Homeschooling Update #1

The first official textbook Nadia completed was Get Set for School by Handwriting without Tears. They have since made a new edition of it, and it's now called My First School Book. This was an excellent introduction to the capital letters, and I plan to use it with Ian and Oliver in the future. A couple of weeks ago Nadia started their Kindergarten textbook (Letters and Numbers for Me). Yesterday she completed the review of the capital letters, and today she started learning the lowercase letters. The letter she still struggles with the most is "S." Her favorite lowercase letter thus far is definitely "i." She likes to write her name in all caps except she makes the "i" lowercase because she loves the dot. She also practices her handwriting by writing in a journal almost every day. Once she becomes more interested in drawing, I am going to have her use the Draw and Write Notebook for her journal.

The second official textbook has been I Know How to Count and Write, which is actually a handwriting and math textbook for preschoolers. I do NOT plan on buying this again in the future. It's been too easy for Nadia, and some of the pages aren't usable without buying the teacher's manual. The workbooks I've picked up at yardsales and Ollie's and such have been just as good (and MUCH cheaper). We are flying through this book since it's rather easy for her. It has about 180 pages, and I think it will take us less than one month to complete it from start to finish. When she finishes it, I plan to start her on their (Purposeful Design's) Kindergarten mathematics textbook, but again I am dubious as to whether I'll make that same choice for Ian and Oliver because some pages seem impossible to use without buying the teacher's manual (which I am unwilling to purchase). We shall see, but right now I'm guessing I'll try a different curriculum for first grade. I wish I had taken the dates of the homeschooling convention in Harrisburg into account when planning our vacation. I'll have to wait until next year to be able to attend one.

I was thinking of starting the My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum, but the first letter they work on is "S," which is her hardest letter to write. Also, I then discovered that I had purchased the preschool (age 4/5) curriculum from Sonlight rather than the Kindergarten curriculum. OOPS! So I am going to use that with both Nadia and Ian first and then do the MFW curriculum with Nadia after we finish the Sonlight curriculum. I don't think I'm going to purchase Sonlight's teacher manual for Kindergarten (like I did for their P3/4 and P4/5), but I do want to read the kids most (or possibly all) of the books they use in their Kindergarten curriculum. We've already read a few of them such as: Beezus and Ramona, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Little House in the Big Woods, The Hundred Dresses, and The Complete Adventures of Curious George. I can see that Nadia is going to be the guinea pig as I try different curricula out to see what will work best for our family, and of course depending on the learning styles of each child, I might make different choices for each one!

We typically do our "schoolwork" during Oliver's morning nap. Ian usually colors or plays with play-doh or stamps and stamp pads while Nadia does her math, handwriting, and journal. Once I start the Sonlight curriculum I am planning to include him for that portion of our "school day." I haven't been writing lesson plans yet, and I don't think I'll start any time soon unless we move this summer to a state where Kindergarten is mandatory (it's not in PA).