Jelly Wobbles...

We've stalled slightly with the reading here and Im hoping to engage her to start again, picking up where we left.  Her reading is a funny thing, not funny ha ha but funny as in mind boggling.

She has had no formal learning at school, not a year or term of learning her letter sounds from a professional,  or from watching her friends and peers on how they do things.  

I have immense pride in the fact that she is learning to read with what we have done together but I also have HUGE doubts as to whether I am doing enough and the right thing for her.  

This week I have had a major case of the jelly wobbles with home-schooling...the better weather has meant we have all but abandoned the formal work and taken to the garden once again.  All lovely stuff and to see her with the chickens, Fonzy and their capers really does warm the heart but...well it is hard to step aside from the norm and have faith in something I have no experience in.  

The school system worked for the older children and is working for RV and I'm more than sure it would work for Loopy.  

This is where we are possibly a bit different from other home schooling families I have met to date.  Most have had a bad experience with the school system, and feel let down, unable to trust the system to provide what their child needs.  We haven't had that experience in the primary school system and would have been happy for Loopy to have gone to the school her older siblings went and still go to.

Gah on good days I feel we do enough, on a recent parents evening I popped my head in the door of the Year1 class to see what was on the wall and in fairness we are working along the same lines. Concentrating on reading, 1-20 number work, we do a lot of art/design work and the only 'thing' we are missing would be the maths shapes.  

But on a bad day it feels that we should be 'working', not enjoying what we're doing and where we're at.  Her reading level is probably lower than the vast majority of her peers, her writing is sloppy...but for every negative I can (on a good day) find a positive

Whoa not sure where all that came from!  

Obviously a lot on my mind, triggered by the Nursery open day we took Fonzy along to and chatting with the staff who remember the olders ones...answering questions and feeling defensive (I didn't need to feel defensive they were all lovely but I DO feel defensive about our homeschooling for all the reasons above!)