing lioness]

I am glad, as are so many others, that we've invested hours of our lives in reading outloud. I am glad that we've memorized poetry, that my children have been exposed to Shakespeare and that they have traveled extensively. I am glad that we've spent time togehter praying as a family, that our struggles have gone before Someone bigger than us and that our dc see the power of prayer and faith. I am glad that my kids are or are developing into autodidacts. I am glad that we've learned diagramming, that we are learning Latin, that we garden and work in the yard together. I am glad for all of the hours of watching movies together and the funny lines and sayings that we share together. I am so grateful for the years invested in my kids. That we truly are friends and comrades, that in many ways my dh and I are mentors to our older dc's and that they have wise words and compelling thoughts to share with us.

I am so grateful for certain curriculum: AlphaPhonics and ETC, IEW, Foundations, TWTM, SOTW.

[angela in ohio]

Taught my children to be enjoyable and well-behaved so that homeschooling is not a burden to me.

 

Invested so much in my marriage that dh trusted my desire to homeschool and continualy supports me in it.

 

Kept my children from influences that would interfere with their learning or deisre to learn (TV, video games, negative peers, media in general, etc.)

[Remudamom]

Someone has probably already said this, but I'm glad I finally learned to let life come first. I don't mean forget school for everything, but to be flexible and know what should come when.

[Jenny in Florida]

I'm glad we worked hard to expose our kids to lots of things and to search out opportunities for them to pursue the interests sparked by those experiences.

 

I'm glad (like everyone else whose comments I've read) that we read aloud a lot together and that we nurtured reading as a way of life.

 

I'm glad we focused on developing good habits and useful skills as much as on learning specific content.

 

I'm glad we've always taken homeschooling seriously and made academics a priority in our home and our lives.

 

I'm glad we've had the confidence to follow our children's leads in terms of pace and learning style, fitting the curriculum to them instead of the other way around.

 

(This almost sounds like the opposite of the above, but somehow it's not.) I'm glad we have taught our kids the value of planning ahead, setting goals, having high standards and doing the work necessary to meet them.

[JaneNickerson]

I'm glad we are together every day.

 

I'm glad that I know what my children are being taught..because I'm either teaching it or learning it with them!!

 

I'm glad that I found this book and website.

 

I'm glad that other homeschoolers are so helpful.

 

I'm glad that my children know more about history than I did at their age.

[Diana in OR]

History, History, History ad naseum!

 

My ds has done well in public high school, largely due to all the history we covered in K-8 homeschool. It has helped him in almost every subject. He tells me this a lot.