One of the first questions I had when I decided to homeschool my son was “How do I know what to teach?” As with so many other issues related to the journey of homeschooling, one must take this question one step at a time, line upon line. Continue reading
A few months ago I mentioned I’d be going “full-steam ahead” with schooling during the summer. Hah. My plan for formal learning has fizzled. I have come to realize that Raisin needs a break as much as I do. Given the fact that Raisin is still five, but working on a first grade or above level, I have realized that forcing him to do school should not be a requirement for his summer days.
I’ve learned a lot over the past 12 months to 16 months since I decided for sure to begin homeschooling, versus sending my son away to school. While I believe I’d work best with a clear schedule to follow — complete with boxes to check off — this is not the way my child best learns. He learns when he’s ready. He learns when I’m not forcing him. He learns when we’re driving to a museum and he asks about the signs he sees. Continue reading
To correlate with my Monday’s post, here are some posters and tracing pages for the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This collection has badges that say “I can recite ….” each article of faith. Then, it has the thirteen Articles on attractive colored paper, as well as again on a grayscale background. And then, there are tracing pages — all thirteen Articles in manuscript dots and again in cursive dots. Use this to help your children learn the articles of Faith in homeschool, family home evening, or your family devotionals.
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And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.
Doctrine and Covenants 42:14
I do not live in a predominantly LDS community. Before I began homeschooling and associating regularly with families outside of my local church circle, I did not realize the great number of religious people all around me. I know better now.
A number of the homeschoolers I’ve met have chosen to homeschool for religious reasons. Either they are concerned about the non-religious teaching or the environment of public school, or they, like me, have felt called by God to bring their children home so they’ve responded by doing so. Many of them adopt a formal devotional “curriculum” to begin their homeschool days.
I believe the scriptures are the best learning tool. However, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I’ve also been delighted to find that many of the resources from the Church, for free, are well adapted to daily homeschool devotionals. Some of my favorite homeschool moments have been those first ones in the day when my son and I discuss gospel principles together.
Here are some ideas for how you too may want to incorporate gospel learning in to your homeschooling day. Continue reading
We are still finishing up some of our school for the year (such as the American history plan that has fizzled). I still want to touch on Lincoln and the Civil War, and maybe some more modern history, but we’ll just take it one subject at a time. In the fall, we’ll move on to something else!
So here’s the first grade homeschool curriculum choices for next year for Raisin.
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I’ve decided to try something different this week and jump in with Five for Friday, as hosted by Doodle Bugs First Grade Rocks blog. Someone, tell me if I’m doing this wrong!
Also, below I include a sampler from my most recent project, a set of worksheets for graduating first graders! Continue reading
When my husband suggested we drive instead of fly across the country for our family vacation to visit family, my first reaction was not pretty. I can’t recall if I laughed at first or yelled my expressions of disbelief, but once I knew my husband was serious, I took a lot of convincing. Despite the much cheaper cost of driving 1300 miles two directions versus flying, I just could not believe it would end well.
It turns out that we could travel for days in the car and it was okay! I panicked and planned like crazy in the weeks before we left, and I ended up with far more than I needed! I hope some of my ideas might help you too in your travels.
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Paul learned about Pompeii when he read a Magic Tree House book about it. We extended the learning by making a baking soda/vinegar volcano with a friend, Kaleb.
Then Paul learned even more about Ancient Rome and Pompeii and he gave a report at Co-op.
We have been a part of a co-op that meets every Wednesday, but we have not be regularly enrolled in the courses because of our other, every Friday, co-op. However, Wednesday’s group does occasional presentation luncheons, and this month’s presentation luncheon was on ancient or medieval Italy. Since my son recently had finished reading Magic Tree House #13: Vacation under the Volcano, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to join in! Continue reading
Yesterday morning, I babysat for two of my friend’s children, her baby and her kindergartner, while she helped her daughter’s preschool class. Raisin recently read a Magic Tree House book about Pompeii, and we’re doing a brief book report on it in two weeks for a Ancient Rome/Italy day at co-op. So I decided to let Raisin and his friend make a play dough volcano together. Continue reading