So what else is new.
I've had a few people ask me about HOW to start homeschooling, or what books to read, or what curriculum I like, so I thought I'd put it out there for future reference (and for myself as I forget this stuff).
When we started Kindergarten the first time 5 years ago, I had one Kindergartener and one hanger-on. Lu was my 4 year old, and Josher was 2, then 3 and interested in sitting on the couch with us during baby Ben's morning naptime. These were such precious, snuggly learning times. In fact, though we've tried many other schooling scenarios (school at the kitchen table/"homeschool room"/separate working areas, etc), we love "couch school" the best.
First comes Bible. Always. God comes first in our lives and hearts, so He comes first in our schooling, too. For Kinder, we memorize large portions of scripture by reading through the whole thing once, talk about the meaning and then read through again. That's it. We continue reading it through twice daily until we can all say it from the heart. It usually takes about 2 months. (start with Psalm 23, and then work through your favorites)
Second, Literature. I use Five In A Row as my literature/guided activities guide. The basic premise of Five In A Row is reading the same prescribed book 5 days in a row, bringing out one element from Social Studies, Language Arts, Art, Math and Science.
Third, Science. I use Christian Liberty Science Reader 1. We love how it details the lives and purposes of everyday creatures and directs the reader to worship God as Creator.
Fourth, Math. We like Right Start Math A. Through Right Start, my boys have been able to see the relationships of numbers and are able to manipulate them more easily. This is a much more "natural" math, based on research of how children really think about math. Proving that there is no prescribing one curriculum to everyone, my daughter needs the less-deep-thinking, more scaffold-ed approach of Saxon.
Fifth, Reading. The Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading is my favorite. This book starts with all the vowel and consonant sounds and takes the reader (and their parent) right on through to "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". It is also scripted, which gives me comfort that I've explained it "right". After the first 26 lessons (all the sounds of the alphabet), the reader can read their very first Bob Book. What a feeling of accomplishment for a young one!
That's it! Don't do any more--not even if they are begging. Help build their anticipation for learning. If all 5 subjects are too many, try breaking them up and school once in the morning, and once in the afternoon, or drop Science or Literature or both or swap those subjects with sometime that's more appealing to the child.
Try to make it enjoyable. (It won't be enjoyable all the time)
Learning is hard work, and we are teaching them to do hard things for God's glory.
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