I am sharing my thoughts and our accomplishments this year, as several mamas have been asking about what we do and how we do it.
I prayed. All last summer. And a lot throughout the school year. I didn't want to do this unless it was God's best plan for our family.
We had the opportunity to join a wonderful small co-op this January, and so I prayed even more. We decided to join, and we love it! Fellowship and community. We all need it. God made us this way.
Our five year old joined a ballet class and we knew it would be a good fit when the owner said, "You home school?! We LOVE home schoolers!"
She also joined Awana at our local Baptist church. These commitments have been great for making friends, building her confidence, and learning.
Snow days are a gift from God. I always recognize them. My kids go out and enjoy God's beautiful creation. We talk about the phrase "white as snow." We make a fire, watch old movies, and eat tomato soup and grilled cheese. JOY!
Birthdays should be school holidays AND celebrations.
What we have accomplished has been tangible as well as intangible.
Our oldest has developed a lot of quiet confidence in herself, and her abilities. She has made new friends. She has matured into a helpful, diligent and kind person, even more than she was before. I think having her at home and being able to focus on building up her strengths, as well as strengthening her weak areas, has been totally worthwhile.
She has also learned how to read, how to count to 37, and add numbers. She can spell many words without help. The phonetically spelled words are the funniest, though!
She has great hand writing, has memorized all the preK and most of the K sight words. She loves history and bible reading, and ponders many bible stories at length.
Our 2 year old has learned all the upper and lower case letters, their phonic sounds, and can write many of them. She sounded out her first word the other day!
She has enjoyed a lot of marker time, Play Doh time, helping in the kitchen, basic counting, stories, games, cutting with scissors, tracing letters, "spelling" words and watching her big sister learn.
The materials I would recommend are:
BOB Books for reading
LeapFrog DVDs for phonics, for both ages!
General workbooks for preK, my girls LOVE them, and I can allow them to work on their own.
Story of The World for preK
The Picture Bible for preK
Also, our co-op is using We Choose Virtues, which my oldest loves, and I highly recommend that as well.
