homeschool: the first few weeks

  I've spent the last few months researching homeschool.....one thing I've learned? People become intensely emotional over the subject. Good and bad. It was just yesterday I saw that a well known blogger asked for some information on homeschool, and while she received some great resources and ideas, she also received a couple handfuls of hateful, ignorant, and completely unnecessary comments. 

Let's not do that here. Please respect my choice to teach my kids as I please. Please be respectful to other readers and commenters. Thank you, and you. And you.

she reads. 

all photos from my iphone.

 

I have had SO many many many questions about homeschool over the last couple of weeks. This is so funny to me, mostly because.....well......I don't know what I'm doing, let's be honest. 

I thought I'd share my experiences so far, and check in along the way to see how things are going.

Why Homeschool?

Very popular question for me right now.

I first started thinking about it last year, when I had a first grader and preschooler. Nothing terrible had happened at public school (I find this a common question when someone switches over to homeschool), I LOVED the schools my kids were at, and their teachers were fantastic. This year was also a wonderful school year. I really can't imagine my kids having better teachers-- they were learning and growing and loved going to school. I have nothing against public school (at least our school), yet I kept wondering about homeschool. 

I just felt like it was something I would like to try.

And then we decided to move.

I realized what better time to test the waters of homeschool than right now!? It didn't make sense to me to switch my kids schools with only a few months of the school year left. Let's try out homeschool for the rest of the year and see how we all do.....yes let's do that.

What curriculum are you using?

a little of this, a little of that.

Because this is only for a few months, I didn't want to rush out and spend a ton of money on books/workbooks/supplies/etc.

I met with both the kids' teachers before we left and got an idea of where they should be by the end of the year. I was even sent home with some language and math worksheets for my boy to help me finish out the year (so nice!!). I scoured the web for the best deals on books, and was pretty proud of myself when I found a book for a penny......one cent! Forty four cents! A couple dollars. Thank you Amazon and Half.com for selling used books.

I bought a few workbooks new, and we go to the library weekly for new books to read, and to supplement our History Book (I'm using THIS one--w/ the activity book, and really enjoying it so far).

I'll also rely on the library for Science resources.

NOTE: obviously kindergartners aren't learning history and do very little science, so it's all just a bonus for my Lu right now to get all of this:)

Will you homeschool forever?

Who knows?! So far, so good, we all really enjoy it. That being said.....it's been two weeks. I am set on doing what is best for my kids, so we will see where this takes us. I have heard wonderful things about the schools up here, and we are excited to go check them out and see what we think. If I think our little homeschool is a better fit for next year, we may stay  home.....we will just have to see what is best for our family.

We are still very new to this whole thing, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to stay organized and on track. Last week we started out fairly easy with just working on Math, Reading, and Language Arts. This week we added in History, and we are reading together alot more. Next week I'll add in Science. I am trying to incorporate different kinds of art, extra writing, and lots of hands on activities into what we are learning each day.

For example:

 

Last week in math we had talked about measurements. Inches, centimeters, and estimating. After lunch one day, we grabbed notebooks, pencils, and rulers and set off on a little hike. The kids measured whatever they wanted to-plants, rocks, animal tracks in the mud, a spider, etc. They had to draw what they measured in their notebook, and write their measurement.

 

On another day we went out for a walk through the sticky spring mud. When we got home I had the kids write about all of the "spring things" they saw on our walk. (words and pictures for HER, a few paragraphs for HIM). It's not all that springy here quite yet--but they wrote about all the mud, the birds we saw, the warm sunshine, the bugs. I told them we'd go to the same place in a few more weeks and see how it's changed.....and write about it again.

other bits:

-I like a routine. We get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, read scriptures with daddy before he leaves for work, and then get started. I don't want to drag our feet all morning and start school late.

-I'm exhausted. I've crashed at 9 the last two nights......this is so early for me! I'm still trying to find a balance being mom AND teacher (oh yeah, and getting my house unpacked.)

-I LOVE having them home all day. It makes me so happy when we are eating lunch together.

-I got them journals right before we moved. We write in them every few days--whatever they want to write about (sometimes it's really funny to read....like when he writes "I like to eat pickles".)
-there is waaaay too much information out there. I say this because it is easy to get overwhelmed. I talked to a few people about what THEY do for schooling, and that gave me a starting point for my own research.

I'd love to hear any of your ideas! 

Whether it be activities you do, resources you use, your favorite books......please share. 

I will check in on the subject every now and then to let you know how we are doing, what fun things we are up to, and if I'm pulling my hair out yet.....