I’ve decided to put Saxon Math K away for the time being. Going into this PK4 year with Little Bug, I had decided that I wasn’t going to use any formal math curriculum with her this year. Then, I came across Saxon Math K and a friend already had the teacher’s manual and let me borrow it and I already had most of the manipulatives needed for the Kinder material, so I decided to give it it a shot this year.

Three weeks in, I am pleased with the Saxon K material overall. That is not the reason I am shelving it now.

Little Bug is four years old. She technically doesn’t even have to be “doing school” at all until age 6. We “do school” now because we love too. I love to teach her and she loves her learning times. Even though Saxon K is extremely hands-on and the activities are engaging, I just feel it is a little too much structure and too much “like school” for my teaching goals for this year.

I simply want to have fun this year with my daughter. Not that once we get into “real” school we won’t be having fun. We will. But…she is four.

I want to center our learning activities around reading books, doing crafts and playing games. Saxon Math K doesn’t exactly fall into that category and there is definitely a deeper level of “school work” involved with it.

So, I am putting Saxon K math away for now. I may pull it out before this year is officially over, or I may not.

This experience has showed me first hand, how beautiful it is that I can be the one to choose what my child will do and won’t do in a school year. If something isn’t working or isn’t meeting our learning goals for the school year, I have the freedom to put it aside for good or for a season.

I have the power to tailor my child’s education to meet her exactly where she is developmentally and emotionally and that is simply amazing. I know my child better than anyone and I’ve known in my gut for about a week now that this isn’t exactly what I want to be spending our time on at this point. And so I have laid Saxon K to rest. And it feels great!

I’ve also learned something else. These early years of homeschool are a precious gift of time with my children and while academics are most certainly important, getting my 4 year old to read and do simple math is just not what is important right now. Developing relationship is what is most important, and for us, reading books together daily, doing fun crafts and playing educational games is all we need to accomplish that.

I’ve struggled with this decision but after talking with Dave last night, I have come to the conclusion that, today, I’m taking the pressure off myself to begin academics with my children at an early age. It would be one thing if Little Bug was asking me or begging me to teach her to read or do math. But she is not. All she wants to do is paint. (Lord, help me.) So, paint we will.

The other stuff (read: academics) will come. It will come sooner than I can imagine! Before I know it, I will have two school-aged daughters, and we will need to have a set time in our daily routine for phonics and math skills.

But right now? They are both essentially still babies and I am going to soak up this time with them as babies. I do not want to look back on this time with them, our early years of homeschooling, and wish that I had played with them more instead of focusing on learning to read and math skills!

There is tremendous freedom in this decision. I am looking forward to this year even more now – if that is even possible.

- Elaine