1st Grade Already!

So our summer time is winding down a bit and we are going to officially start school next week. Brenna has been asking when we are going to start and she's pretty excited about it. She was hounding me today as I was cleaning off the shelf that I have all of the homeschool stuff stored on, so I handed her some worksheets so that she could practice writing her numbers. That seemed to satisfy her and she did really well. She told me that she is looking most forward to math. She LOVES math and talks (and learns) about it all the time. On our way back from camping we went to Burger King for lunch and she got these little math flash cards with a secret decoder thing - that kept her busy in the car for over an hour and she had lots of fun with it. I did purchase a math curriculum at the Homeschool Convention so we'll start that again on Monday. We did some at the beginning of the summer after I got it (she couldn't wait!) but then we just got so busy and it's been on the shelf. It seems fairly simple and a lot of it she knows already but that just means we'll fly right through it and it will also boost her confidence instead of starting with something hard. I don't want her to get frustrated at all at this age. I want her to keep the "learning is fun" mentality for as long as possible. I am a true believer in not tainting learning at an early age. I think that happens a lot in schools and that's why so many kids hate school and hate anything to do with any kind of formal learning. That's why I am putting off school-like, 'full blown' curriculum until Brenna is about eight. Yes, we will have our math and still practice writing and do fun science projects, but as for a sit-at-the-table-and-work-for-hours type thing, that will just have to come a little later. I am still going to be very laid-back this year and let Brenna do most of the leading when it comes to her school work. It's worked GREAT so far and she knows so much and has FUN learning new things. According to the book I have on what kids learn at each grade, she is still well beyond what she would be learning in public school this year. So I am going to take advantage of that and just have another fun year. Like I said, we will have certain things that we do but will we do them every day? Probably not. Will she still learn lots and lots of things this year? Of course!
That is what I truly love about homeschooling. The force and the monotony is taken out of learning and you end up with a child who craves knowledge.