New Homeschooling Plan

Before Baby R was born we were working on the Prepatory Program over at Letter of the Week. We never finished and I haven't gotten back to it, but we are starting another section from that main page called Letter of the Week Age 3. I know most of my school age children are older than age 3, but we are expanding it to include them all, even Cutie Boy. I like this new one a little better, just because it focuses more on the letters. M doesn't know all of them and the sounds they make yet. I mean, she knows them but they are not concrete. The other girls know them well having really learned the letters and their sounds through LeapFrog videos. (Speaking of that, I should order those from our library again.) So, the older girls might not get as much out of the general letter stuff, but we are expounding on that letter for that week.

Starting Monday, we are starting with the letter A. I have cursive and printing pages, coloring pages, Africa map printouts, theme words, A snacks (apples, applesauce, animal crackers), a link to an abacus. They will be introduced to lots of new words and animals and such. We'll be getting books from the library about things that start with A, including books that are easy to read books. K was asking the other day for some of those. I reminded her of the BOB books that I have and she pulled them out again and was trying to read a few pages to her brother.

K can read more than she lets on, I think. She gets stuck on getting things perfect and I think that she is not reading to me, like I figure she can, until she knows a particular book really really well. I think as her confidence grows, she'll show me more what she can do in that area. I just need to provide the tools for her to practice.

I spent lots of today printing all that I need for the week. I think I will try to do that each Saturday or Sunday, so that I don't have to spend my time rushing around in the morning, getting the pages we need printed. We can just jump in as soon as breakfast and clean up are done in the morning.

I find that if we don't get on "schooly" stuff in the morning, it doesn't usually get done, unless we have had a few really lazy days in a row. Then the girls are often seen pulling up a desk or chair with their math workbooks and doing a few pages while I work on the computer or something. Also, Monday and Friday afternoons we have activities in the community that we go to participate in with other children - a story time at the library and a music time at the local preschool room.

I am slowly collecting resources and finding our homeschooling groove. The children are soaking up information left, right and center. It's great to see and hear what they are learning, even without more formal studies. I'm very excited. As they get older we do more and more sit down work because they can handle sitting for longer periods of time and their fine motor skills are developing better to be more suited to printing and drawing. They have more experiences in their short lives now to draw on to make pictures and collages. K's art abilities and ideas are growing by leaps and bounds! It is very exciting to see. Although we are not using all the resources I have bought and planned on using this year, I know that in the future they will be used as interests and skills develop!

So, this week is the letter A.