Yesterday we made a project as part of our writing class. Dad was super proud and made sure to let Carter know it was the best present he had ever recieved.

As usual, I am amazed at how well his writing has progressed. I just amazes me! I’m not sure who to be more proud of…him for how well he’s doing or me for actually being able to teach him something.

So we are FINALLY back to homeschooling regularly, I hope. I do have to say that it’s nice to be able to focus on other things when needed and know that we still have time to focus on school too. Because I am homeschooling year round I can take time off as I have off and on for the last couple months without putting us behind. I have the curriculum and I figure as long as we finish before the next school year without having to rush or double up on lessons we are good!! Anyways, today we had a lot of fun doing some new things. I have to reiterate that I LOVE the Hooked on Phonics products. They are just so fun and make the learning so exciting!!!

Today Carter read his first book all by himself!!! We were so excited!!! He is able to read 6 words on his own so far!!! I couldn’t be more proud of him.

We also made a letter for grandma today and mailed it to her.

Here it is:

I think his printing is looking really really nice considering he is just 5!

Well we are back to doing school. We are all healthy (or at least close to it so we started back up with everything yesterday. During the weekend, I mapped our our lesson plans out for the entire year using a program through Home School, Inc. I realized that some of my lessons will not go the entire year, so we are just going to do things until the lessons run out and then we will take a break from that subject until its time to start the next year of lessons.

I wanted to post some pictures of the difference in Carter’s handwriting. This was one of our biggest frustrations at the start. He was really struggling with it and I was struggling too with the attitude I was getting from him. Now things are coming along so well!!

Here is an example of his very last paper he did at the Christian school:

Here is what he did today:

Quite the improvement in just a month and a half or so of practicing…if I do say so myself! I must not be a total failure at this homeschooling thing!

He just has no trouble with it at all. I was a little worried about ordering the Kindergarten curriculum, but he is taking it in sooo well.

Here’s what we did today…

Bible – Practiced Bible Verse, Lesson on Judgment

Math – Lesson 2

Reading – H.O.P. flash card letter review.

Writing – Name Page, Tracing pg. 5-8

Science – About Dinosaurs pg. 11-13 & Chose animal of the week (Tropical Birds)

Health – Lesson 1 : Germs

Bible Lesson :

Worked on new Bible memory verse, Proverbs 3:5. Did lesson on contentment and made homemade tambourine.

Math :

Lesson 1 in Horizon Math.

Reading :

I read a library book to Carter. Worked on solidifying knowledge of recognizing letters with the use of flash cards and Hooked on Phonics audio cd.

Writing :

Pages 1-4 in Kumon Tracing Workbook and Tracing Name 5x.

Free Time :

Sensory Activity : Blue Beads in Blue Water.

Science :

About Dinosaurs Workbook p. 6-10

History :

Read Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 and started Creation Book – Drew Picture of Day 1 of Creation.

So today was our first day with the new curriculum. I decided to get some new things because what I had just wasn’t working. Some of it was way too easy and other things, I felt like we needed to go back and start with the very basics. Here is a list of what I am now using.

Bible : Daily Devotions for “Gotta Have God” – There is a story, questions, and activity to go along with the lesson.

Reading : Hooked On Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten – So far he absolutely loves this!! We actually have been listening to one of the audio cd’s that came with it for the last few days and as soon as we get in the car he is asking for it.

Writing : We are starting with a Kumon tracing workbook. This was some of the source of our frustration with the last curriculum and so we are going back to total basics for this one. Once we are done with the tracing workbook, we will be starting the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Write Kindergarten.

Math : We are using the Horizon Kindergarten program from Alpha Omega. I have to say that this is my favorite as far as organizational and teacher tools.

History : Christian Liberty Press has a kindergarten curriculum that we will be doing very very slowly. It’s a short curriculum that needs to be stretched, but it’s a little difficult for Carter’s level right now so we’ll be really stretching it and may repeat it next year or find something a little better. Not sure yet.

Health : We are using a health curriculum I found on Amazon. Like History it is also pretty short. It includes not only health, but some social studies too (i.e. stranger danger, fire safety, etc.) Because this is a shorter curriculum as well, we will be alternating this every other day with history.

Science : I am doing my own curriculum for science. This includes choosing an animal of the month (then researching the animal at the library) and doing unit studies. For the unit studies, I will be using workbooks from Brighter Vision (a mail order company that sends a workbook, cd, project, and stickers each month) that I used to receive monthly and never used. I have plenty of these to last me at least a year. We will also do some fun experiments as time goes on. Carter really enjoys science and all that goes with it so I am going to allow him to choose a lot of what we learn.

I also have a “free” period every day. Mondays are for educational computer play. Tuesdays are a sensory activity (today was blue beads in blue water that he played with using his hands and funnels and toys). Wednesdays are for the library where we go to get both picture books for reading together and books about our animal of the week. Thursdays are art. Fridays are another computer day.

**The picture today was of Carter working on his tambourine for Bible class.

A friend of mine told me that she used to keep a journal of her kids’ homeschooling experience and process and I thought it was a great idea. My goal is to update this blog daily with his progress and what we did along with pictures so friends and family can see what he’s doing every day. I also plan to post the daily trials and triumphs that will, I’m sure, accompany our homeschooling journey.

Right now, I am planning on starting classes with him on Wednesday. Today was his last day at the Christian school and I’m not quite organized yet (we only made the decision to do this as of last Friday), but I will have most of the day tomorrow to finish things up.