Hello everyone and Happy New Year!!
The last 6 months have seen us toss up the idea of home schooling. Ethany is a bright spark and has generally driven us around the bend since she was 2. Mostly she was bored! She was in desperate need of mental stimulation and more than just reading books and answering the millions of questions she has. Soooo, after much thought we decided it best to start home schooling her.
After she turned 4 we started with a few basic things, some Kumon handwriting workbooks and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. That went well and we took a very relaxed approach starting out. She cottoned on VERY quickly and was asking to do 'school' all the time. I also found some online maths worksheets which she loved.
This year we have decided to take it a little more formally as if she were going to school she would be in Kindy (US preK), not only that but she is operating at a Grade 1 level for most things. So after breakfast we get stuck into a few things and later in the day we do reading and depending on the day a science or geography related activity. She is loving it and Xavier is thriving too. Even Imogen wants in on the act sitting on my knee, scribbling on some paper or trying to complete a puzzle.
So, what are we using? Everyones favorite questions isn't it, well, here is the list -
ETHANY
Queens Language Lessons for Little Ones 3 (just started and loving it)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (almost finished)
Websters Speller
Explode the Code book 1 (almost finished)
Math on the Level
Kumon Grade 1 Addition
Five in a Row
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2
Our own geography study
Reading Eggs
XAVIER - he mainly just tags along for everything and participates when he wants but things he actually does with me include
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (just starting out)
Before Five in a Row (not every week, when we can get the books on inter library loan)
Reading Eggs
We are also working on letter and number recognition
Please don't get the wrong idea. It might look like we are doing HEAPS, but really we are not. Any official lessons we do are not longer than 10 mins. Also plenty of what we do is informal. I am using the books more as ref for me to guide discussions and ideas for throwing things like science and math into everyday life. We also love living books and borrow our quota everytime we visit the library.
We are looking forward to a great year !!
Amber
