My first 14 weeks of homeschooling

I am headed into our 2nd Sabbath Week. Our 7th week of school we take off so we can rest and regroup. I can plan and prepare for the next 6 weeks and my boys can have a break. Our first Sabbath week was so busy and crazy that I felt I never really got a break. We spent that week in California for my husband's grandmother's 100th birthday. We ended up staying for 7 days because of wonderful blessings that came our way. Like a free trip to Disneyland! I spent nights after the boys were in bed during our 6th week of school just getting the next 6 weeks ready before we left on vacation.

 

So now that we are done with another chunk of school I thought I would give you some insight into what we do, what we love and what we are changing.

First, Bible time. We love this time. And I think it has a lot to do with the book I chose. Its nothing more than activities. Perfect for my little boys. I would recommend this book to anyone that already knows the Bible stories and is just looking for a way to incorporate fun ways to help remember them. Telling God's Story activity book is awesome because each story has about 5 activities to go with it. So you are teaching the same story all week to help them remember it and also give them something different each week. We have colored, painted, used glitter, played games, baked cookies, and so much more. I like that I can pick and choose what we do based on what supplies I have at home.

 

Next is our Science. I have been using Apologia Exploring Creation Through Botany. I didn't buy the Junior addition because I knew that we wouldn't be using this all year and we would want to use this later in school when my boys are older. But I needed it for some ideas and also for terms that I didn't know otherwise. The activities we chose from the book were fun. Looking at seeds, planting seeds, collecting leaves, etc. Those helped my kindergartener so much in remembering terms. But we are going to take a break from this for the rest of the year and work on other life skills.

For everything else I bought the K4 curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler. My overall impression with this curriculum is that it is very well thought out and organized. It has everything to begin school with your young ones and the price is right so you can change and not feel like you are losing money. However, if you did have your child in former preschool (like us), the first 6-8 weeks of this curriculum and some later on will all be review and if they are like my kid will fly through all the work. He loves it but he is not as challenged as I hoped he would be for being 14 weeks into school. Reading and sight words is new for him so I love how she does have this set up. He has picked up on phonics and reading because of her way of teaching two new words a week. And only working on those words.

 

We have been having so much fun with homeschool. My kids are truly enjoying all that we do together. And my 3 year old is getting more interested so I plan on working with him in January. Right now he joins in and does some of the activities but I let him have a little more freedom with what he wants to do.

 

After this Sabbath week, I am adding 1st grade math skills. I went with Math-U-See Alpha curriculum and I am looking forward to telling you all about it. We also will be doing the A Beka Think and Learn book. I am also going add in Life Skills lessons that I make up. Things like dialing a phone (my kinder absolutely hates talking on the phone), tying shoes (we are desert rats and wear flip flops all the time), address, emergency phone numbers, fire escapes plans, etc. I plan on spending this next week preparing and planning and resting. Adding in this week of rest was the smartest thing for me.