Planning Our Grade 1 Curriculum

Since grade 1 will be our first full year of homeschooling, we are going to stick to the public school calendar. This means that the school year will be arriving in less than 6 weeks. So, I'm frantically searching for the perfect grade 1 curriculum right this minute. However, I am not looking for a pre-packaged curriculum. For one, those are too expensive and two, I don't think it would work well for Future Bam's learning style.

For the second half of kindergarten this past year (we pulled our son out of public school after Xmas break) we used a mix of workbooks, online resources, games, and daily life experiences to complete the school year. Basically, we used the eclectic approach and I want to continue doing that for most subjects. However, for 1st grade I also want to be somewhat more structured so we are purchasing a textbook/workbook for each required subject just to have some guidelines to go by.

My dilemma now is that I need recommendations on good affordable textbooks, workbooks, games, & manipulatives. What should I buy? Do you recommend buying a textbook that is outdated by 5 years? What is the best textbook for our learning style?

I'd also like to hear your recommendations on the best homeschooling blogs out there that also provide great learning resources. I've yet to find a homeschooling blog that really suits us but I'm convinced one is out there so feel free to share with me your favorites. I will check each and every one of them out personally.

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Graduating Kindergarten At Home

From the moment I laid eyes on Future Bam I knew I wanted to stay at home with him and I did just that. When it came time to think about schooling, I had my heart set on homeschooling. It was just something I wanted to do and I knew Future Bam was the type of child who would flourish in a home school environment.

When it came time for Future Bam to start school we, surprising, enrolled him in public school. I know what your thinking. What did we do that for? Well, that's a long story that I have sort of discussed here and here. Anyway, soon after the holiday break this year we took FB out of public school and began homeschooling officially. We have now been homeschooling for a little over 4 months and every day is an adventure. I can't say it's been entirely easy because it hasn't. With homeschooling, taking care of another younger child at home, and working full time from home nothing is easy but it is do-able. I wish I was better equipped with words so that I could accurately describe this learning experience. I guess I'll just say it has been incredible.

In a few hours, Future Bam will graduate from Kindergarten. He has grown so much this year both physically and mentally. Here is a photo of Future Bam from yesterday.



Wow. He's grown so much since his first day pictured here.

We planned a picnic outside for today as our celebration but I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. We'll probably have to try again tomorrow.

In 3 months Future Bam will start 1st grade at home. I'm looking forward to another amazing year and I know he is as well...

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This Is What's Up

So I know I've been a little weird (maybe that isn't the right word) here lately and wrote that I was going to use another format, spend less time here, be less personal, yada, yada, etcetera, etc...

The thing is I can't commit to anything right now. Initially I thought I could but it's just not going to happen since we are in the midst of some big changes.

In addition to working full time from home, we are now officially homeschoolers!!

We withdrew our our son from public school this week after much consideration & discussion. Homeschooling is something we should have done since the beginning but I wanted to give our son the chance to try out public school. We did it. It wasn't for him. End of story.

We started "classes" today and I'm excited to report that it's going great so far amongst the chaos. Want a peek into our chaos? For starters, the 3 yr. old decided he'd get into his brother's supplies and pour an entire bottle of glue on to the carpet and draw all over his face with the "good" markers among other things. Let's just say he was quite interested in all of his brother's new things lying around.

The wonderful thing in all of this chaos was that our 3 yr old drew all 8 planets (What? You didn't know Pluto wasn't a planet anymore?) right along with his 6 1/2 year old brother. And, Future Bam's zest for learning is back. He is overjoyed to say the least.

Anyway, seriously, we completed more than a full day's worth of work in less than half the time it takes in regular school. How is that you ask? Homeschool and you will find out.

We are going to be doing a mix of worksheets and child led learning for now. I'm not sure I could classify our style at this point but we're leaning towards a mix of these 3: child-led, parts of the Moore Formula ( thanks to Quiet Mom & Fussy via Twitter. See Twitter can be good), and text book methods. I'm sure we will change as we go along to see what works best for everyone.

So now that this big change is taking place I want to be able to have the chance to talk about it here (or another new blog) as we go along on this homeschooling journey.

Finally, I want to say that I will still be blogging here but not on a schedule and it will be when I really have something to say or share. It won't be just to blog and get something up. I also want to try and do the Friday Linky Love post I talked about earlier but I may not always get to it on time so don't hold me to any standards. If you've learned anything on this blog it's that I change my mind a lot.

Soooo... bring on the organization/scheduling/recordkeeping tips homeschooling mommies & daddys!!!!

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Why Does This Have To Be So Hard?

Our oldest son will be 6 next week. Aside from party planning and all that, I'm really just making myself sick considering whether to really homeschool or send him to school.

Granted, school wouldn't start for him until August or possibly September, depending on what school we choose but the realization that schooling will happen hits next week when he turns 6. Because 6 is the official school age. Yikes!

I am driving myself and my husband crazy by going back and forth. Actually we are both concerned and we talk about it every day of the week. One day it's a definite homeschool, the next day its private school but only if it's a good private school, and then the next day maybe a private christian school until we find out that the christian school in our area is NOT non-demominational. We prefer(actually we must and will accept no less) to keep it non-denominational for personal reasons.

We tried the unofficial pre-homeschool to see how it would work out and if I forced a curriculum on him it would work better but I don't want to do that right now. For now, we read everyday, we play games everyday, and we do some workbook stuff when he desires to but not everyday. When I see a learning opportunity, I build upon it and do what I can to teach him. He does really well with what he is interested in but gets bored easily and would rather run off and play with his toys, his brother, or video games.

And, being who I am, I think that's totally ok and appropriate for his age. I want him to play for as long as he can. I know most kids his age are already going to school all day and everyone around us thinks he should be doing the same. And, that's where my insecurities come in to play. What if I do decide to homeschool and I'm not successful? What then? I know I have the knowledge to teach him but do I have the creativity? The will? Time? Will he take me as serious as he would a real teacher? Would I always be MOM to him instead of teacher? The issue overall is will this type of learning work for him or would he be better suited to have another authority figure teach him? I am opening this up for discussion and advice. What are your thoughts? What are your fears as your kids enter school age? Am I totally crazy for obsessing over my baby starting school?

I guess I have a little more time to think about it. Ultimately, we want the best learning environment possible for our son with hands on activities, lots of outdoor play and exploring, arts, music, and computers NOT just a whole day sitting quietly in a classroom doing paperwork.

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