Our Journey Into World of Homeschool: Part 3


As you've read in Part 1 and 2, when friends find out that we're homeschooling, there are soooo many questions! Another popular question is what the heck are we teaching her?!

When we started panicking about our daughter's school situation, I sent an SOS e-mail to a friend of mine who deserted me by moving to the desert....oh, well, not exactly: her husband took an amazing job in Qatar and she moved there with him. She was a huge proponent of homeschooling when she lived in the states, and she used to teach middle school. Since she had already researched homeschool curriculums, I asked her what I should use! She sent me some info about a few different options; I read about each one; I showed my husband; and we agreed to use Five in a Row!

Thanks to my girlfriend, it was SO easy to pick a curriculum! What I do with the curriculum to teach her is not quite as easy. To figure that out, I needed a plan....which meant I needed notes....which meant I needed a binder, with tabs!!!! Oh, how I love me my planners!


I wanted a planner that would zip closed so that I could carry books and loose papers without loosing things. I assumed that homeschooling would cause me to be sitting at swim class, gymnastics, etc. I wanted to be able to grab my binder as I ran out the door and have everything I would need to plan lessons. I needed a zipper binder for this.




After the Five in a Row curriculum arrived, and all the books I had put on hold at the library that corresponded to the curriculum had become available, I spent a few hours planning out the rest of the year.  I looked at all the holidays of the year, the seasons, the family travel plans, etc to decide when to use each children's book of the curriculum. I also decided to implement the lapbook idea so I tried to match up the theme of the lapbook with the children's book or the time of year.


Once I knew what children's book we'd be using each week for the rest of the year, I began planning out the weeks. With the Five in a Row curriculum, we cover social studies, language arts, applied math, art, and science once a week. Then, I focus on reading/writing and math each day. Then, we try to do an element of the lapbook each day.

A few days a week, we have "gym" with either gymnastics or swim lessons. I try to never do more than two hours of "school" a day. I say "school" because she really prefers to do school work that doesn't seem like school. For example, she likes to do science experiments so I have her practice writing and math skills while doing and recording the science experiments.

I also try to have at least one big field trip a month, a few nature walks a month, a trip to the hands-on art gallery a month, and lots and lots of play dates!

So. In short, that's what we're teaching her for Kindergarten!

1 comment:

DandW said...

I remember that apron! It sounds to me that you have everything ver much under control. Enjoy the journey.