Bells Will Be Ringing

School bells, that is. Time for school...
Tristan and I did more letters today. 
We started reviewing Aa-Ff, then working on Gg-Ii.  He wasn't listening the last time we tried to do letters, so I'm glad today went better. 
We followed it up with a little reading and math before lunch... And done for the day (unless he wants to do more).

 

It's Been A Long Time

Life got very crazy with our little boy!  But I am going to try and start posting again.  I'm going to need it with all the new adventures we are getting into these days.

I will make other posts dedicated to what's going on.  I'm also going to back post some things, since this is kind of a log of Tristan's life...

Tristan is now 4 years (and a couple months) old!!  I have no idea how that happened!  It's been 5 years now, to the day (WOW), of seeing that positive test and having our lives forever changed!

Till next time...

School Started Today

Most of the schools around here, started today.  It's hard seeing all the pics online of everyone sending their kids to school... but homeschooling is going to be the best option for Tristan at this point.
We did do some school work today.  Tristan and I have been doing math for a while.  It's a great thing to do while he's at the table eating or while we are driving.  That has been the best opportunity for me to teach him things.

He is not doing math a typical 4 year old would be doing.  But that's pretty standard when it comes to Tristan.  He is NOT your typical 4 year old!

 

It's a little difficult to see the pencil in this picture, since he wrote all his own answers down.
First row is nothing for him... Other than the very last problem, those are problems we usually do verbally.
Second row - the first two problems are "carry the one" problems. We have only done one before these. I walked him through the first, he did the second on his own... And the big number problems he's been doing for a few weeks now...

And this is the first time we have done subtraction problems on paper!! We usually just do them verbally. AND Mommy-dummy put a "borrowing" problem in there on accident... so we covered that concept today. It's going to take a few more times to do that.  Maybe that will be one of our goals for this school year :)

Here is a scan of the paper.  I'm so proud of him!!

Soccer Camp!

I found out about a soccer camp last Wednesday.  I told Kaleb about it and he agreed it was a great idea for Tristan!  It's just an hour of working on skills, no games, but will get him around other kids and outside.  So, I went online and signed him up.
We unfortunately missed the first one... and showed up for camp yesterday.  Of course, it being Labor Day, there was no camp.  Tristan was pretty disappointed.
We did manage to salvage the morning.  Some guys were flying planes in the nearby field, so we went and watched for a while.  We then kicked our soccer ball around with him.

We discussed it being moved to Tuesday instead... but by this morning, I had forgotten.  Kaleb messaged me at 10:15am and asked me if I had called about camp.  No, no I did not!  I jumped online and found the number and called.  The lady I had talked to had just returned from vacation and didn't know the info.  She put me on hold and tracked it down.  Apparently, an email had been sent to everyone who had signed up, stating that camp was rescheduled.  Well, because we had signed up late, we did not receive this email :( 
I got off the phone and rushed like a mad woman to get him dressed and out the door!!  I'm not totally sure how I managed it, but I made it to the park by 10:30 exactly!  Tristan had about 20 minutes of the camp... he did like it though!

Homeschool

I have been pretty adamant about sending Tristan to school... and NOT homeschooling.  I am not a teacher at all... and Tristan and I butt heads enough as it is.  To expect him to listen to me, as a teacher, when he doesn't listen to me as his Mom... yeah, right.  And I really don't want to damage or put strain on our relationship...

Also, being responsible for all of his learning... that's huge.  That's a lot of pressure for me.  I'm already stressed out!  And to add Tristan's education to my shoulders, I don't think I can handle it.  There are days that I'm hanging on a string as it is...

I have been talking to different people... different parents... just to see different perspectives...

BUT...

It comes down to facing what I already know - Tristan is too advanced for public school.  We have been blessed with a highly intelligent little man.  He might be "only four", but the stuff he does... just amazes us! 
I've been asking around for curriculum ideas and/or options that I might be able to use with him, since he's too young to actually be in kindergarten.  And I've gotten lots of different things thrown at me.  It's all overwhelming.  A homeschool mom, who's youngest child graduated this last year, suggested that I go onto Google and find the Washington State benchmarks and work off of those. 
Well, that seemed easy and reasonable...
It was a lot of reading... and a lot of it was pretty scary.  Scary in that they seemed really low to me!  Now, I can't remember everything from my younger school days... but it seems to me that the things that today's kids are doing in 3rd and 4th grade, we were doing in 1st grade... Anyone else notice this as well??
So, based on the benchmarks, Tristan is sitting between Kindergarten and 1st grade on almost everything... except math.  He's between 1st and 2nd grade for math!!  HE'S FOUR!  What am I going to do?!?!?!?  I don't know if I can keep up with him... O.o

With all that being said, I have to bite the bullet...

We are officially homeschooling.

"Good job on seeing his potential along with interest and acting on it. Just keep up with all that you are doing."

I've been told several times it's not much different than what I'm doing now... but I'm not stupid enough to fall for that.  I know it's different. 
But I will say that yes, I did see Tristan's potential and interest and just kept throwing things out for him.  It started young when we would count the Cheerios (or whatever he happened to be eating) that were on his plate.  I had a numbers "chart" next to his high chair so that while he was eating, he was learning.  And I've gone to bat with Kaleb a couple times for different educational items that I thought he would benefit from.  The biggest one being his LeapPad!  Kaleb thought it was a little much for Tristan and wanted to hold off on getting it for our 2 year old.  I'm so glad he finally agreed 6 months later, to get it as a Christmas present... because it taught Tristan how to write his letters at 2 1/2 years old!!  I don't think I would have taken Tristan down that path at that point... but apparently, he was ready! 

Anyway... I am venturing down a pretty big road.  And I know I'm not alone, and lots of moms homeschool... but I'm feeling pretty alone right now... and feeling like Tristan is going to miss so much...

Some more letters

We worked on more writing today.  He's doing great!  Don't mind the crazy eyes... it's the best I could get out of him...

Here we go!

I do not see myself as a teacher.  Nor do I want to be a teacher.  I do not want to homeschool Tristan.  It's a lot of work and a lot of pressure to take on my shoulders.
But Tristan has always wanted to learn.  We get him educational items (books, toys, apps, etc.) and he teaches himself! 
But at the same time, I would be a horrible Mom if I didn't encourage his obvious strength.

So, today, we started dialing in his writing skills.  He has known how to write all his letters since he was 2 1/2... but now, he's learning to keep them on the lines and proportioned.
We are doing 3 letters at a time, so he doesn't get overwhelmed - and do the capital and the lower case of each letter.  At least, that's my plan.

 

Not too bad for the first day!  Better than some adults I know ;)