Homeschooling

 I am excited for homeschooling next year… but these kids are VERY excited!  They have only a couple more days of school before summer break but they all want to start homeschooling right away!  I decided to let them do some lessons every once in a while to get a jump start on the year.  With a move coming up this summer, we will be busy and it’ll be nice to be able to take some time away from school to move and get settled and not feel like we are starting the year off late.  

I am so grateful for this homeschooling option.  Let's face it, public school is not what it used to be and some districts are down right scary.  I am thrilled to take on this role to make sure these kids are educated correctly.  

We have our curriculum all set and the kids love the lessons!

I've been spending a good amount of time organizing all their material.  I made their binders fun!

Joseph even sometimes watches Scarlet's lessons.  Extra schooling!

They have lessons on DVD and then do worksheets that I check/grade.  If they have trouble with a concept, we watch the DVD together.

It's after dinner... kids are bathed and settling down.  I asked them, "Do you want to play for a bit before bed? Or do you want to do a lesson?"  These two wanted to do another lesson!  I love it! I hope the novelty doesn't wear off.

Every day for phonics, Scarlet starts out her lesson with a composition.  They will start off pretty easy and become longer and more involved as the year goes on.  Her first composition was simply to write her favorite color and then to draw a picture of things that are her favorite color.  Scarlet has said that she loves the color magenta because "It's pink and purple together so I don't have to chose one or the other!"  She's pretty smart! She drew herself, wearing a magenta dress, with a magenta headband, among some magenta colored flowers.

Day two of phonics... Scarlet's composition was to write a sentence about how she has helped a grandparent.  She wrote that she helps Grandma to bake cookies and drew a picture to match! I think at the end of the year I will turn all her compositions into a book.  They're adorable.

Joseph's weekly lessons each had a theme and this week's was "Family".  He used a stamp pad to make his own fingerprint family.