teaching big.

sometime over the last few months we came to a schooling decision for our big.  because of her age, and the way her birthday falls, she is slotted to start kindergarten in the fall of 2014.  however, she is able to do all things required to enter kindergarten right now.  she is completely incapable of sitting for long periods of time and doing work. public schools here no longer offer 1/2 day kindergarten.

we were at a crux.  i have always sort of wanted to home school.  it isn't because i think public schools, or school teachers are horrible.  actually quite the opposite.  it was simply because i like teaching my daughter.  i love watching her figure out new words, and knowing i got to be the one that helped her learn to read.
i also really love that if she's interested in something, we can go with it, where as in a school setting, she learns whatever they are learning at that time.  and because of no child left behind, and testing laws in our state, there are schools that aren't teaching subjects that won't be on the state testing because the schools funding depends solely upon test scores.  there are also children not getting any recess time because of preparing for test.   i believe children need time to run their energy out, dance, and they also need to learn things like history and science.
so we came to the conclusion that we would home school next year, and re-evaluate things as we go.  i already do preschool stuff with her very loosely, so i'm trying to have a little more focused time each day to prepare her for next year.  we have decided on some of our curriculum i think, but i'm also very excited about extra stuff that i'll get to teach as she shows interest.
when big was about one i found some flash cards in a dollar bin.  they were the presidents in order with dates they were in office and so on.  i figured some day they would come in handy.  she recently found them and wanted to do them.  so i have made up a song as we go, and we are learning the presidents.  when i say we, i mean both of us.  because i do not know all of them.  we are about a week in, and she can do the first seven.  i'm pretty sure she could learn anything if i put it in song form.

here's hoping my creative made up songs keep flowing over the next year!