What We Chose This Year and Why! 2nd Grade and Kindergarten

The homeschool blogs are buzzing this week as we all gather up our supplies, make final decisions on our curriculum, and organize our homeschool rooms! With so many options out there, sometimes it is hard to choose the curriculum that is right for you, especially if this is your first year!

So here is what we settled on this year and why!

Math - A Beka
I have used A Beka math every year with my Princess.  I love it. It is challenging, but presents the concepts in a variety of different ways to help the kids get it one way or another. When talking with other parents, I sometimes hear that you or your child must be good at math for this curriculum, but so far, it has never given us a problem!

Phonics (K) - A Beka
A Beka's phonics program worked great for my Princess, so I am now using it for my kindergartner. There are little readers that go along with it that the kids enjoy, as well as colorful daily worksheets. Both of my kids have been early readers, so this helps make any phonics program a little easier.
I also supplement the readers with other phonics readers. This year, we have Biscuit, Thomas the Engine, and Go, Diego, Go! on the schedule!

Reading (2) - Sonlight
Early on, I decided to do my own reading with my kids and to take a classical approach. I have lined out many classical novels and pieces of literature to span our years of education. My Little Princess, however, has excelled in reading and is above her reading level. This has put a hitch in my planning for this year. Why? Because she went ahead and did the 2nd grade reading last year. Why not let her go ahead? She is six years old. Many of the themes in the literature that I have chosen for the third grade level is intended for a bit more mature of an audience. She could read it, but the concepts would be a bit out of her grasp. Therefore, plan B was Sonlight.
Sonlight's literature is wonderful. They use a combination of Award Winning fiction, biographies and historical novels to round out a year that will teach your child more about the world around him/her. If it weren't quite so expensive, it could quite possibly be a first choice for me. So, for this interim-year, we have decided to do Sonlight's third grade readers.

Language (2) - A Beka
Once again, I turn to the quality education of A Beka. I just don't know of any other curriculum that does as great a job on presenting the material! One should note, however, that A Beka is a more workbook-based curriculum and may not be the best choice for more active, hands-on learners.

History (K & 2) - A Beka
At this level, Social Studies and History are very basic. I like that A Beka offers introduction to American History with a Christian perspective, rather than a more Social Studies focus. I am also familiar with A Beka's history at the upper (High School) levels and know that I will most likely use them, therefore a groundwork in that same curriculum should be a plus for my kiddos. I am thinking about using Mystery of History during a few of our Middle School years, but I will let you know at that point in time!

Science (K & 2) - Unit Studies
Choosing science this year was difficult for me. I like A Beka's science curriculum beginning at 3rd grade. We are not there yet. Up until this point, I have used Christian Liberty Press Science, however, I was not intrigued by what was offered for this next level. Therefore, I decided to try Unit Studies and do both kids together. I have heard many people talk about unit studies, but as of yet, I have not done them myself. I purchased several science unit books from Usborne that I think my kids will enjoy. I have planned out several field trips to go along with these units and found many fun worksheets and ideas online (for free!). We plan to make some of our first lapbooks this year too! (If you are in the dark about lapbooks, as I was, google it!) My favorite site that I have found to find lapbook printouts (for free!) and other worksheets is www.homeschoolshare.com. What started out as a frustration not knowing what we were going to do, has ended up with me being tremendously excited about this year's science!

Fine Arts
There is all sorts of things that you can do for fine arts! The sky is the limit! This year I found a really neat Art book called "The Usborne First Book of Art." I think it is really neat because it takes famous paintings, critically looks at them (at a child's level) and then offers a project to do based on that style or technique using regular "homeschool" art supplies!
We are also doing piano and guitar this year. We will see how that goes (this mama is not musically talented). Good thing my husband has a gift in music!

PE
One of the hardest subjects for homeschoolers can be physical education. It is difficult to stay in shape when you are not running around a gym for an hour with 30 other children. My number one solution: Community sports. Get your kids involved in sports and it will give them many wonderful pay-outs.  In addition I found this book this year: "The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book." What is so great about this book is that it offers a variety of sports with rules tailored to as few as 2-3 kids. I can't wait to start putting this one to use!

That just about covers what we are tackling for this upcoming school year. The kids and I are all really excited to begin - in just a few short weeks! I look forward to sharing our experiences with you as we get ready to start what I hope will be the best homeschool year ever. Any questions?

So, what are you using?

Homeschool Conference Bliss!

Girl-time + Hotels + eating out + books and books and books = A Very Happy ME!

Have you ever been to a homeschool conference?  If not, then you definitely should! Here's what I got out of it:

Time away to focus completely on your homeschool planning.
While many homeschool families bring their entire family, I preferred the time away from mine so that I could browse, and consider and debate without any distractions!  There is nothing around you but homeschooling stuff, so you can really dig in and get things figured out!

So many options!
HS Conferences are a great place to find new ideas and look through curriculum.  I found so many different books and subjects that I would not have ever thought of if I had not been there.  It is SO overwhelming (but I love it!). If you aren't sure what you are going to use for each subject, it begins as a very daunting task.  There are so many ways that you can go about things!  I stayed up all night the first night, lying in bed with books and books floating through my head! I woke up the next morning without any decisions made.  The great thing though, is that you can flip through the books right there!  You can put them in your hands and see exactly what you will get if you use that material. That is a huge bonus!  I think it is so cool to see that homeschooling is such a wide spread thing, that there are so many hundreds of things to choose from.

Words of Wisdom
This was my first year to go to the conference and attend the sessions.  I got SO much out of them!  The speakers were wonderful, animated, funny and so wise!  There were many great truths that I walked away with this weekend from these wonderful individuals.  I will share some of these with you in later posts.  I and the ladies with me found that these words spoke, not only truth into our hearts, but also encouragement and confidence about our choices and methods.  It is something every HS mom needs!

A Vacation in Disguise
So I told my husband that I had to go and "work" on finding all of our kids homeschool materials and "learn" more about homeschooling during the sessions and "spend money" on all of the things that our "kids need."  What I left out was the part about staying the weekend in an awesome hotel and eating out with friends for every meal! Or the part about cruising the city with all of us stuffed into my friends VW Bug while giggling like school girls.  OR the part about staying up past midnight every night talking and sharing stories.  OR just the plain fact that I LOVE BOOKS and I love buying them even more!!!  This is what I foresee as being a cherished ritual for us moms, a time that we need in order to refresh and fill us back up. 

Next year, you should definitely save the money and block out time in your schedule to attend a conference in your area!

Do you have a conference story to share?? COMMENT BELOW!!

Planning For Next Year Step 1: Evaluating the Learning Style

As this year is winding down and I'm getting ready to attend the Homeschool Conference at the end of the month, my thoughts are beginning to turn to next school year! I need to know what I am looking for and gearing toward before I go to the conference. This will help to guide me through all of those wonderful vendors full of wonderful homeschooling material!

The first thing I evaluate at the beginning of the school year is my children's learning style. This will guide all my other planning and choices. There are many books and sites that will give you all the technical terms of each learning style, but I don't think that this is necessary. You just need to know what your child likes and works well with and what he/she does not. Think about the things that have worked well in the past and the things that were duds. Remember that you child's learning style can change as he/she develops and that every child is different.

Princess Buttercup is easily distracted and does not respond well to long, redundant assignments or worksheets. She does, however, enjoy worksheets that are quick paced and she could sit and read a book all day! Flashcards, songs, and recitations work better for her than written work. She has to have things that keep her mind engaged. And for those longer assignments, we often need headphones to block out distractions (not something you would get from public school, might I add!).

Then there's my Little Bear. He does not respond well to oral recitation or flash cards. For the longest time I thought I was starting him on Preschool too early, because he would not tell me any of the colors or shapes when I showed him the flashcards and books. Then one day he told me he liked the stars and circles on my shirt. A few days later he was organizing his Hot Wheels by color and told me what each color pile was. This happened recently as well. I have been trying to teach him to count to 20. Yesterday, while I was outside watering the garden, he and his sister were playing hide and seek and he clearly, out loud, and correctly, counted to 30 before he went to find her. He needs more hands-on, applicable lessons. He enjoys doing worksheets and motor-skill activities. He must be doing constantly. Sitting still is just not his cup of tea.

Before you make any decisions for the school year (curriculum, schedules, etc.), first take time to evaluate your child's learning style. It will cut out a lot of the hassle of purchasing things that don't work for you.