Kristi's Kwips - Homeschool Open House 2007

Jul. 31, 2007 - Homeschool Open House 2007

My friend Tiany over at Less of Me~More of Him is sponsoring a Homeschool Open House. So here goes...

My name is Kristi and we are homeschooling our 6 year-old son, Jesse. We live in a small town in northwestern Virginia where there aren't many homeschoolers. Those that there are tend to be looked upon as strange. We decided to homeschool Jesse when he was 4. He wanted to learn to read. Well, I couldn't turn down that request just because he wasn't old enough to go to public school. What we found was a blessing in disguise! We truly love homeschooling!!

Last year was our "kindergarten" year. We used Sonlight which provided us with some great read-alouds. We learned to read with 100 Easy Lessons which truly were easy!! And we started out our Math-U-See journey with the Primer and quickly advanced to Alpha level where we still are. This year at the HEAV conference we found a wonderful curriculum that has been around for a couple of years (unfortunately I haven't found it before now) called Moving Beyond the Page. It is geared toward age groups instead of levels. It is so exciting!! We are starting with the 6-7-8 year old level which provides some easy reading books and some terrific projects!! We are going to lapbook our way through the curriculum. My only worry is that it may take us forever to do everything we want to do!! But we are just going to take our time and go day by day. If you would like to check this curriculum out, go to www.movingbeyondthepage.com.

With this curriculum, our goal for the year is to spend roughly 3 hours a day in school (that doesn't count read alouds at bedtime/naptime). Jesse will get up by 8:00 a.m., get dressed (maybe, we tend to do school in our jammies!) and eat breakfast. School starts at 9:00 with devotions. We are going to be using Karen Henley's devotions this year. We may add in Sword Fighting as the year goes along. We are going to be doing a Bible curriculum from Answers in Genesis, but that probably will be a once a week thing on Mondays. Then we will do our core stuff, LLATL and Math-U-See. Handwriting will also be an every day thing. Jesse really enjoys spelling so that will probably be an every day thing or at least every other day thing. We also purchased a Spanish Curriculum (the Learnables) that Jesse just has to listen to and do on the computer. We also have a music curriculum that will be a once a week thing, but I haven't decided which day of the week to do that. Whew! That sounds like a lot!! Hopefully we will work on school work until around lunchtime, then we will eat and take our nap. Yes, Jesse still naps. It maintains both of our sanity!!

Where do we do school? All over the place!! We do devotions cuddled on the couch. Schoolwork is done at his table in the living room and most of our read alouds are read at naptime and bedtime. Jesse is definitely a cuddler so the more of school that we can do snuggled the better!!

My biggest problem with school is organization. We live in a small house (880 square feet). Jesse's bedroom is tiny, so most of his toys gravitate to the living room. We have a spare room, but it is full of stuff. I haven't figured out totally how to organize all of the books that we use regularly and the book that we will use occasionally AND the manipulatives of MUS. I have rearranged the living room and there is a bookcase devoted solely to school books. I'm also going to get Jesse and big plastic case of drawers to put under his table to hold things like crayons, rulers, paper, that sort of thing! We are also going to lapbook our school work this year so that all those loose papers end up inside a lapbook instead of everywhere!! I think that will be a major help!!

My best advice is to use things on the internet to "spice" up school. Jesse loves Spelling Time and now they have introduced a math program, too. Now these used to be free and they have been forced to charge for them. But trust me, the results are well worth a little expense! Jesse loves spelling because of this program and I am hoping that his math skills improve as well.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed your journey through our homeschool!! Sorry this has gotten so long!! Good luck on your coming year!!

Hugs!
Kristi

• Post A Comment!

Comments

Aug. 1, 2007 - Hi!

Sounds like you're doing a great job with homeschooling! I love the way you are making it soooo fun :) That is the best bit. And spending lots of time with your son. These years are so precious :)
Thanks for sharing,
Love,
Joy

« December 2009 »
Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31