Looking back: Our year in review

I use the term 'homeschooled' very loosely here. I aimed for sit-down-at-the-table school work 3 times a week. Sometimes it happened, sometimes not. But every time we sat down to 'do school' the kids would tear through whatever I had planned/thrown together and ask for more. Since fostering a love of learning is at the top of our priority list, I feel pretty good about that. 

I stuck my toe in the vast ocean of curriculum and discovered some really great products. Here's a few things we did (and my thoughts on them). And just for a reminder, my son, Shawn, is 4 and Laila is 2. Initially, I tried to keep her away from anything real formal, but she wants to do everything her brother does.

Ready2Read: I've only purchased Level 1 Unit 1 but it is a huge hit.  My 4 year old loves the puzzles and there are plenty of activities to go along with. I will probably purchase more to supplement our other phonics programs. I haven't figured out a good way to organize it all yet, but well...I haven't put forth a lot of effort to do so, either. Annie has a ton of other printables for sale, and I do plan on using a number of them for my PreK girl this year.

Bob Books: These are good; but Shawn tends to memorize the books rather quickly. I definitely don't feel that they are enough to be a stand alone phonics curriculum.We'll probably continue with them in some form or another.

The Reading Lesson: This is ok. It's kind of dry but we really haven't used it consistently for long enough for me to dismiss it. We're taking it nice and slow. The minute Shawn gets frustrated, we move on to something else. He does read with them. I wish it were more hands on, but that's where Ready2Read comes in so handy.

Singapore Math: Love the idea behind conceptual based math. I got the Singapore Essential Kindergarten A workbook and it is more PreK level than K, I think. Thought it's below his level, Shawn does enjoy it. We'll be using RightStart Math this fall.I love that it's based on the Singapore method and is very hands on. I've heard its a good teaching tool for those of us who learned to do math the 'American way'.

Handwriting Without Tears: I bought the Kindergarten Teacher's manual as well as the kindergarten & PreK workbooks. This was Laila's first official workbook and she LOVES it. She also loves the "At the Top!" song. I bought a CD to go with HWOT, but I accidentally bought the preK CD instead of the K CD. Arg. I really wish it was available to download. I bought the Alphabet Construction set to go with it, which the kids & I both love.

Morning Work: I blogged about this before, but we are STILL loving this little booklet. It's a nice way to transition into our school day & it has enough different activities to keep my guy's attention.  Shawn's finished the upper case letters & now gets to draw ladybug spots to match the number, which he adores. I'll definitely be keeping this up & purchasing the next one when the time comes.

Education.com: I used this to make my 2 year old her own little morning workbook. I just printed out some color by number, tracing, patterns, and other various worksheets. She's not great about seeing the need for following directions :) so she went through this really fast.

Butterflies:We ordered & observed our own caterpillars turn into butterflies. The kids really enjoyed it, but I think I was even more enthralled by the whole process. I plan on doing this every year.

Kiwi Crate: I really like the idea behind Kiwi Crate and I've only ever got one Crate that I wasn't very excited about (the Earth day one...that being said, we haven't done it, so the kids might adore it). On the other hand, I always end up feeling bad because most of the stuff just ends up getting thrown away later on. But, I suppose that can be said about a lot of craft stuff. Our subscription is on hold now, but I still plan on getting it from time to time. It would be great if they offered an every other month subscription. I think this makes for a great gift idea.

Costumes from the bird themed Kiwi Crate

ABCMouse.com: I have a love/hate relationship with this site. But now that I'm typing, I'm not sure what I hate about it. . .I think Shawn is starting to grow out of it, while Laila is just starting to get the hang of using the mouse & doing the activities.

Board Games: We played Sorry! which helped us start counting past 10 (as did hide & seek) and helped with 1:1 counting. We also learned taking turns & good sportsmanship.  My favorite though was Scrabble.  We got the current favorite book (Click Clack Moo at the time) and picked out words & then copied them on to the board. Eventually it turned into Shawn picking a random word, me writing it, and him finding the tiles. Lots of fun!

2013-2014 Curriculum Choices

The choices when it comes to homeschooling are overwhelming to say the least.  Living in Washington state, I can more or less teach what I want, how I want (especially since schooling isn't even required until age eight). At the kid's current ages (Laila will be 3, Shawn will turn 5 in November, missing our district's kindergarten cut off) a curriculum really isn't necessary. Really. But I like structure and I see any curriculum as nothing more than a tool. It isn't the boss. The minute it starts causing more problems than it solves, out it goes. 

Originally I had decided to enroll in an online charter school. Then I decided against it. Back and forth. And again. Currently, I'm leaning towards going it on my own. The Charter school just closes too many doors. No Handwriting without Tears. No year round homeschooling.  Their only viable (in my eyes) option for language arts is Moving Beyond the Page. And I'm not 100% sure I want to do that. Of course, the biggest 'pro' for the Charter school is that I wouldn't have to pay for the curriculum (their selected curriculum). This would be huge bonus if I had my heart set on the (very expensive) Moving Beyond the Page. But I don't.

I have discovered that I am very drawn to the Charlotte Mason approach to education. Bible memorization,focusing on character values, short lessons. I like that. Having said that, my priorities this year are to instill good character values & a love of God.Then Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. Here's what's in my toolbox for my kindergartner.

Math: Right Start Math. I love that this is conceptually based & very hands on.We'll be starting with Level A.
Reading: My oldest will probably sit in on our AAR Pre-Reading with my Preschooler, but he'll primarily be doing The Reading Lesson as well as Bob books. I might add in Explode the Code...but maybe that's overkill. We'll see how the year goes.
Writing: Handwriting without Tears. Love this program. I'll also have him copy down the scripture of the week.
Science: Elemental Science. I'm really excited to try this out.
History: We'll be focusing on Bible history for now. I'm also excited to introduce the Little House on the Prairie books to the kids.

For my Pre-Schooler:
Math: Whatever. The girl can already count to 20 and knows patterns, shapes, colors etc. We may, at some point, do some Singapore EarlyBird...we'll just see how much she wants to do.
Reading: AAR Pre Reading Level and lots of read alouds
Writing: We're working through the PreK Handwriting without Tears. She loves it.
Science: She'll sit in on Elemental Science if she wants.
History: Same as her big brother.  

I'm working on a list of Read Alouds to work through this year. I'm tentatively planning on some form of year round schooling...but I haven't delved any further into it than that.  I need to bulk up my homeschooling fund, so I've got some time to plan :)