When we started our pseudo-homeschool year back in the Fall I had exactly one goal: the alphabet. I still wasn't certain that Ella knew all her letters mostly because my strong-willed little girl has decided that she doesn't want me to know if she knows them. In fact, I still am not sure that she knows all the letters! But, I do know that Ella is reading. I started the year off just introducing letters. When Ella didn't really take to that I tried using Alpha-Phonics. I loved that … [Read more...]
Babysteps to Homeschooling: Truth and Grace Memory Book
February 3, 2012 By 1 Comment
We are currently working on exactly two "subjects" right now in homeschool: Bible and reading. After a failed attempt with one Bible curriculum (which I loved, but Ella just wasn't ready for it), I read on a blog about the Truth & Grace Memory Book Series. The books start at age 2 and run all the way through 12th grade. Truth and Grace is very, very simple -- there is a section for each age (2-3; 4-5; Kindergarten; etc) and each section contains Bible verses, … [Read more...]
Babysteps to Homeschooling: The Long Break
January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It's been a few months since I've posted anything about homeschooling. The reason for the lack of posting is because there hasn't been much homeschooling going on around here. This Fall proved to be a very frustrating, but very informative homeschool season. I pretty much hit every brick wall I anticipated plus a few more. I also learned a lot about my kids, myself, and what works (or doesn't) for us. I decided to take some time off to read some more for myself and to re-evaluate what … [Read more...]
Pre-School Busy Bag Swap: Review
January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In November I signed up to participate in a pre-school Busy Bag Swap at Kidlet Occupation. I really love Busy Bags, but I've only made a few of my own and my kids were losing interest in them. I was a bit apprehensive about the cost of the swap. I wanted to make sure that I would get my money's worth, but there was no way to tell except to just jump in with both feet and go for it. So I did! I absolutely loved this swap! I was able to complete my assigned Busy Bags (I had to … [Read more...]
Babysteps to Homeschooling: Change
October 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
There are two things I really love about homeschooling. First, I love that I'm learning right along with my kids every single day. For example, I realized this past week that I am left brained and a very visual learner. I wish I had known this years ago! I also realized that there are no words in the English language that end with a "J". Go ahead. Go look. If you find it, it isn't English. Second, I love that I can switch up our homeschooling plan at any point. If something isn't … [Read more...]
Baby-Steps to Homeschooling: Review Week!
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This is our 4th week of homeschooling and we spent the week reviewing. I was kind of nervous that we wouldn't have anything to DO this week, but after over scheduling weeks 2 and 3, we had plenty to catch up on. But just in case there wasn't enough to do -- we went to the pool Monday morning and called it P.E. That's the beauty of homeschool! Ella has been asking to learn to knit and a friend of mine posted a great website for teaching young children to knit. I'm going to add … [Read more...]
Babysteps to Homeschooling: Week 3
September 16, 2011 By 2 Comments
Today is the last day of our third week of homeschooling and it was a rough one. I got frustrated a few times when Ella didn't want to do her schoolwork, but later (or earlier) in the day she would start asking for her "homework". Now that I have somewhat gotten a handle on planning, I decided that we needed a system for getting the lessons from my planner in to Ella's hands. Right now, I have piles taking over my counter -- all neatly stacked and ready to go until Ella decides to … [Read more...]
Mrs. Rosey Posey and the Fine China Plate Activity
September 12, 2011 By 2 Comments
As part of our homeschool curriculum, we are using a set of four books about Mrs. Rosey Posey. When I went looking on the internet for some activities related to the Mrs. Rosey Posey books, I came up empty! So I put on my thinking cap (thank you, Pooh) and came up with my own. Hopefully Mrs. Rosey Posey becomes more popular because these books are truly delightful. Mrs. Rosey Posey and the Fine China Plate teaches children about 2 Timothy 2:21. In the book a young girl, Natalie, is … [Read more...]
Babysteps to Homeschooling: Learning to Plan
September 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
One of the tings I learned from our first week of homeschool is that I need to do a better job of planning. I had a lot of activities to do, but they were not necessarily in the best order. So this week I tried a different plan: one letter per day with all activities for that letter and then one themed book for each of the other days. I am using the 4 year old curriculum from ABC Jesus Loves Me as my primary curriculum and branching out from there. The plan seemed to work, but … [Read more...]
Babysteps to Homeschooling: The First Week
September 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This week was our first official week of our "unofficial" homeschool. I decided to start this year with a pre-school program with Ella, who is 5. Although she is technically old enough for Kindergarten (at least by the state's standards), she has a summer birthday and I'd rather she graduate from high school at 18 and not 17. So I'm giving myself this year to learn the ropes of homeschooling. I gotta tell you, by Monday morning at 9 AM, I was ready to throw in the towel. Ella was so … [Read more...]
