Welcome!

Welcome to my new homeschooling blog "Learning Outside the Box"! I didn't have any intentions of homeschooling my children before I actually became a mother. When my oldest daughter was a baby, of course I loved reading books to her, and she was always eager to have me read to her. When she began reading at 3, it seemed a pretty normal progression for her. So I decided to do preschool at home a year early for her (her birthday ran too late in the year to have actually gone to preschool). This was for a couple of reasons initially....one was that our public school district has a reputation for not being "up to snuff". Another was that we just couldn't afford upwards of $4,000.00 a year to send her to a private Christian school. And finally, I just wanted to give her something fun and educational to do. It ended up being the best decision we ever made. Our family's whole philosophy on learning and child rearing have been changed forever. She is finishing up Kindergarten this year, and will begin 1st grade in August (she won't be 6 until September). She recently took the DORA (www.letsgolearn.com)which is an online reading diagnostic test. Our state does not require testing, but I wanted to make sure that she had learned what was expected and also to tell me what direction to go in next year. She tested high 6th grade on word recognition, the maximum (high 4th) on phonics, Low 1st on spelling, high 2nd on Oral Vocabulary, and low 4th on reading comprehension. She took this test while my husband and I were in the kitchen making soup....lol. It further gave us evidence that we were doing the right thing for her. It is challenging at times, no doubt. But I hope that this blog will help families thinking of homeschooling, and give encouragement to those who already do.