We started our homeschool year at the end of July but due to unforeseen circumstances we ended up pausing for a few weeks. But we are BACK! and boy does it feel good to be back into a steady routine.
I decided that I genuinely love writing blogs and I love homeschooling so I thought a fun way to document our homeschool journey would be to blog! Sawyer, whose 5, is in kindergarten so he's our only official student, but Paisley, who is 2, loves to be included and I know she is soaking in all that she hears from her big brother.
We were so blessed this year and got approved for the TEFA funds. We got $2,000 for the year to get curriculum, books, craft supplies and we even got some Legos! I'll probably write another blog going into detail of all the things we ended up getting, but today I'm going to write about our first real week of school and what our routine looks like.
The curriculum I choose for this year is called The Good and The Beautiful. We did 2 years of preschool with horizons and I didn't love it. It felt very outdated and the way it was written was for a class of kids instead of tailored to one child. There was also a lot of prep and I just didn't have the energy with toddlers to prep so much. One of the reasons I liked the good and the beautiful was that its very open and go.
The kinder bundle comes with Language arts course book, the booster cards, and the booster books. It also comes with Math K course book, Math K box and handwriting. We also got all the kinder readers and 2 Science for little hearts and hands. One being Wind and waves (what were doing now) and the other is Sparks and Stars.
We also really make reading out loud an important part of our day. From devotions to short stories, to chapter books. We make it family time when we can, but also in small moments throughout the day.
Our day usually starts with a bit of chaos... trying to get everyone up and feed can sometimes feel like the building is on fire LOL. But after everyone is fed the morning slows down some. I put on worship music and the kids play, either in the living room with magnatiles or in their room. While they play, I usually will spend some time for myself, either prepping for the school day or doing something that fills my cup.
After free time, we clean up. Start a load of laundry (Sawyer usually helps me with this) pick up rooms and get dressed for the day. Then we all head to the living room to start school. This week I've been playing classical music while we do school, and I've been really enjoying it! Sawyer and I always start with handwriting since he can do it on his own. Paisley will play with her blocks on the floor or her color sorting game.
After handwriting we jump into LA and the reading booster cards or a cvc reader. I use a small whiteboard to write out some of the booster cards that I'm introducing so he doesn't get overwhelmed with the whole card. We spend about 10 minutes on the booster cards. Then we do the lesson and that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to maybe 25 if Sawyer isn't feeling it LOL. He does really well and learns so fast, but sometimes it's hard to get the boy to sit still, and about this time I have a 2 year old also getting antsy. That's when we do body movement and I find something fun on YouTube. Right now, they are really loving this cartoon salamander who does yoga.
Once everyone feels a bit better getting their wiggles out, we move onto math. I got Paisley a math book for 2 year olds... honestly, it's just coloring sheets with numbers on them, but she likes that she has a workbook of her own. Sawyer does really well with math, so we get through it fairly quickly. After math, we either do science or Bible. I like to talk about the Bible story daily, but we don't read a new story every day, so we alternate with science. We have the biggest story Bible that we all really enjoy, along with the Family devotion from the same writer. So every day we ask a question from that week's Bible story. It's such a great way to have conversations with the kids.
All of that takes about 2 hours, with about 20-30 minutes of body movement. We then do nap/quite time and then Sawyer will have earned some screen time. I do like to try to do arts and crafts after Paisley wakes up from her nap, but some days are just hard to get to that.
Last week we went on our first field trip to the botanical gardens. The kids LOVED it. We got to see all kinds of cool animals, plants, flowers, and even got to play at the playground there. It's finally starting to cool down some (still about 90 degrees during the day... but that's better than 110 LOL) so a morning trip was perfect!
I'm really thankful that I get the opportunity to homeschool my babies. Being able to get the TEFA funding genuinely opened up a lot for us. The curriculum, books, learning toys, craft supplies. It all adds up so quickly and I'm just so thankful to be able to have gotten what we needed.
I still don't have a name for our homeschool... I'll need to come up with something fun soon!
Your Friend,
Alli Jean
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