One Down-- 35 to Go!

We just completed our first "official" week of homeschooling. Fun! Sam loved it and was disappointed when I told him we would be taking a break for the weekend. I hope his love of learning continues!! :) Our P4/5 core consists of storybooks that are used for just "fun" reading, plus science, social studies, etc. It was VERY exciting when the 2 big boxes arrived from Sonlight last Friday!! We read out of several of the books every day. In addition to that, we are also doing math and handwriting, and I'm teaching him to read. He just completed lesson 40 in the reading book (we've been working in that one off and on, for months) and I'm very pleased with his progress. It's so much fun to see the "lights come on." :) The book I'm using for that is The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I don't follow it exactly, but it's a very good guide. I basically skipped over most of the letter-teaching lessons, though; he learned those really well from watching the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD . . . and it made learning the letter sounds a lot more fun, too. :) I also recently picked up the LeapFrog Talking Words Factory DVD for a super cheap price at Marshalls. Normally, I'm not all into using the TV to teach stuff . . . but I have to say, those DVDs are really good and are a completely painless way to teach kids the letters and sounds!

For math, we are using Singapore Earlybird, books A and B. The things he's been doing so far are super basic and are not challenging him at all, but I know the pace will pick up later. He also has a Kumon book of numbers that he's been working through. For handwriting, I chose A Reason for Handwriting curriculum. I love the way it's designed--very cute and fun! It's also Bible-based, which is nice.

Interestingly, one of Sam's favorite things to do for school so far is his workbook called Developing the Early Learner, Book 1. From my point of view, it's rather boring and I certainly wouldn't call it my favorite thing if I was him . . . but I'm glad he's enjoying it!

Anyway, that is my Week 1 update. We only did school 4 days this week (we took Weds. off to go to the beach), but we were easily able to add Wednesday's work into Tuesday and Thursday. Each day's schoolwork only takes 30 minutes to an hour, which is really nice! I'm really glad I decided to do a kindergarten year; it's going to help me and Sam both to ease into the whole process.