I can’t believe that I can finally say that I am a homeschooling mom.
I always knew I would be(once I had a child that actually made me “mom”). It has always been the plan. The dream.
As most of you already know, Jim and I were both homeschooled. We had amazing, amazing experiences with homeschooling. Both of us learned in very different homes with very different styles. Different parents, different co-ops, different curriculums. But still, the results are the same.
We loved it. And we both always knew, even from the time we were dating, that someday. Whenever that day would be, when we had children, we would homeschool them.
And here we are. It came so fast.
We parents always say that don’t we? It came so fast.
But it really did.
Her first day of Pre-K photo.
The epitome of what makes homeschooling really awesome.
Princess dress, shoes on the wrong feet, a slow morning, a late afternoon photo. On our front porch and also our school building.
I know a lot of you have been wondering and have asked me what curriculum we are using with Abigail this year. Let me fill you in!
I decided to choose Confessions Of A Homeschooler. You can check out her website: HERE
This is Pre-K. My girl is 3. I didn’t want anything remotely hardcore or super structured. I want her to learn through playing, time with me, and time out and about primarily. But, I also felt like recently, our days had been lacking a little bit of focus. So, I definitely knew it was time to start something.
I’ve had it in my head for a while now that I wanted to do a “Letter Of The Week” curriculum with her. Initially I thought I would invent it myself, but once I discovered I could buy the entire program for $15 instantly, I decided to let someone else do it for me 😉
We’re obviously only a week and a half in, but it has been AMAZING. I mean, just what I could have hoped. It has perfectly filled in the gaps of what our routine was previously lacking, it has been way more fun to teach her than I ever expected, and being the one to help foster and guide that learning has been such an enormous blessing to me, and to our family.
I could cry every single morning when we sit down at the table(latte in hand, of course) and pray before we start our lessons. I thank God that I get one more day with her home with us. I thank Him that it is still legal to keep her home and to teach her how we believe she should be taught. I thank Him and beg Him to help me be the best teacher I can be and for her to be the best student she can be and then we navigate these new waters together.
If she wants to spend extra time coloring, or cutting, or reciting the pledge of allegiance, then that is what we do.
The plan is to do school 5x a week and so far it lasts somewhere between 1-2 hours.
The program is filled with all sorts of fun coloring sheets, games, puzzles, writing sheets, cutting sheets, lacing cards, memory verses, days of the week, weather, calendars, and more.
We start with prayer, the pledge, then recite our memory verses.
We review our letter of the week, the sound it makes, what it looks like. We also have a number and a shape to focus on for the week as well.
Then we go through her calendar. She traces the day, colors in the number, writes the number, spells the number. We talk about what day was yesterday and what day tomorrow will be.
We mark the day on the calendar, check the weather, the time, the clothes she should be wearing for the day.
Man I am right there with you. Everyday we start with a devotion and prayer. It is by far the best and most perfect way to start our day. I wish that I had made that more of a priority last year. After that we move onto theology and Awana memory verse stuff. That has been pretty entertaining… the theology part. Sometimes I feel that deeply diving into one God in three persons might be over her 6 year old brain. Sometimes it feels like it is over my 30 year old one. But it is always good and I am excited that she is learning things at 6 that I struggle to grasp at 30.
We are doing letter of the week to, but even more laid back than you since we plan to do another year of Pre-K. I may have to use the curriculum you are using for next year once you can give me a good review at the end of the year.
It looks like you are really rocking these whole homeschool mom thing! Conor was homeschooled and has fond memories of that; however, I don't think it's in the cards for me. I have much appreciation for it though! Awesome work Courtney!
I'm so glad that Miss A has a fun teacher like you are to keep her busy with memory verses and letters 😉 I do not have a teaching bone in my body (psychology major) and I SO appreciate good teachers like you (and my sister) !
she is sooo beautiful!! i love that you always knew you wanted to homeschool!! i didn't go to any pre-school, but i stayed home with my mom and did crafts, and that was definitely way better than going to actual pre-school, ha!! and yes, i am so so glad it is still legal to choose to educate your child however you wish! it's scary that there are people out there trying to make homeschool illegal. what?!? it's bad enough that God isn't allowed in the public school system! i really like knowing i have the option to homeschool one day!!
Your strategy sounds really good! I am very curious as to how homeschooling works but I don't have a clue as my husband and I weren't homeschooled. Also, I don't think my husband wants our daughter to be homeschooled. Good thing, we have time to think about it since she just turn 1 🙂
I think this is fabulous. And YES – thank God we live in a country where it is still legal to home school. Every parent should have the right to do what they want for their kids. Amen to that! This makes my heart happy. I know you and the hubs have waited a long time for this. Enjoy the moment!
This curriculum looks darling and so does your little student!! I'll have to remember this when Olive gets a little older 🙂 Thanks for sharing! I wasn't homeschooled but am definitely interested in doing my own thing for preschool so I'm saving this for later
I love that you start with a prayer! I am so stealing this for when my little one is old enough!
I love this, what a great mama you are! A is lucky to have you!
Man I am right there with you. Everyday we start with a devotion and prayer. It is by far the best and most perfect way to start our day. I wish that I had made that more of a priority last year. After that we move onto theology and Awana memory verse stuff. That has been pretty entertaining… the theology part. Sometimes I feel that deeply diving into one God in three persons might be over her 6 year old brain. Sometimes it feels like it is over my 30 year old one. But it is always good and I am excited that she is learning things at 6 that I struggle to grasp at 30.
We are doing letter of the week to, but even more laid back than you since we plan to do another year of Pre-K. I may have to use the curriculum you are using for next year once you can give me a good review at the end of the year.
This is great! We started out "toddler school" back up two weeks ago. This makes me so excited to see what is ahead for us next fall!
Too fun! I'm so glad you answered my question I had for you without me even having to ask it!! You are on your way to being a great teacher!
So fun! It looks like you are doing awesome!!
Wow! Looks like you're doing a great job with her! It also looks like so much work… so hats off to you, mama! xoxo
It looks like you are really rocking these whole homeschool mom thing! Conor was homeschooled and has fond memories of that; however, I don't think it's in the cards for me. I have much appreciation for it though! Awesome work Courtney!
I'm so glad that Miss A has a fun teacher like you are to keep her busy with memory verses and letters 😉 I do not have a teaching bone in my body (psychology major) and I SO appreciate good teachers like you (and my sister) !
she is sooo beautiful!! i love that you always knew you wanted to homeschool!! i didn't go to any pre-school, but i stayed home with my mom and did crafts, and that was definitely way better than going to actual pre-school, ha!! and yes, i am so so glad it is still legal to choose to educate your child however you wish! it's scary that there are people out there trying to make homeschool illegal. what?!? it's bad enough that God isn't allowed in the public school system! i really like knowing i have the option to homeschool one day!!
Your strategy sounds really good! I am very curious as to how homeschooling works but I don't have a clue as my husband and I weren't homeschooled. Also, I don't think my husband wants our daughter to be homeschooled. Good thing, we have time to think about it since she just turn 1 🙂
I think this is fabulous. And YES – thank God we live in a country where it is still legal to home school. Every parent should have the right to do what they want for their kids. Amen to that! This makes my heart happy. I know you and the hubs have waited a long time for this. Enjoy the moment!
This curriculum looks darling and so does your little student!! I'll have to remember this when Olive gets a little older 🙂 Thanks for sharing! I wasn't homeschooled but am definitely interested in doing my own thing for preschool so I'm saving this for later
This is awesome! I really want to homeschool too, so I'll be looking to you in the future! I love this post so much!