Back to the Grind

It's been a little while since my last post, but relocating is hard and takes some time. We have now been at our new home for 2 months, I can't believe its been 2 months already. My husband just started his new job that brought us here and we are slowly starting to get back into a routine. The last 2 months I have been working more hours and when I am off we are spending time exploring Washington. It is absolutely beautiful here and I am enjoying the cold rainy fall weather. We got none of that kind of weather in San Diego. So not much school has happened, but I think I can safely say we have been world schooling the last few months because believe me learning has been happening.

So now that we are getting back into our routine and my husband is starting his job and I am getting back to working part time lets talk curriculum! The last couple years we have homeschooled through a charter school. It was comfortable knowing that they were there if I were to totally mess up. I have been feeling more and more confidant in my abilities and now that we have moved there is nothing like that here. So here I am having to pick curriculum on my own with no help. No support. Google, pinterest, and other blogs have been my best friends.

Fortunately my sons preschool curriculum was a no brainer. Mother Goose Time is a great program for preschoolers! I used it for my daughter, and off and on last year for my son. He was not ready last year. Like at all. He refused to do anything and would make me do all the crafts. My daughter was having fun with it though so we kept ordering it here and there. We would go to the library and get books to expand on topics that interested her so that we could integrate Mother Goose Time into social studies and science for her. So this year I wasn't sure. Would he? Wouldn't he? He is so difficult sometimes. But, he is 4 now and really needs to start some sort of gentle schooling. So I ordered it again and got enough for 2 students because even though academically she is above this level she loves the crafts and the topics and feeling like she is helping her brother in school. And honestly there is absolutely nothing wrong with a little review on the basics. Much to my delight and surprise he is excited to do school this year.

This months theme is Down on the Farm. We are only on day 3 because we officially went "back to school" on Wednesday when my husband went back to work. The first day you always make a name tag and we use them to hang above our white board. I wrote his in a yellow marker and handed him a pen and asked him to try tracing his name. We've done this many times and I was waiting for the usual request of me doing it for him, but instead he took his marker and went for it!!!!!

 

 

Maybe don't tell my husband that he was on the table. I mean he was writing his name on his own. I was NOT going to disrupt him. He even drew cow spots on his name tag for his favorite farm animal. He said it was his favorite because cows give milk which is great, but he doesn't like milk so not sure why that would make them his favorite. But I will take it. There have been a few changes in the program this year and so far we are really liking them. They have added STEM challenges and something they call Invitation to Create. At first I wasn't sure how he would feel about the invitations to create, he is not an artsy kid. However, I think that since there is no picture of what the final project should look like he feels more confident just going for it. He tends to get a little overwhelmed when he needs to make something following directions. He thinks that it is to hard for him. We are really going to work on his confidence this year. The invitations to create don't give directions, they just give materials and a picture for inspiration and then they just do what they feel like doing. Its really great and he is responding really well to it.

 



 

 

These pictures were from last months theme because I don't have pictures yet for this months, we are only on day three. But this gives you an idea of the set up for the invitations to create. I just set up the supplies in the middle of the table and they share everything and create. The great thing about this curriculum is that everything is ready for you. You don't have to think about it. Just open the book and bag for the day and you are all set. You only need a few of your own basic supplies and then maybe a few library books to go with it. So this is what we are doing for preschool this year and I know that he will get everything he needs from this program. If you want to check it out yourself go to the Mother Goose Time and check it out. I highly recommend it.

 

Next post I will go over what we have chosen for our Second Grade curriculum. We are really excited to start our School year. We have a lot of fun stuff to learn and a lot of fun new places to explore.