Saturday, October 28, 2006

Introduction

Hi! I am a homeschooling mom to three beautiful children. We are a very active, busy family who enjoy camping, taekwondo, sports, and music.

My oldest is an almost 11 yo boy who is a competitive year round wrestler and very motivated to succeed at this. He has put a limit on his homeschooling experience by informing me that he wants to wrestle in high school so I only have 4 more years with him. The fact that he will be finished high school curriculum in 3 years doesn't seem to bother him though I am stressed about what options will be available for him. He also is a 1st dan kukkiwon black belt in taekwondo, a purple belt in Haidong Gumdo (Korean sword), and has been playing the drums for 3 years. He dreams of one day attending the US Naval Academy and wants to be a vet.

My middle child is a just turned 9 yo boy who has just figured out he loves math (this took long enough). He is not as motivated as his brother in sports but he loves to work. Any kind of manual labor will do- cooking, cleaning, woodworking, painting, etc... He loves to help and is the kindest, most giving child I have ever known. He is a bo black belt in taekwondo, a green belt in Gumdo, and has dabbled on and off with the electric guitar. He just started guitar with a new teacher and seems really motivated to practice now.

My baby is a 4 yo little princess. She is so smart it scares me sometimes. She has been playing violin for a little over a year (Suzuki violin), and does dance and taekwondo. I thought her brothers were so smart then she came along doing everything just a little faster. She memorized full books at 13 months old, by 11 months old had over 100 words, by 12 months old spoke in complete sentences including proper use of pronouns. She knew the alphabet by letter sound at 16 months, read her first "new" word at 22 months, and is now reading at about a 1-2nd grade level though she prefers for me to read to her because she wants to memorize the book.

We are currently using a classical curriculum with selected Charlotte Mason ideas, and a dash of Montessori. We loosely follow the Well Trained Mind. And I mean loosely as I make many modifications so it works better for us.