This time, last year, I was preparing for the Home school conference in Atlanta. I still appreciate all the thoughts and comments left on that post.
Well- It is time for it, again!!! And with a year under my belt of “practice” I hope I know what I am looking for this year. However I am, once again, asking for any thoughts, suggestions, experience you ladies have to offer!!
I have been looking through the www.Christianbook.com catalog (and I know there are more books out there, I was just looking for rough ideas…) and from the descriptions I have made a list of books I though would work but I am open to the wisdom that comes from experience… Please feel free to share what you all like and dislike!
Lily will be 5 in June.
She has started reading and writing. I LOVE to see what she has written and sounded out by herself… CIS = kiss MILC= milk BRED= bread CHEZE= cheese… She loves to write out what I am putting in the shopping cart while we are at the grocery store.
I am hoping to find Early Readers Series by Alpha Omega, Bob Books by Bobby Lynn Maslen, or Draw Write, Now by Hablitzel and Stitzer for reading, writing, language….
Lily loves to be outside. She calls everything her treasure, from sticks to rocks to empty turtle shells… She loves it all. She likes to know why the birds fly and fish swim and “because that is how God made them” is not a good enough answer. She wants to know their bone structure, what they eat, where they live, etc.… she wants to know it all!!
So for Science I am looking for Somebody, a human anatomy game, Purposeful Design (I forget who it is by) and I would love to find a book on nature studies –any suggestions for a nature study book or any thing else??
I am not very fond of history but I saw a book called History for Little Pilgrims by Christian Liberty Press that looked like a lot of fun. I am needing/wanting suggestions for this subject please!!!
I am also hoping to sign her up for piano/music lessons with India, our music director at church. Lily really likes her and India is such a fun young lady!
Some other books that looked good are:
- Eat your way around the world by Jamie Aramini
- Answers for Preschoolers by Ken Ham (curriculum)
-MATH: Master Skills workbook by American Education –Lily is on a 1st grade math level right now, and this looked like it will continue to cover the basics while also giving a little bit more information to challenge her…
*** What I have learned this past year is:
- that I need A LOT of structure.
- I need to be able to set aside the morning time to work with Lily.
- I have to write out lesson plans in order to actually do the lessons. The calendar seems to keep me accountable.
Do you think I am taking on too much?? Will all this stress me out and make me feel over burdened?? hmm… I guess I will wait and see what I find while there. If nothing else I will have a lot of books to choose from for her lessons!!
This Friday is the Home School Conference and I am SO excited!!!
I went to a curriculum fair a few weeks ago and I LOVED IT! I have sent my daughter to a homeschool co-op for the past three years, but as our house is on the market and we're not entirely sure where we'll be living by September, I did not re-enroll her. These years at the co-op have helped me so much (just 2 days per week) to lose the intimidation I felt over homeschooling. I just picked up some stuff for Erin, who is 4, to get her started as I will homeschool full time this fall. We enjoy the Explode the Code series (starting with Get ready for the Code). I was happy with Story of the World for history (the teacher's manual has lots of great activities). Ann Voskamp has a fabulous book out for science/geography called "A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth" that I glanced over from a friend's library copy. I want to get that for us.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll do great! A friend told me that if a book isn't working out for us, we should move on to something else and not let the cost of it keep us tied to it. So far, I've been happy with all my purchases.
I hope you are able to meet up w/ other homeschoolers, though, because (for me) they've been a great resource and support. Plus it's fun to have friends to go on field trips with.
I think that if you schedule your days out and structure your days where you arent trying to do them all everyday you will be fine..and it will be something for lily to look forwardto...instead of doing the same subjects everyday :) Sounds fun!
ReplyDeleteI am in the same place as you right now. We did some K work with Hope this past year, (she just turned 5 in March) but I don't think we really did K. We basically focused on reading. So this year we are doing Mystery of History which I have been told has more of a biblical world view than Story of the World, which I had planned to use.
ReplyDeleteYou may want to check out Apologia Science. They have different topics that can be used in order of interest. I also feel the Handbook of Nature study is a book every home should have. The Outdoor Hour challenge online has many challenges that use that book as a base. You would have a wealth of information for nature study.
We plan to continue using Explode the Code for help with reading.I LOVE these books.
Math, now that is our area we are not sure. I am thinking Horizon math, but I am just not sure yet.
I hope all goes well at the convention. It can be overwhelming in a wonderful way!