One of the things I have come to realize is that homeschooling can be very freeing and flexible. This is especially true here in Texas where the homeschooling laws are very flexible. I LOVE that because it gives us the freedom to adapt learning to each child's level and interests.
People sometimes ask me what curriculum we are using, and I often respond like this:
First, I have read several books that have helped me realize my style and my kids style, for now. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can change approaches as often as you see fit for the needs of your individual child. That's why I say this is what works for us NOW. It may not be what works for other homeschoolers or what will work for us in the future.
A couple of the books I mentioned that have helped me understand our homeschooling philosophy are Free To Learn by Peter Gray, and A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille. Both of these books have helped me realize my children need freedom to explore and cultivate their love of learning at this early stage in life. I don't follow the philosophies exactly, but we do our version that so far has worked well for us.
My kids need variety. Because if this we have opted not to purchase a boxed curriculum. Plus, those can be super expensive! The ONLY curriculum we have purchased is our math curriculum. We hardly spend any money on curriculum! There is just so much out there that is free!
Keep in mind my kids are 6 and under. I mostly focus on my six year old who just finished kindergarten. We like to do unit studies, which is where we pick a theme for a week or two and try to tie the theme in to as many subjects as possible. I like to interview my son and ask him what he wants to learn about every few months. This is based on our kindergarten school year. The little ones sometimes tag along but I don't push it AT ALL, and surprisingly, they are also learning so much with no effort from me :)
Here are the resources we use for our homeschool by subject:
READING:
- Bob Books with free printables from several websites. A search on Pinterest has more!
- The library! We love checking out books on our theme. We also sometimes check out read along books with CD's or audio books to listen to in the car.
- Hoooked on Phonics readers- My sister found an AMAZING deal on the entire hooked on phonics kit at Goodwill! We mostly just do the readers for free reading time but in the future I can see us using more of the curriculum.
- Chapter book read alouds. We purchased a whole set of Roald Dahl chapter books at Costco, and for a while we read several of the books for our read aloud time. We really enjoyed James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. We are planning on reading more chapter books like Peter Pan and Charlotte's Web.
WRITING:
We try to make writing as natural and as fun as possible. At first we were just practicing writing letters and words on the chalkboard, white board, on the window, on a salt tray, etc. More recently for our writing we try to do the following:
- Copy work- to work on handwriting I write down a scripture and my son copies it. Usually it's just half a scripture and I try to encourage him to make it as neat as possible.
- Lists- I will give my son a paper and tell him to write four things he wants at the grocery store. I help him spell the words, but require his handwriting to be very neat so we can actually read it.
- Letters to friends and family. He is required to write at least one sentence by himself, and then he dictates the rest and I write it. Then he reads it back to me.
- Lapbooks- A lapbook is a type of file folder report on a given theme with different activities inside on different subjects. The writing sections could include new words, labeling parts, making lists, writing about an experience, copying words etc. My son loves his lapbooks :)
- Writing Books- My son occasionally will ask to write a book. We staple pages together and he either illustrates the book, or cuts out pictures from a magazine, and then dictates while I write. I try to guide him sometimes to help his sentences make sense:) His books are usually pretty silly and random, but I LOVE that! It is just so funny to read them.
MATH
- RightStart Mathematics- a very hands on curriculum with a ton of fun math games for practice. It's perfect for my son. We love it!
- Playing store with realistic money and cash register. Another favorite.
- free ipad apps for counting money, telling time, patterns, etc.
SCIENCE
As the theme of the week allows, we do a lot of science!
- Pinterest. There are always so many ideas on Pinterest. I LOVE pinterest. It has made homeschooling possible for us.
- 20 minute science
- Education.com- lots of free printable and ideas
- Netflix- The Magic School Bus, Wild Kratts, nature and science documentaries
- Amazon Instant Video- Popular Mechanics for Kids, other nature and science documentaries
- Lapbooks- mentioned above. Some that we have done are Sharks, Penguins, Planets, and Desert Animals. I get all of the components free by searching on pinterest and on other websites. There are a lot of free ones at homeschoolshare.com
MUSIC
- Church hymnbook and Primary Songbook
- Pandora radio
GOSPEL
- The Friend Magazine
- The Illustrated Scripture Stories
- Mormon Channel App
- and the Scriptures of course
ESPAÑOL
I like to come up with literacy activities when we do our reading time. For Spanish we do everything from little board games where we have to read the words, card games, manipulating plastic letters to make words, using education cubes,and sometimes I make up my own simple worksheets to practice syllables and vocabulary. There are not as many free resources I have found for teaching a bilingual child Spanish literacy, but I feel we're doing okay with what we have so far. Here are some of the little books we use.
- Tesoros De lectura
- Libritos de fonetica Lectura- my friend passed me these little readers after she used then in her homeschool
Our first grade themes will be based on a Magic School Bus elementary science lesson plans. We will probably change some themes around and put other ones in there. We also have a music curriculum we are looking at. We acquired it for free and it has information on basics of music as well as composers, and styles of music. I'm excited to give it a try. We will continue with all the other resources for our other subjects. We're having a great time with our homeschool, and we're looking forward to continuing on after a week of a little break!
