August 25, 2013

I cannot seem to keep the kids very interested in "book work."  Most of the time, they do not even like being read to.  (Little Girl also has a tendency to start screaming if I try to sing to them.  I still don't think I am THAT bad...)

Last night was a bit of a break through.  We managed to make it through our sign language lesson, a history lesson, a math lesson, and our Bible lesson.

We have been using the Signing Time videos for sign language lessons.  My oldest son loves them, and my daughter is growing more fond of them every time we watch.  We are also experimenting with some Spanish language videos.  With both of these languages, the lessons are something the whole family can do together.

We are attempting to use A Beka math for K4 and K5 with Matthew (the oldest son, age 5.)  He knows his numbers really well and can write them.  He, however, does not seem to understand the concepts of "same" and "different."  He just repeatedly identifies the objects in question.  He also does not seem to be able to follow simple directions such as, "Circle [object A]."  For Liz (age 2), we are just working on counting in general.

Seven months old David is learning baby things like sitting up on his own, crawling, talking, walking, etc.

For history, we are reading through Story of the World: Volume 1 as a nighttime story.  It has been hit or miss as to whether or not either of the older two children is paying attention.  Last night, Matthew actually listened to the story about the ancient Egyptians.

The Rhyme Bible is what we are currently reading for our Bible lessons.  Last night we finished the story of Moses.  We will now be reading about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.  We also watch VeggieTales for additional lessons.

Once I can get a printer, I will be printing many things off various blogs/webpages to supplement the materials we are already using.   At that time, I plan to share links to the resources and give a review on how well they worked for my children.

First Day of School

Even though my oldest will be going to preschool later in the month, we have chosen to begin kindergarten at home today.  His little sister is also starting preschool at home today.  Of course, things had to come up.  I had to take the car to the shop, so what could I do?  While I am taking care if business,  their daddy is working with them on identifying and counting money using play money I found at a discount store last week.  There is definitely something to be said for the versitility of homeschooling.

More Stuff!

Well, it has been a few days since a friend sent me a big box full of homeschool books.  It has just taken me a week to be able to post about it.  Hopefully I will make writing here more of a habit soon.

This is my first time using the Blogger app on my phone; so, hopefully, I am going to be able to post the pictures of the new items.  I fully plan to begin posting links to other sites/blogs where I have acquired other resources in the near future, too.

I thank God everyday for my children, and now I am thanking Him for the opportunity to homeschool them, too.  Since I began feeling the push to homeschool, a push my husband agrees with even if he doesn't feel it as strongly, opportunities have shown themselves at every turn.  I have collected many, many materials online from other homeschooling families.  (I may share their blogs/sites as I attempt to use their products in the future.)  Thrift stores and used book stores have also proven to be a great asset as I build a collection of resources and materials for our three children.

One outing to used book stores yielded this set of books:

Another trip enabled me to acquire these two books for my beginning reader(s):

Finally, this is the kids' bookshelf filled with several years worth of acquisitions:

Of course, the above is not all the books we have collected.  I am addicted to books and will grab as many as I can afford whenever I can.  Thankfully, my oldest son is even more addicted to books than his daddy and I are.  Our daughter is getting there.  Baby Boy is still young, but I am confident he will love books, too.

So, this is our beginning.  A family with a will to learn, a million and one (or so it seems) books and other materials, a mom who is a research-aholic, and a year until we "officially" begin homeschooling kindergarten.  Hopefully, that will be enough time to experiment with curriculums, teaching methods, and anything else so we can hit the ground running next August.