Welcome to the Adventum Academy blog! I am a thirty year old stay at home mom of two children. My oldest (who will be know here as Princess or Peanut) turned five this year and after completing a year of Pre-Kiindergarten at a private Montessori school, is ready to enter Kindergarten. My youngest (who will be know as Pumpkin or little man) is 21 months old.
There are as many different reasons to homeschool as there are families that do so. Ours is no exception. I will share with you the main reasons though. Let me give you a little background information.
In our state, all children who turn 4 before September are permitted to attend Pre-Kindergarten at the school of their choice for free. This is a wonderful program that our state offers. We were initially going to forgo PreK altogether, but since our daughter had recently been diagnosed as having ADHD, decided that the social experience would be beneficial to her. However, the school would have to be understanding of our daughter's situation. We finally chose a Montessori school. I had already know about Montessori teachings and in fact, had been doing Montessori type activities with my daughter since she was two. Montessori is generally very child-led and almost completely hands-on activities, which is great for our daughter. We thought this would be a great compromise; the work would be familiar to her but she would still be in a classroom setting.
Well, unfortunately at the end of the year, our daughter knew nothing more academically than she had at the start of the year. Socially she had not blossomed; in fact she had withdrawn a bit as a result of being put into time-out so often. For being a Montessori school, the directors did not give children the freedom that Maria Montessori had envisioned. My daughter had been in time-out multiple times throughout the year for many things including picking flowers on the playground, pretending to "cook" by mixing dirt and leaves with a stick, not sitting still during circle time etc. Things that, to me, do not warrant isolation from peers in time-out.
As we began thinking about Kindergarten, we decided that I could teach Princess more at home and in a way that did not dampen her individuality or creativity. We want to gently tame her spirit, not break it. I would hate for my daughter to lose all that makes her, her.
Although our days are often difficult because of inattentiveness, temper tantrums and hyperactivity, I wouldn't trade my little girl for anyone in the world! She is passionate, creative, loving, imaginative and intelligent. I look forward to the opportunity to see her flourish and bloom right before my very eyes!
Adventum Academy is the name we have chosen for our homeschool. We do not NEED to give our homeschool name, but it is something we wanted to do. Princess chose the colors, I designed the logo.
So why Adventum Academy? Well, I wanted a name that could grow with our children. Something that sounded mature yet had great meaning for our philosophy on education. We believe that learning is an adventure. Every day you can learn something new if you are open and willing to go out and discover what the world has to teach! That is why we chose Adventum, the Latin word for Adventure.
I hope you enjoy reading about this fantastic journey!
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