Earlier this year with a looming deployment we had chosen a school in Chicago for both Thor and Baleigh to go to when they all moved back there. We had worked on all of the basic requirements to start Kindergarten and both kids were ready for half days 5 days a week. Then the news came that I would not be leaving! It was a blessing and yet it really threw a wrench in our plans. Suddenly we were scrambling to find a school in Texas that fit our needs. Such a school does not exist (here).
Neither Thor nor Baleigh are old enough for Kindergarten here in Texas so they only qualify for Pre-school. If we were in Illinois they could have taken the entrance "exam" for Kindergarten and since they can easily complete all the tasks they would not have to attend Pre-school. Having worked in the education field for a while I am pretty familiar with what happens in Pre-schools (especially when they are full day). They do a few projects and have a lot of free play. Since they can do that at home I am not really too keen on the idea of sending them to hang out with 20 other little kids and very little one on one attention. In Kindergarten there is a prescribed curriculum and it is regulated. I basically feel that Pre-schools are glorified day care centers. It is just a name to make people feel better about putting their kids there.
This year we will be doing something that I can say I honestly never though we would choose for our kids. Jake is going to home-school Thor and Baleigh! We have several books on phonics that my mom used with my siblings and I when we were young and we have been working on learning letters and numbers as well as all of our sight words this summer. I can honestly say that I think our kids will be reading by Easter. They are smart little people and I know they are capable. We have discussed the other things we plan on doing to work on social skills and they will be going to Library Story Time, and we are going to join either a martial art class or gymnastics/dance class so they get a chance to take instruction from someone other than mom and dad. I think that by the time we get out of Texas they will be ready for 1st Grade with out a doubt.
School starts Monday here in Central Texas- in the Nielsen house every moment is an opportunity to learn.
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