Replies

Thanks for the ping! Just completed my first week of homeschooling. We're just in kindergarten (I have a daughter, 5, and an 18-month old son) so the curriculum is loose and light and we're kinda winging it, but we're really having fun.

To set up for school, I got a laminated calendar month that we can mark up and change month to month, I made a Pledge of Allegiance with pictures interspersed and had it laminated, hung it on the wall under the flag. I have a US map and a world map up, as well as a Bible timeline. We also have a small globe and upper/lower case letter charts above her desk for her to reference. We have supplies like crazy - and has it been fun stocking up!

We started each day with prayer and then the pledge, and my daughter knows most of the latter already. Once she has it down pat, I think we'll discuss it a little and talk about what it means more.

Then we do our reading lesson - we are going through the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and we are on lesson 20. We started it at the beginning of August with no set schedule and the progress is so cool to watch. She already knew all the letter sounds but wasn't making the connection to form words, so to watch her read whole sentences is amazing. I told my husband that I hadn't even considered how satisfying it would be to actually TEACH someone. It's GREAT!!! I've been writing progress notes in the margins so I can go back and see how far she has come.

Then we practice writing her letters (also guided by the book), lowercase letters on actual penmanship paper. She gets a little big toward the end of the row, but they're looking better and always line up straight! We have a binder labeled "homework" where we file each day's paper, and on each paper, we circle and star the best letter of each row (she helps decide which is best) and then she gets a sticker.

Then comes Bible - our first week was creation week, and we pretty much went through each day = each creation day. She learned Genesis 1:1 as her verse for the week, and we made (are still making actually) a creation mobile from clay and paint. Each day we made what God made. For example, we made a light bulb for day one to symbolize His creating light, and today, for day six, we made an elephant (her choice for animal) and a man and woman. Now I just have to figure out how to hang them so it all makes sense!

I still want to incorporate some other things, but I think we are off to a good start. If anyone has any suggestions or additional ideas for me, please feel free to share - I would love to hear them.

Thanks all, for indulging me this post - I'm a little excited. :) Something else that is such a blessing - I had been praying about getting to spend some really good quality time with my daughter because her brother has been pretty demanding for months (he's that kind of kid - never stops moving, gets into everything etc, much more than his sister ever did) and my daughter has been getting somewhat shafted. Well, this definitely fits the description of quality time. And her brother has even been cooperative by napping long enough for us to have school. Til today, that is, but 4 outta 5 is pretty good!

In the spring time you can make a "green house".

To make a green house you need the following ingredients:

a very large piece of heavy green construction paper

Misc scraps of construction paper is various colors

a sealing plastic bag (ziplock style)

a few cotton balls

coloring crayons

seeds these can be flowers or vegetables, but it should be something that it easy to grow and something that you want to plant in your yard or garden

water

a piece of yarn or string

Other supplies needed are a stapler, hole punch, glue, or glue sticks, glitter

papers that is half picture space and half handwriting space for the student to write about their project

Directions

Cut out the green construction paper into the shape of a house with a chimmney and a peaked rooftop. Starting from the bottom in the middle of the house cut out a "window" which is a square section slighter smaller than the plastic bag.

The student then will decorate their house with the scrap paper, crayons, glitter etc. After the house has been decorated and dried staple the bag into the square opening being careful make sure that the top of the bag is stapled shut. The child may want to add a few decorations to cover up the staples.

The students then "plants" about 4-5 seeds with the cotton balls and a small amount of water in the bag. The bag is then sealed. You can punch a hole or two in the roof of the "house" to hang it with the yarn or string in a window.

The student then draws pictures of chronological order of the plant as it progresses every few days. They also write about what is happening in their own words. You can make this into a book. Since you will have extra seeds you can use real seeds in the book on the starting page.(You can even mail the book to grandma and grandpa to persuade them that your student is working and learning.)

After the plant has developed to the stage where it should be outside, have a planting party and plant it in your veggie garden or in a flower garden.

We started homeschooling our two boys about a month ago; you are doing a great thing for your children. We keep talking to parents who are anguishing about what the government schools are forcing on their children, for example the 10 year old girl who will be shown how to put a condom on a banana. We can do, and are doing, a better job than the government schools can do, and we do it all in about four hours a day. As I am sure you know, it is NOT easy, particularly our second grader, but it is rewarding.

Being completely unreligious, we do this solely to give our kids a better education. Obviously I have nothing against religion, but in looking at some of the home schooling options I cannot help but be amazed that people pick things like MATH curricula that are religious based; oh well, to each their own.