Our Curriculum for the Year

After a lot of research, I feel like I have compiled a flexible, yet thorough curriculum for Kate's first year of homeschooling. My criteria for our curriculum was that it has to be fun, not too expensive and somewhat challenging. This might look like a lot, but my plan is to take our time and make sure Katelyn enjoys what she is learning.

Math
We'll be using Singapore's Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics. Singapore Math is known for its incredible results and I've been excited to use it ever since I read about it. We will be using manipulatives and games to learn Math. I was able to find Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics 1A and 1B in perfect condition at the The Homeschool Room for $6.99 each.


Reading
We have been doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and we will continue on with it. It really, really does work. I've just had to give Katelyn some extra motivation to get through each lesson. Stickers have worked well.

In addition, we are using Explode the Code 1. We are still working on just a few letter from the Explode the Code Primer books. Katelyn took the consonant pretest at the beginning of Explode the Code 1 so we could see which letters she was struggling with. When she has mastered those letters we will begin ETC 1, which I was able to find at The Homeschool Room as well for $6.75 in perfect condition.

For reading practice, we Now I'm Reading Level 1. They are very simple readers with simple, but colorful pictures. They come with stickers to place inside each book, once your child has successfully read it on their own.

Of course, we use the library a ton. Most of our read aloud books are borrowed. Such as The Magic Tree House Series.

Handwriting
Katelyn absolutely loves to draw, so when I came across the Draw Write Now series, I knew it would be perfect for her. Each "lesson" teaches you how to draw something and then has you copy four sentences about that something. By the end of the lesson, you have drawn a picture, practiced handwriting and learned four facts. Book One is farm yard animals. I've been printing off story paper for Kate to use for these lessons and it has worked perfectly.


Science
We will get lots of books from the library about whatever we may be interested in. I've been considering ordering Weekly Reader, but I need to do some more research. We have a science kit full of simple experiments as well as a Physics workbook full of neat projects that I found in the Target dollar bin. We're just going to have fun!
Scriptures
The plan is to work on memorizing the Articles of Faith. The kiddos have enjoyed listening to the Book of Mormon stores on The Mormon Channel. We like to turn these on after breakfast while we are doing chores.



There are so many different curriculums out there, it can be completely overwhelming. However, I had a few great resources to turn to when I needed more information.

Homeschool Reviews

You can look up almost any curriculum and read reviews from families who have used it. I love this. Most of my curriculum choices have been based upon customer reviews. Why not!

Love to Learn

I love the You Tube videos available for many of the products on this site. Being a visual person, it really helps to be able to see the product "in person".

The Homeschool Room

This is a homeschool consignment store located in Matthews, NC. It it awesome. Since it's a consignment store, it's always changing. If there is a specific item that you are looking for you can ask them to call you if it becomes available. And who are you going to meet when you shop here? Other homeschoolers! My kids love to go and play with the Legos, train table and puzzles while I look around. Check it out if you can.

Learning with Leap Frog

If you have never seen one of the Leap Frog Learning cartoons, you need to. End of story. They are a great investment. Right now they are available at Costco for only $6.99. You can't beat that. The cartoons teach about letters and phonics. There are also a couple of cartoons available that teach about beginning math. My kids really love them. They have catchy music to teach simple principles such as letter sounds, punctuation and word building.

The Letter Factory is a fantastic way to teach letters and the sounds they make. Even my two year old is starting to learn his letters. I love it and so does he!

Talking Word Factory teaches about building simple words such as CAT and MAT.

Word Caper teaches more difficult words and the use of silent E.

My Favorite Homschool Books

When I first started thinking about homeschooling, I read all the books I could get my hands on at the library. Some were good, but some were GREAT! Most of the books I read started out with the author telling the story of how they began homeschooling. Next, learning styles and teaching methods were discussed so that you could get an idea of how your child learns and what type of materials would best fit their needs and yours. From there I learned about curriculum, organization, scheduling, teaching ideas, etc.

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell

This was an all encompassing homeschool book. It's good for a first-timer as well as the novice homeschooler. I really enjoyed the format of the book. It is organized so that you can easily flip between topics and pick out specific information that you might be looking for with the use of bullet points and multiple sub-chapters with-in each chapter. Most of the topics are accompanied by examples by real homeschooling moms. It is always interesting to me to hear how other homeschoolers implement different teaching methods and address various learning styles in their families.

The First Year Homeschooling Your Child by Linda Dobson

This was an excellent book. Every few pages advice is given from veteran homeschoolers in the form of "What I Wish I Had Known When I Began Homeschooling". This was perfect for me since I love to hear about other peoples experiences. This is a great book for anyone just starting out, whether at the preschool level or later on with older children. It follows the same standard set-up that I mentioned previously.

Teaching with TLC in the Elementary Grade by Tamara L. Chilver

I purchased this book from Amazon.com after reading such great reviews about and I have never regretted it. I am constantly referring back to it for ideas and advice. Its probably better to read this book after reading a book like the ones above so that you have a general idea about how homeschooling works. Though not a very long, this book is packed full of ideas and advice for the elementary years. The format is different from the other books I have read in that the chapters are organized by subjects such as reading, spelling and math. This makes it very easy to flip to a topic when you are struggling one particular area or are looking for curriculum advice. The author, who has a degree in elementary education and masters degree in curriculum, refers to many different curriculum products and gives idea for games that kids will enjoy. Read it, you will love it.

Workbox System in Action

Yesterday was Katelyn's first day of what I am calling organized Preschool. We used the workbox system and it really seemed to keep her wanting to do more activities. Before, I would offer an activity and she would have the option to do it or not. With workboxes, she knows that she has to complete whatever is in the drawer. Granted, if it seems too difficult for her and she is getting frustrated, I will adjust it accordingly. I need to do some more active boxes where she can get up and jump around. Here are some pictures of her first day!

This is where she puts her numbers when she has completed a drawer.

Box #1: Letter A Scavenger Hunt

Box #2: Kumon Maze

Box #3: Highlights Magazine Hidden Picture

Box #4: Letter A Printing Worksheet


Box #5: Dora Puzzle

Box #6: Math Worksheet - Recognizing Numbers

Box #7: File Folder Game - Matching Upper and Lowercase Vowels

Box #8: Reading Lesson

Box #9: Story to read together

Box #10: Lace-Up Card

The Workbox System

Getting organized can be a challenge, but I think its a vital part of homeschooling. Every home, every family has their own rhythm. I am trying to figure out what ours is. After hours of blog hopping, I came across a great system for getting organized. Its called The Workbox System. All fingers point to Sue Patrick for coming up with this great way for making it through a day of homeschooling. However, I've noticed that most moms put their own little twist on Sue's idea.
The basic concept is that you assemble all of the assignments, projects, crafts, snacks, etc. for the next day of school and organize each activity into a numbered bin. During "school time" your little one will start with bin number one and work through each assignment until he has completed all of the activities for the day. There is a lot more to the system than this, but this is the general idea. Want to see the workbox system in action? Here are some posts from other moms who use this system:

Sweet Simplicity

Wayzley Academy

The Swift Schoolhouse

Check it out!

A Preschool Afternoon

Depending upon who you ask, I may or may not already be homeschooling my 4 year old. In the afternoons, when my two younger kids are taking naps, Katelyn and I spend some time together. Katelyn loves art. Painting, drawing, coloring, making things, cutting, pasting. You name it. She loves it. So I've gathered some things over the last few months or so to use as learning tools that incorporate her passion for all things art.
One of the most used things I have purchased for her is the tabletop easel from Lakeshore Learning Store. We bought the tempera paint cup set and washable tempera paints from there as well as a set of dry erase markers. (I have a wish list at least a mile long from Lakeshore Learning Store!) We use the dry erase board almost every day. One of her favorite games is Pictionary. We play this several ways. Kate will draw a picture and I will try to guess what it is. Sometimes, I will give Kate a letter and she will draw a picture that starts with this letter. To make it a bit more challenging, I will write 3 or 4 letters on the board and have her try to name them. Then she gets to pick which letter she wants to draw.
Katelyn loves to make cards for people and she always to wants to know how to spell people's names or how to write "Happy Birthday" or something like that. I will write it out on the dry erase board for her to copy. The size of the easel is great because I can store it away in our art supply cabinet. All in all, we love this easel.


Getting back to our afternoon... today Katelyn got to play with our new set of Melissa and Doug Alphabet Beads. The set comes with several of each letter of the alphabet, as well as eight or so different shapes. It also comes with eight colored shoelaces for stringing the beads. At first I just let her play with it. She picked out the letter in her name and then started asking how to spell other people's names. Then I gave her some patterns to follow. We built a few more words and then she was ready to build little towers and play for a bit.


The next activity I offered her was a page from Kumon Amazing Mazes. I thought these would be a bit more challenging for her. My game plan was for her to try one page from the book each week. That plan was out the window after she started her fourth page of mazes! Tip: I carefully tore the workbook pages out of the book and slipped them into a plastic page protector so that she could use a dry erase marker to complete the mazes. That way we can use them over and over again.


By this point it was time for Josh to wake up from his nap. After getting Josh up and happy, we headed outside to the driveway to practice letters. Katelyn laid down on a blanket and I took pictures of her making various letters. She thought it was pretty fun.
We had to make a beeline back inside as a storm was rolling in, but "school" didn't end there. While I worked on dinner, the kids sat on their little chairs at our back sliding door and watched the rain storm as it blew in. They thought it was pretty cool.
I think it was a successful afternoon. I don't know if Kate knew I was trying to have some good teaching moments with her today or not. Maybe its a good sign if she didn't. :)

Product Review - Lauri Puzzles

My son Josh (2) loves to play with puzzles. We have a magnetic tic-tac-toe set that is made out of hard foam pieces. He will sit with it at the table rearranging the pieces for 15 or 20 minutes.


So when I saw these Lauri puzzles on Amazon I thought he would really enjoy playing with them. As soon as I opened the package, my daughter Katelyn (4), wanted to play with the lace up cards. I offered the smaller shape puzzles to Josh and he quickly took them apart and put them back together again. Then I gave him the ABC puzzle. This was quite a bit more challenging for him. It took him about 20 minutes to get it back together. And after he finished it, he took it apart and wanted to do it again. Meanwhile, Katelyn was having a great time building a tower out of the "locktagon" pieces.



**The only suggestion I have for this playset would be to make sure and keep them away from toddlers who still like to put things in their mouths. If bitten, the foam on the puzzle pieces will have bite marks.

Why Homeschool

For the past few weeks, my mind has constantly been turning to homeschooling. When I'm not feeding the kiddos, cleaning up after the kiddos, playing with the kiddos, and putting the kiddos to sleep, I am thinking about teaching my kids. My daughter is four, my sons are two and two months. My hands are definitely full. But, deep down, I have this strong desire to try homeschooling. But why? Truthfully, I don't have a clear cut answer yet. Yes, I would like to keep my kids in an environment that I know to be safe. Yes, I would like to incorporate our faith into my kids education. Yes, I would like to have my kids home with me during the better hours of the day. But it's more than that. I love watching my kids learn new things. I love teaching them about things. I want my kids to be best friends.
The purpose of this life is learn and to grow. All we take with us from this life is the knowledge that we gain. My kids will be under my wings for only a short time and then it will be their turn to go off to college, get married and start a family. I think that their lives will be better off in the end by beginning with homeschooling. As a homeschooling family we will be able to make sure that our kids really know the material they are learning. We will be able to focus on areas of strength and weakness as they come. We will have greater opportunities for hands on learning. It will be a challenge, but I hope to find joy in the journey.