Just letting you know that we are still here, even though I haven't posted in awhile. It's been a busy busy couple of weeks around our home and I am just now getting to catch my breath a bit.
We started school last week and J is now quick to tell his jealous friends that "it's not as easy as you think" (which I secretly love to hear, ha!) So besides that, we are truly enjoying it! He can already tell you where about 8 different Indian tribes originated/lived, many different facts about Columbus, that a moose has poor eyesight (didn't know that!) and many other things that he has probably learned in the past but was usually too tired to tell me about it after school was out. I love hearing him tell me these things as we are reading or when I quiz him.
Our first day was long. I sat wondering that night how my other homeschool friends 1. do this with more than one child and 2. get done in just a few hours. Then day 2 came and then day 3 and we started to get in the groove. We hit all major subjects and plan to add in Spanish next week (once a week) and we are both learning which makes it so much more enjoyable. We've even figured out that we can start later on Fridays (gotta love that!) b/c it's a shorter day.
And for my family members who aren't so sure about this whole homeschooling thing...here is a list of the programs we are using that you can check out if you would like...Sonlight Core 3/4 Combined (Reading, History, Geography, Language Arts, Writing, Bible), Spelling City (for weekly spelling lists and tests that I put together from his writing mistakes, books we're reading, and general 5th grade spelling word lists), Teaching Textbooks 5 (Grade 5 Math), Rapid Recall (a wonderful program to help kids memorize basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts) and Real Science Odyssey (Chemistry for 5th graders...this is fun!). The Spanish program is one I found at the Texas Homeschool Coalition conference, written by a lady from the Woodlands and it's easy enough that I can learn as well as teach, seeing as how all that French I took in high school and college hasn't really come in so handy, ha! I am in the process of choosing a Grammar book to use, one that we can do once a week to back up the Language Arts writing.
The main program, Sonlight, is a tried and true homeschooling curriculum and one that is really great for beginners because they lay everything out for you, provide lesson plans, etc... And it's literature based, which I love. Back in the day, when I was a student teacher in Ft. Worth, the school in which I was placed did their reading, history and language arts like this also and I always thought it was a great idea. We read 2 to 3 chapter books at a time (he reads one, I read one aloud and we usually have one as part of history along with the actual history workbook) and everything stems from those books...geography, language, vocabulary, etc... I am so grateful to my friend KA for showing me how easy it is to follow Sonlight's guides and completely indebted to my friend (and homeschooling mentor/guru) GFG for loaning me her Core 3 and Core 4 books for the year so I didn't have to purchase them all! These two friends were really the push I needed to finally choose a curriculum.
J & I headed to Houston for the Texas Homeschool Coalition conference a few weeks ago where we were amazed at what is out there for homeschoolers. He loved looking at all of the books and supplements, I loved learning the legal rights we have, etc... And I was able to spend more time w/my friend GFG as well as meet some of her homeschooling friends. I even headed back Saturday to attend a few more sessions. It's a fantastic resource.
We have also joined the local co-op, which will meet once a month and J will have 4 classes: Art, Geography, PE and Science...in the spring they'll have Spanish. We already know about 1/2 of the families involved through Cub Scouts and church so we're excited about that.
So that's what I've been busy with...that, designing for Mason Creek and online work (the paying kind!), which I am extremely grateful for as I still have a large dentist bill to pay off!
As always, I am assuring you now that I will catch you up on our last few weeks...however, I am not promising that it will be tomorrow, ha!
2 comments:
Oh, you will love Sonlight! We're long time SL users here : )
For grammar, did you look at Grammar Ace? It's an easy, go at your pace, just the right amount, and with good teacher/mom helps. Sonlight sells it on their website. I'm using it this year with both my big boys; I read the lesson to them, we do worksheet A together for that lesson, and they do worksheet B solo. One day/week.
And yes, it does get easier. Don't compare too much to your hs friends who've always hs'ed - it's far different to do this with more than one when they've never been in school vs. taking a kid out of school and bringing him home. Keep that in mind on the days you feel overwhelmed! I'm sure you're doing a great job!!
Oh, yea!! Was wondering when you planned on starting. So sorry I missed your first day. I'm really glad you are finding your groove. There are as many different grooves as there are homeschoolers. ;-)
I'm thrilled for you on this new journey! yea!!
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