Kindergarten

Earlier this year when D and I attended Kindergarten Orientation at the school the boys were going to attend, I realized that the boys were not where I felt they should be in order to start. I went back and forth trying to make a decision whether to put them in, or start them a year later. During this period of indecisiveness, I came across an option that I thought was a good fit for the boys' needs and we went with it.

Here we are over three months into it, and I can't say it's been a blissful experience, but overall I'm so happy with the boys' progress. Ben and Zach are enrolled in Utah Virtual Academy (UTVA), and I get to play the roll of their Learning Coach everyday...not always easy but very rewarding.

I have a lovely sister-in-law that is a home school mom extraordinaire, and I'm amazed by how intelligent her kids are...no doubt she has contributed a lot to their awesomeness. At the first thought of homeschooling the boys, my thoughts went immediately to her and I quickly dismissed the option all together. After a little digging and a better understanding of UTVA and the curriculum, I realized that my meager mom skills were sufficient enough to navigate the boys through the program.

Ben and Zach have just rolled right along with it all. They were confused by a lot of it at first. I'm kind of like their teacher but I'm not. Their real teacher they only see online. They have classmates but have no idea who any of them are. They're in school but don't actually go to a school. Whether it makes sense to them or not, they usually do what is asked of them without too much grief.

Before we got underway I was terrified, but after keeping my head down and plugging away the first few weeks, I realized that although every day may not be great, there would be a point where I would look back and be glad I made the call to home school the boys. My goal at the beginning was to get the boys ready for 1st Grade, and I think we're well on our way towards reaching that goal.