Ahhh....school is starting!! Do you remember that feeling of going back to school? The dread. The dissappointment that summer is over. That nervous feeling for new teachers, new schools, new friends. What if my clothes aren't cool enough? What if my hair is not pretty enough? What if I can't find my friends before lunch? I hope my kids never feel that dread or nervousness about school.
Then again there was always excitement too. Buying new clothes, shoes, and backpacks but having to wait to wear them til school started. Excited to be around friends again and see who the cutest boy is that year. I hope my kids have lots of those feelings about school too. To this day I'm giddy over school supplies!
Long story short...we feel that raising our children in the way they should go includes education. Yes. That means we are the weirdos on the block...the homeschoolers.
We feel that education starts at birth but we are starting our first official year of Kindergarten in 2 days. And we are SO excited! I thought I would put our school year out there just in case anyone is browsing for ideas.
Bible:
I really like this book. It is the closest to the bible I could find. We go through a story each day and discuss what happened in each story and how it applies to our lives. For each story there are 3 questions to ask your child.
We memorize a new bible verse every 2 weeks. This book not only has A-Z bible verses it also has a children's story to give the child a better understanding of the verse they are on.
Unit Study (Themes):
I will choose half and Little Astronaut will choose half. We will use our home library and the county library for these. Over Starbucks and Juice boxes he told me he wants to learn about...
Magnets
Telephones
Electricity
Architecture
Pyramids
Lighthouse
I will add...
Weather
Space
Ocean Life
Helicopters
Insects
Dinosaurs
And lots more...
Phonics:
I didn't want anything fancy, frilly, or distracting.
This book is black and white...simple.
We are using Bob Books also.
Math: We are doing hands on math...using a lot of manipulatives and learning what a number 3 is not what the number 3 looks like on paper. Ruth Beechick is great because she lays out where your child is developmentally and shows you how to teach simply according to that stage.
Writing:
We will be building up fine motor skills by...mazes, connect the dots, tracing, cutting, and art. I printed up a bunch of mazes, connect the dots, and tracing sheets online. Eventually we will make it to writing letters but in the mean time I really like Rod and Staff's ABC Series. It is black and white to keep the distractions down, uses pictures of everyday objects, and is SUPER affordable! We will be for sure meshing some of their stuff in our school through out the years.
I used to draw very well. Then I became a little cooler in school and never picked it back up. So I'm excited to be using this book to build our kids love for creating and to reignite mine.
So far our Read Alouds are :
Busy Times (Rod and Staff)
More Busy Times (Rod and Staff)
Climbing Higher (Rod and Staff)Five True Dog Stories
Dolphin Adventure
Stuart Little
Charlotte's Web
Doctor Dolittle
Mary on Horseback
Little Astronaut will have the pleasure of picking the order we read them {Grin}
I could go back to work and then we could put our children in a very small private school but they still would not get the opportunities they get at home...to pick and choose what they want to learn about, to spend time with people who really love them and have a special interest in their real future not just their test score future. They wouldn't get to dive into the interests God has put in their hearts. And after homework, dinner, baths, and bedtime stories I wouldn't be able to give them that either.
Home education may not be for everyone but I'm sure glad it is for us...
