Preparing for School

Not officially, but we are planning for a great year of warming up to homeschooling. Wesley will not begin registering with the school system as a homeschooler until next year when he is official kindergarten age, and we will not begin the trivium until the year after that. So really we have two full years to warm up and I couldn't be more excited! (Yes, he turns 5 in September, but the date so closely coincides with the cut-off date that we're waiting. It's a boy thing for us.)


In fact, I am so excited that I want to organize my homeschool thoughts and plans right here for all those who care, because I want you to be excited, too! I know we are very blessed to have such supportive friends and family in this, especially the grandparents. And for your particular enjoyment, grandparents, I hope to host a literary program in January to showcase our school year explorations. Keep in mind I say this tentatively and hoping that this next baby will be easier than someone else I know.

I just received my last package of materials today, and I have 2 beloved totes of homeschool paraphernalia. I feel like we've been really blessed to buy great resources and have good advice on how to best spend our money. So, here's the line-up!

Bible - We have an awesome Children's Picture Bible that is more complete than I would have imagined a kid's Bible to be! We'll be studying that along with our question book that came in our Bible Blast program. It's awesome! We'll be reviewing the ABC scripture memory from last year and finishing the alphabet (we made it through Q). We bought a Sing the Word CD, which is just precious! I'm trying to read a Proverb at breakfast coinciding with the date on most weekdays. The kids were not good for me when this first started, but they learned to sit quietly and finish their food after about a week and a half.

Music - Nothing much here. I think Wesley may have an artistic bent, so I wish I knew what to do. So sorry to be moving away from our pastor's family, because I really wanted one of them to teach the kids. I don't want them to be taught the way I was taught, because mine certainly didn't stick. Any music suggestions?

Math - We need to work on reading and writing math, and just keep drilling the addition and subtraction he's picking up so well.

Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I asked for lots of advice here and read lots of online reviews. Given the new baby, the move, and my tendency to make too big a deal out of things, we're going for simplicity here. We've completed 5 lessons and I really like how everything is simple, streamlined, and planned out for me. Plus it was about $12 after shipping and I can use it for every child.

Writing - I wouldn't normally think pressing handwriting on a little boy would be a good idea...but Wesley is all the time trying to write words and he's not forming the letters correctly at all. Better to learn it correctly now than to get those bad, slow habits ingrained. I haven't been able to get my eye off the Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting Series ever since I saw it at the homeschool conference last year, so that is what we bought. It's not the typical ball and stick writing; it's got a natural flow more like how I write. It leads into cursive without changing the shape of the letters and then it goes to calligraphy.

Read Aloud - This is where we're going to concentrate most. We'll be doing a classical, literature-based education when the trivium begins. This year I was able to find some beautifully bound abridged classic books like Tom Sawyer, so they're the page range we need (100 - 300 pages). We also bought the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series and it is a hoot! We've already read one book and I definitely recommend them. I get lots of giggles when we read these! My plan for finding time to read aloud? Breastfeeding time is going to be read aloud time, and we're nixing the tv.

Science - We have a great stack of old Big Backyard magazines that I'm going to try to read with Wesley. They have cool activities, too. Wesley also is a big fan of the Answers magazine published by Answers in Genesis. These are great science for all ages and cover all the sciences. Plus the kids have the benefit of asking Mommy about how things work any time of the day.

History - This will be tied to holiday study this year. Obviously, the Bible and Answers magazine include quite a bit of history, too. I would love to get my hands on some elementary level biographies, but I am leery because sometimes different authors don't present an authentic story of people. That's too much of a tragedy for us to waste time on! I'm going to keep my eye out for old biographies because they seem more trustworthy and honest.

Calendar Time - Don't want to forget the basics! We'll hopefully have a great poster set up with a place for the day, date, weather, and other basic things that are associated with preschool and kindergarten. We got some cool stuff at the Dollar Tree for this.

This is all geared toward Wesley and Cora is just along for the ride. I feel like if her behavior were good by the time Wesley starts the trivium, she'd be able to start first grade right along with him. Certainly she'll get some of it, but they'll really be one year apart according to the school year labels.

If you're wondering what the trivium is, you better just look it up. You'll get an earful if you ask me! I will say that it's going to be a huge challenge for us. I wish I were educated that way, so I figure we can try to take on that challenge and all be educated that way.

My general guidelines for what I want to do this year came from a workshop and booklet my pastor's wife, Dominic, hosted for us and also from The Well-Trained Mind. If you need kindergarten/preschool help I can make a copy of the booklet Dominic put together. It's a great resource! I know I'll get tired this year and not always want to do my best. That's why I'm enjoying these warm-up years and also trying to keep it low key. We will not have a schedule, we'll just try to incorporate these things into our day as part of our time together. It also helps that we'll be staying home more with the baby and trying to stick to the goal of no tv on weekdays. Plus, motherhood is a great motivator to do better than I would otherwise.