Finishing out with Miss Isabelle, our public schooler turned homeschooler. Because it just seems like she deserves a post of her own.
In November of last year we pulled Isabelle out of public school to bring her home. It was, honestly, quite a surprise to all of us as we weren’t expecting to homeschool her this soon (if ever). Because Isabelle is a child who just doesn’t fit the mold. At all. Ever. And I’d just always assumed that the school system – with all of it’s resources and experience – would be better for her than anything we could do at home.
But I was wrong. Isabelle still continues to march to her own drummer, but more confidently now. She’s still not the bold and fearless girl she used to be – I don’t know if she ever will be because she was so devastated by the teasing of her classmates – but she is slowly becoming her old self again. And it’s been amazing to witness. Not only that, but I’ve gotten a front row seat on her giftings, and been able to see even more clearly how God has fashioned her so uniquely.
Homeschool has allowed us flexibility to dive into some things she enjoys – like drawing, and bird-watching. It’s allowed us time to dig deeper, and stay longer, in some things that she struggles with – like language arts. It’s basically just helped us to help her to be the best little Isabelle she can be.
And boy, do I love that.
What she thinks about homeschool vs. public school: “Homeschool is great because you can sit around all day. But not like sitting around – you can do math and science and everything while you’re sitting down and learning. In public schools you have to walk around and sometimes you might get hurt and sometimes you might get laughed at. But I still like my friends from school.”
Favorite thing about homeschool: “Homeschool has breaks. And at the breaks you can pet the dogs because they’re very cute.”
How she has grown: Isabelle is 50 1/2″ and 62 pounds. That is up 1 1/2″ and 3 pounds since last September.
Best friend: Katie
Favorite color: red
Favorite TV show: Ninjago
Favorite food: corn dogs
What she wants to be when she grows up: “An animal rescuer. Only not snakes. So I can help animals that are injured and so they don’t have to suffer. Like baby birds, and turtles and cats and everything.”
Favorite thing about 3rd grade: “Learning about the solar system. Because there is so much to learn about each planet, like Jupiter is the gas planet and Saturn’s ring is actually made out of rock.”
Something she wants to do this summer: “I want to play in the pool and do swimming lessons. Also have ice cream.”
Something she wants to learn next year: “Something hard. Like long division.”
Here are the curriculum choices we made for Isabelle for the remainder of her 3rd grade year, and my thoughts on each:
Story of the World – this is an interesting, kid-friendly, easy-to-grasp history… and Isabelle loves it. We will be moving on to Volume 2 next year.
Worldy Wise 2 – I like Wordly Wise, but Isabelle does not. She finished this for Grade 2 (Isabelle is about a year behind on language arts) but we won’t be using WW next year.
Telling Time with Judy Clock – really like this program, especially the little Judy Clock. Really helps Isabelle understand time better – something she has struggled with for awhile.
Explode the Code 6 and 6 1/2 – I love this whole series, and these have worked well to give Isabelle some additional instruction in language arts, where she seems to need the most reinforcement.
The Art of Basic Drawing – my girl loves to draw and this little book has helped her improve immensely.
Teaching Textbooks 3 – even for my doesn’t-fit-the-mold girl, Teaching Textbooks rule. Isabelle is doing extremely well with these and only requires minimal help – and she really enjoys working on the computer as a change of pace.
Easy Grammar Grade 3 – good, good, good.
Writing With Ease Level 2 – great program but requires lots of teacher assistance. We will finish it, but it may take longer than we’d hoped.
Apologia Astronomy – Isabelle has loved science this year. Bought the Notebooking Journal as well and was glad to have it for additional reinforcement.
Road Trip – I like this for geography. It’s interesting and includes coloring and cutting, which keeps Isabelle happy.
And when Isabelle is happy, mama is happy.
Looking forward to all next year holds with my not-so-ordinary girl.
I’m sitting here tearing up thinking about her classmates being so mean to her. Poor little thing. I’m glad she likes being at home. I tried homeschooling my oldest, and it wasn’t a great fit for our personalities. I feel like you’ve sort of given me the courage to believe that it could be okay to have some at home and some at school.
Oh my heart aches for your sweet girl. I have one child who marches to his own drum and thankfully his struggles are becoming less. The older the kids seem to get the more they appreciate his special personality. Praying the same for sweet Isabelle.
Reading over your summer posts made me tear up, too, to see how your precious little ones have not enjoyed public school and have struggled with mean kids and situations. Homeschool will be awesome for them! We homeschool all of our little ones, but my husband is still a public school teacher. He is our biggest advocate to keep going. He loves the way we can teach our kids as opposed to the forced curriculum he has to teach yearly. He loves the interaction our littles have with other kids in our homeschool co-op, and he loves that they are home and loving homeschooling. Hope the coming school year is a wonderful one for your kids and for you!
what a sweet post– breaks my heart she had to suffer teasing 🙁 love seeing your curriculum choices – always fun to see what others use and what they think of it!
thanks so much for sharing your curricula choices! Miss Isabelle is so precious! So happy that you all were able to pull her out and allow her gifts to shine at home. That’s why I love homeschool…! Blessings to you all!
Sounds like she really blossomed, and enjoyed this process very much. I hope her summer is full of lots of pool fun, and so much ice cream! Yes to ice cream!
Thanks so much for sharing your curriculum choices and opinions about them. It is always a process to find the right fit for each subject for each kid. I am going to try Road Trip. I have been looking for something like this so that we can work on states and capitals this year. This looks like just the right thing…and the price is right!!