This weeks adventures.

Homeschooling has not begun like I expected.  Does it ever?  We spread out Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear for 2 weeks.  Little man didn't mind because he liked the book.  Here are some pictures from our efforts.

This picture shows Isaac working on basic writing skills.  Writing left to right, and following the line.  This wasn't his favorite activity.  His favorite activity was counting.  

Little man wanted Mommy to make snow so he could make a Snowlof (Olaf).  Obviously I can't do that, so I did the next best thing.  I microwaved a bar of soap, and then had him paint it.  

The brown are the arms and legs.  The purple is Anna.  The blue is Elsa.  

This past week was my birthday, and my husband surprised us with a trip up to Canada to visit family.

We went to Marineland.  Little man has taken a particular interest in killer whales, so even though it was expensive we really wanted to do it.

They had a little nursery for beluga whales.  We loved seeing the nursing whale.  It helped little man understand a bit more about how mommy is going to feed baby.  

Marineland gives kids lots of opportunities to feed the animals.  We fed bears, deer, fish, bison, and could have fed the beluga whales.  

 The area surrounding Niagara Falls, in Ontario, is rich with historic teaching opportunities.  We wanted to make sure Little Man got to see the locks.  He got to watch them load cargo onto the boats, and then see the bridge raise to let the boat go by.  Later on he watched the boat travel across Lake Erie.   

 No trip is complete without a visit to Niagara Falls.  His favorite part about the visit was watching the Maid of the Mist.

I am lucky to have such a good little boy.  My hyperemesis is back in full swing.  I have spent most of the past week in bed.  Luckily my son just likes to bring me books to read to him.  I just wish I could do more.  Luckily, he won't remember this part.  I keep reminding myself that he doesn't need to be learning anything in particular right now.  As long as he is playing he can learn.  

Preschool Curriculum Part 3

The main piece of curriculum that I decided on was Before Five In A Row.  I purchased my book from Rainbow Resource for $35.00, but I know that you can find it for much cheaper elsewhere.  You can check homeschooling resale pages to find some deals.  I have also heard that you can sometimes find it at the library.

I really like this curriculum because it focuses on good books.  For those that choose, it gives you a passage of scripture to start the day/week off with that matches the theme of the book.  It also offers a lot of ideas on how to incorporate different subjects from the chosen book that week.  I plan on taking 1-2 weeks on each book (depending on how fast my son wants to go through it).  Some of the books are older and out of print.  I know I will probably have to use inter-library loan in order to find a few, but that is fine with me.

There are lots of outside sites that offer ideas on how to supplement each book.  I have found that I really like Homeschool Creations for their supplements.  They have different pages for sequencing, math, writing, letter recognition, colors, and much more.  I plan to laminate the pages that I like, and then I can have Isaac use a dry erase marker to work on it each day.  I am creating a folder for each book.  That way each week I can just grab it and go.  Laminated pages will work great for other kids in the future.

We also use ABC Mouse.  We have had a subscription for over a year now.  My son loves it!  We have a laptop set up so that he can do his homework while Daddy does his.  ABC Mouse is the reason Isaac has known his upper and lower case letters for about a year.  It's great!

This week I have started looking into coops.  I think I found one that I like, but I can't participate fully until after the baby due to an attendance clause.  However, they have public field trips every other week, family activities, and mom's night out that I can go to without being a full member.  We will have our first field trip on August 20th.  I am excited, so I hope that I am feeling well enough for an outing that day!

For the first time in about 4 years I ordered a new insert for my planner.  I cannot express how excited I was to open it!  I use Google calendar, but there is just something about being able to see everything on paper.  I have already started planning out the next month of activities.  This way I know when I need to request the books I need.  I plan on getting additional books to go along with the main book for the week.  This will help me expand on different aspects.

Our Choice to Homeschool

Some of you may already know that Derek and I are planning to homeschool any kids that we have.  It’s not something that I talk a lot about because some people are pretty judgmental regarding homeschooling.  Everyone has an opinion, but many of these opinions do not have many factual backings. 

I wasn’t ready to talk about our choice because I am nervous about it myself.  I didn’t want others to be negative regarding my choice because it would cause me to doubt myself more.  I know that I am capable of teaching my children what they need to know, but when you are first starting out in the world of homeschooling it is quite overwhelming.  There are lots of choices to be made.  Should we choose year round school, or tradition school years?  What curriculum should we choose?  How much religion do we want involved in the education?  What are the state specific laws?  Quite daunting! 

The main reason that we have chosen to homeschool is because there were obvious gaps in the education that both Derek and I received.  This made us want an alternative to public schooling since we know we live in a bad school district.  With the advent of Common Core Standards it has really driven home that we need to homeschool. 

I have been part of forums with nationwide experts, online discussions, and have done a ton of research regarding Common Core Standards.  Not even taking into consideration the data collection that is being done, the curriculum itself is pretty scary.  I left many of these forums with the distinct impression that they are trying slowly breakdown the family unit.  I’m not even talking the traditional family.  I’m talking a family in general.  Where children have two parents regardless of gender.  I have my own suspicions as to why the government may be trying to do this, but I will keep that to myself.  You can watch this video on Common Core to begin your own researching journey. 

My hope is that in addition to our regular family blog that I will update on our homeschooling journey.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  I know I have many friends interested in homeschooling, so my hope is that this part of my blog will be helpful to you.  Perhaps my failures will keep you from making the same mistakes that I make along the way.