[lastpaige]

We are a family of home educators, so we don’t have experience with school, programs, or grade levels for any of our children. Progression, however, that we’ve experienced!

Our boys came home days before turning 8. They come from a background of severe neglect. We got to visit their classrooms in Poland and it was a joke. The only thing they were learning there was how to be obnoxious. Their first year home they did nothing other than learn about being in a family, language, character, obedience, etc. They are now almost 9 1/2. While I was very concerned about “making up for lost time” I simply continued to remind myself that they are exactly where the Lord wants them, and that they’ll ‘come along’ when they’re ready (academically, emotionally, etc.).

They started their academic work this past January (that’s when we start our year) and have finished the first Saxon math book. They work through two lessons a day and are picking up the concepts quickly. The second book will be done in a matter of months and they will finish the year somewhere in the middle of the third book. Not bad for boys who couldn’t add two and two last year.

Their reading is also coming along nicely. Not as fast as math, but there is nice steady progress. Emotionally they are also growing – not exhibiting nearly as many bursts of tears over what we would consider something silly (crying over spilt milk and the like). We do games and things to help the Cumulative Cognitive Deficit. (They don’t even know what we’re doing – just that we’re having fun and learning new words and ways of thinking.) Their English is fantastic, they’ve picked up some ASL from me, and they’ve lost no Polish. They do mix Polish and English together sometimes, but that will iron itself out in time.

We study for a quarter, take three week offs, and then start the next quarter. During the time off the boys help the rest of us deep clean portions of the house for a few days, and the rest of the time we do things that we don’t otherwise have time to do. (Plant the garden boxes, shift seasonal clothing, go to the park for extended time, go to the zoo, play outside for hours on end, bake and cook together.) We do continue to study with the boys – but we cut the work load way back – just enough so their brains are still in a forward gear when we get back to our normal academic load.

Summers here are hell (we live in AZ) so we have our big break at the end of the year. Around the holidays there is plenty to do, gifts to make, etc., so filling the time is never a problem.

We really don’t concern ourselves about whether or not they are on par with the average Xth grader or the average 9 year old. For us it’s more important that they are working to their own potential.