I know I never was a super involved poster, but I so love this site and reading posts. This has been the most encouraging "spot" for me in regard to HS. My computer crashed, and we waited MONTHS to replace it so I've been MIA ever since. My 1st grader is doing AWESOME. I feel like she has been such a great homeschooler which has helped eased me in (I'm such an overthinker). My PKer (who I planned to HS starting in 1st as well) is another story. She's doing better socially than I thought she would (she can be quite moody). I think in school she's just reserved and shy, which I'll take over whiney and argumentative. Her teachers adore her. Academically, she has ZERO interest. She knows a *small* handful of her letters and can recognize the number 1. Her class has gone through numbers 1-10 and almost all letters so I'm definitely feeling the pressure. She's the type that would rather sit on the floor and color or play by herself with a few toys for hours. Her attention span to sit and learn letters/numbers is extremely limited. I'm thinking that teaching her is going to be so much different (and possibly MUCH harder) than her sister. Any suggestions? As far as homeschool, we just got back to the grind after our Christmas break. I had planned to only take off about a week, but ended up taking about 2 and half weeks. I was pretty proud of myself for not sweating it and just decided to pick up where we left off. The first day back was very deflating though. I figured it would go slower, but I didn't realize how much of the review she'd forget. We were both ready to close the books. Now I'm wondering if long breaks are even worth it?
With the younger one, it may not necessarily be harder. It could be that she is just not ready to learn letters and numbers yet. When she is ready, it might be very easy to teach her. Who knows. I would say just don't push her to learn things before she is ready. As for breaks, I would say when they are younger long breaks can be hard. As they get older I think they retain things better, and it's not as big of a deal.
What she said about the younger one. We homeschool from the start so none of mine have done school out of the house but they've all been different in that preschool stage. I don't know how old your younger one is but I have a 3yr old who would spend all day coloring, being read to, and watching leapfrog or umi zoomi or Dora etc or doing puzzles. Since my first I haven't made any great effort to teach my preschoolers. They learn incidentally in my house. And by that I mean they learn because I am teaching an older child. I have materials on hand for them when they ask but IMO it is not a big deal for a preschooler to want to color (working on fine motor skills) and as for the letters and numbers she'll get it when she's ready. She really will. Teaching her may be different, it may be that she wants to be given the opportunity to learn by herself or through play and there isn't anything wrong with that.
