Planning, Planning, Planning... A Revelation

Now that we've moved and gotten settled, I'm knee-deep in planning mode. We will be officially starting 1st grade and PreK in June. I've been all over Pinterest and blog after blog reading curriculum reviews. 1st grade is serious business, still fun, but more serious. I can clearly see my big girl is ready for more, so more is what we'll do. I've immersed myself in theory, reading The Well Trained Mind (and loving it), Charlotte Mason Companion and Cathy Duffy's 101 Top Homeschool Picks. Surely with all this reading, I'd find *the* one that would encompass everything.

I did not. Bummer.

It occurred to me though, while reading Duffy's book, that I had been going about this completely backwards. Rather than finding a program in a box that would tell me exactly what to do and when (because who doesn't like that reassurance that you're doing all that you have to do when it comes to educating your children?), I should have been telling the program what to do! I am in control, the true beauty of homeschool, so I set about thinking on what I wanted this year to mean for us, keeping in mind what they love, and giving them access to new things.

I want them to love reading, focusing on Gabster especially as it's a struggle for her. I'm sending back All About Reading (they have a money back gaurantee!) as it is totally not helping her one bit. She finds is monotonous and boring, (rolls her eyes and sighs when I bring it out) with no use for the tiles as she's not a hands on learner. We can accomplish the same task with a basic pack of flash cards. Since she can sound out words well, all she needs to do is READ. I doubt I'll ever invest any more money in a full reading program. Perhaps she needs Level 2, but I previewed and honestly, it's the same things as this, just different words. For Lil Bit, since she knows her letters and sounds, we'll work on blends to hopefully have her on her way to reading by 5.  I would like to add in biblical studies and history (my fave!). Lastly, I very much want to do science, and since my husband loves that, involve him so he can have special time with the kiddos. I want them to love learning, and become more self sufficient. Chores will be the big change for them, I hope that goes over well as we add more accountability and structure. They will each have one activity, I'm hoping piano for Gabster and I'm not sure what yet for LB. She likes dance, but I'm not sure she would miss going.

So here's what's on deck!

Gabster's 1st Grade Line Up - She enjoys me reading aloud quite a bit, so I've chosen things that would have me do that. It will be hard with baby brother underfoot, but we'll make due. Thankfully a lot of these have audiobooks to give my voice a break!

Math- Singapore 1B. We're just about finished with 1A so we'll continue. If it isn't broke, don't fix it! It has been great. I'm picking up the Intensive Practice books as well.
Reading/Language Arts- Aside from just continuing to read as much as we can, I may add First Language Lessons in the fall if she has progressed well. I think grammar is very important and worth starting early. She will do a lot of writing with the history and science curriculum, so anything extra will just be free writing of her choosing. I may add something like Spelling Workout in the fall as well to build vocabulary. My focus this summer is to get this girl to LOVE reading! Elephant and Piggie, here we come! I intend to read chapter books aloud. We're finishing up Charlotte's Web and I think Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is next.
History- Story of the World Vol 1 - We'll be studying Ancient Times, I'm so excited! This will be our first attempt at classical education featuring memory work.
Science- Elemental Science - I considered just winging it, but really, it's quite affordable and would save me a lot of time!
Bible Studies- Telling God's Story Year One. What I like most about this series, is that it begins with Jesus. The parables in my mind, seem like the perfect starting place for getting young learners to understand Christ.

We will NOT do all of this everyday. Math and reading are daily, science is on Fridays (catch that NPR fans?). History is Tues/Thurs and bible studies MWF.  If we end up doing a coop this year, that'll change things up a bit, but I'm leaning toward waiting until LB is in kindergarten so they can go together and baby brother is older.

Lil Bit's PreK Line Up

Reading- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I like the looks of this, and just a few minutes a day sounds perfect to get her blending sounds. No fancy tiles, white boards and flash cards.

That's it. Easy eh? She'll join in for history, science and bible studies. For math, I am focusing on one to one correspondence and counting up past 20. Simple conversations during play can accomplish this so I'm just going to have fun with her. I'd like to make her "all by myself" boxes I saw on this GREAT blog to keep her engaged while I do math/reading with big sister. I would like to keep the house media free (notwithstanding enriching computer programs) until after school is done (most likely after 3pm) especially for her. We'll work on writing her letters and improving her speech.

Phew, it's almost midnight so that's all for now. Once everything listed above arrives, it's time to plug things into my planner and start gathering supplemental books and supplies. I'll update at the six week mark to see if anything needs to be changed.

Moving

So a lot has changed for our family...a LOT! We moved a few miles down the road to a new town and after 3 weeks we are slowly, very slowly, getting back into the groove of school. To be honest, I've felt quite terrible about it all. We spent the last half of February packing, the first half of March moving, and now we're into April and in the midst of unpacking. Weeks have gone by, and we've done only a few sit down lessons as outlined in my previous post. So much wasted time I've thought, what have I gotten myself into, she would have been doing SO much in school if she stayed.

Whoa.

She's 6.

Chill.

Ok. :)

Psst. She would have been on track out mostly anyway.

We have been reading everyday without fail. We play "I Spy" in the car, and add/subtract random things. We have focused on self help skills with nearly 4 year old LB especially. We have talked about our feelings as this is a big change and some days have been very hard for us all. Lots of tears over the smallest things has been the theme. "This house makes different sounds." "Where's my (fill in the blank)?" We've gone to the children's museums and parks almost every week just to get out and have fun. I actually think now it was a gift to her, this break, as I can only imagine how much more of a basket case she would be if she were in school everyday stressed to be the perfect student, and then coming home to a disheveled mess of a house with strange noises.

I decided that we will continue with this very casual approach, enjoying spring and getting messy in the garden, reading as much as we can, while I sit down and map out a plan for 1st grade. I hope to start in June.