Our Homeschool Plan and Curriculum

As I sit here and (not so patiently) wait for the arrival of this baby, I have been busily putting together our "lesson plans" for the first few weeks of school.

The choice to homeschool was not something that I had a strong conviction about or even really desired to do at first. I honestly was thrilled at the thought of Aidan turning 5 and going off to Kindergarten. But, as time progressed, the idea of keeping him at home somehow snuck up on me and I found myself toying with the idea here and there for the past year.

First of all, we've been doing some "at home learning" already. Aidan has always been an eager learner, and his desire to learn evolved into teaching him to read and do math. As I began to spend more time teaching him, I realized how much fun I was having and how neat it was to actively watch him learn and piece together information. It has helped me bond more with him and to enjoy him more too!

Our main plan is to send him to a homeschool enrichment program 2 days a week. He will spend most of the day (9-2:15) there Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we will do school at home and Friday will be our catch up/fun/field trip day. I wanted him to be in an enrichment program for the socialization aspect because he loves being around people. I also thought it would make our first year of formal schooling at home somewhat easier on me after having a new baby and trying to figure out our schedule. I hope that it works well for us.

A few months ago, I attended a homeschool conference in the area and was overwhelmed/excited/inspired by all the information and resources out there. I have found a lot of help online through different blogs I follow and have also connected with some other homeschool moms that have offered words of advice and direction in picking out curriculum.

I decided against going with an all-in-one curriculum this year. Mostly, the expense was a little over the top for me, but also wasn't super impressed with others. So, I decided to just piece ours together. I don't know what it will look like year to year, but this is what I chose for this year because I felt it was the most basic and required the least amount of work.

Aidan has been learning to read with an online reading program I purchased through a LivingSocial deal last summer. It is called Click N Read Phonics. Aidan loves it and it has definitely been a huge success. I sit with him for each lesson ( a must if you want them to actually learn). I think there are a total of 100 lessons and right now he is on lesson 39. We haven't been too strict about how often he does a lesson, but once we officially start school, my goal is to get 3-4 lessons done a week. The great thing about the deal I purchased was that I got a lifetime membership with unlimited number of children I can add, so I'll be able to use this with additional children.

We will continue to use his reading lessons as his main "reading" program, but I also purchased Explode the Code books 1 and 1 1/2 for some additional phonics practice. I also really like how the books get in some handwriting practice (which is a huge weakness over here). They are extremely affordable too!

For handwriting (which we have done very little of), we will be using Handwriting Without Tears. I did not purchase any of the additional accessories, but have the workbook and plan to just use that at this time.

Math is one of Aidan's favorite things. He seems to be quite the numbers guy and has been flying through basic Kindergarten workbooks this summer. Math was the hardest for me to decide on because there are so many different ways to approach it and so much to choose from! I finally decided on Singapore Math. We are going to be starting in book 1A instead of the Kindergarten ones. I am excited and I think he'll like this approach.

I decided we are going to do about 2 days of History a week (the off days when he is at home). I am going to follow Easy Peasy's Ancient History lesson plans just to give us a general timeline of history. I will probably follow this pretty loosely, but just want to have a basis for History established before I jump into it hardcore. I love the Easy Peasy blog because it gives step by step lesson plans for almost every subject. She has done a lot of work and it is a great resource for those just getting started and needing some ideas.

And last, but not least.....my absolute most anticipated subject: BIBLE! I found this great book: Long Story Short by Marty Machowski. It is just a simple devotional, but I LOVE it! It goes through the Old Testament in a very simple yet thought provoking way. I love how everything points to Jesus/the Gospel and the questions are really pertinent for all ages. I have been dying to get started, but am waiting for the beginning of school. they have the weeks set up into 5 day increments too. We will also be doing some Bible memory as we go through the letters of the alphabet (with Nora). I found corresponding verses here.

Some other things we will be doing/good resources for preschool-K:

Confessions of a Homeschooler put together an awesome pre K daily learning notebook that covers weather, days of the week, other calendar activities, letters, numbers, etc...  I plan to use some of this for both children (Nora is a little too young for some of the activities).

I also "purchased"  this preschool program last year and will probably use some of it for Nora. We will be doing a Letter/Color/Number of the week with her as she has yet to know anything beyond her colors and hasn't showed a whole lot of interest in learning. I think she will like to sit and do things with Aidan once we formally start.

Okay, that was totally long and crazy, but I thought it would be good to write out our "plan" if not only for myself....

I am totally excited, but also know that (realistically) there will be both good days and bad.