Why is it that this word is so scary?
When we were first looking into homeschooling I was terrified of
having to choose “the right curriculum.” One thing that I am
loving about homeschooling is the options that are out there. And I
have found that there is no “right curriculum.” Every home looks
different, every child learns differently, and every parent/teacher
has a different preference for how much work they want to put in to
what they teach. HOW GREAT IS THAT?!
With that being said, finding the right
fit for us still seemed like an overwhelming task. A very wise and
seasoned homeschooling mom encouraged me to write a list of what I
needed as a mom out of a curriculum, and what I thought my child
would need. This helped SO MUCH to narrow down our options. These were my lists last fall when I started researching:
Thankfully most moms that I talked to
were more than willing to let me get my hands on the curriculum they
have used. It is so helpful to actually read through the material
that you'll be teaching, look through the books, etc. For me, just
reading online reviews and talking to others wasn't enough, I needed
to really sit and study each option. This of course took time, lots
of time, and probably lots of unneeded stress. I was so focused on
choosing “the right one.” Once I got over that, (which took a
long time and lots of reassurance from Tim) I realized it wasn't
stressful, but really fun to pick what was going to work for our
family.
So without further ado; the main
“curriculum” that we've decided to use for Preschool and
Kindergarten is called Learning at Home by Ann Ward. A big
reason we chose this is because the lesson plans are all laid out.
It's a 36 week program and each week is divided up into 5 days, each
day has everything laid out for you. This curriculum covers subjects
such as: Bible, Reading, Music, Math, Phys Ed, Art, and
Health/Manners. Every Friday is a field trip (we won't be doing all
of these) and each Friday they give you a list of all the supplies
you'll need for the next week. The lessons are really gentle, once
you complete the preschool portion of the program, the second half of
the book is for Kindergarten, it's the same lessons as the first year
just beefed up a bit!
Like I said, I love homeschooling
because we can customize it however we need. Some of the lessons are
things Amelia already knows, colors, shapes, hopping on one foot etc,
so we will be leaving out some things and adding others.
For the additional things that we're
adding we are using Rod and Staff preschool workbooks
(where we got our workbooks)
There are also several websites that I've been using for preschool resources, to gather ideas and activities, my two favorites are:
Confessions of a Homeschooler
Confessions of a Homeschooler
These sights offer great free
printables, as well as lots of creative ways to introduce concepts to
your toddlers. Even though Amelia is the one doing preschool this
year, Sophia will soak up a lot of the material as well, we've
already tried several of the activities and both girls are able to do
them just at different levels. Just to give you an idea, here are a couple of the activities that we've already tried that both girls LOVE!
Pre-writing mazes. These are dry-erase and Amelia is surprisingly very good at them, they work on "letter shapes" (curves for "s", mountains for "n" and "m" etc) and keeping a straight line. I bought this book on Amazon after seeing it on a few other sites and so far Amelia LOVES it!
Letter mazes from Plus 1. Both girls can do these, we use do-a-dot markers, or magnets or pom-poms. I've also put these in page protectors so they can use dry erase markers and do them over and over (Plus 1 has these available A-Z for free).
Practice tracing numbers, we use page protectors and dry erase markers. This is Amelia's favorite page because she's 3 years old so she asked me to show you this page! This is also available at Plus 1 in the TotNotebook (link below).
Letter recognition and tracing! Again, Amelia picked which sheet to show you, since this is "her letter" it's her favorite! Plus 1 has these available A-Z in the TotNotebook (link below).
Amelia has been so excited for school
to start that it has rubbed off on Sophia and I just don't have the
heart to tell her she won't be able to “go to school.” So we are
doing TotSchool with her, basically special activities for her to do
while Amelia is doing her work. I'm hoping they both love it!
Phew! Lots of information but I am so, so, SO excited to get school started! The girls would start TODAY if we could, however with a new baby coming in September there's a few things I feel need to get done before we can start full-force with the school year! Our first day will be August 1 and Amelia is counting down!
We've had an excited week so far, stay tuned Friday for our week in pictures!
2 comments:
Looks good. Preschool is fun!
Love the prewriting mazes...that's new to me. What a great idea! I have a 5 and 3 year old and they both love mazes. I'll have to check it out! Found you on the Not Back to School Blog Hop :)
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