It was a difficult decision to not do a community preschool again. Strawberry thrived in preschool last year. She loved her teachers. She loved the people. She loved the crafts, the toys, and the anticipation that she was going again. Our choice to do preschool at home came down to the fact that I missed having a free homeschool schedule, and preschool was a huge cost each month.
With community preschool, we had to say no to playdates and field trips. We had to make sure to be somewhere at a certain time. We could not do storytime at the library. We could not take impromptu walks or bake cookies on days when we felt like it. Instead, we had to make sure to keep preschool schedules on the calendar. This year we’ll be doing preschool at home and with friends, and I hope the atmosphere of spontaneous learning, reading, and playing will translate into a love for learning at home.
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Tag Archives: curriculum choices
Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Fourth Grade for 2016-2017
It’s that time of year again: time to examine what homeschool curriculum choices we have for fourth grade for 2016-2017. In our busy house, self-directed learning is paramount! With a fourth grader, a preschooler, and a soon-to-be toddling baby, it’s sure to be an active year. Using various tools for self-directed learning is a key focus of our choices for the fourth grader.
My fourth grader, Raisin, has showed lots of initiative in working independently this year. I think it helps that we have dropped regular handwriting assignments from his schoolwork. Instead of asking him to handwrite answers, he is able to type and print them out, taping them into the notebook. This eliminated lots of the battles. He will do another year of Keyboarding without Tears. Already, at age 8, he is typing 14 wpm. Not too shabby!
Homeschool Curriculum 3rd Grade Plans for 2015-2016
As much as we have loved having a summer break with no required school work, it is definitely time to start planning for the new year. Since I’m expecting a baby in October, I definitely want to get started sooner rather than later so that we can take an extended break during October and the following months as needed.
This school year, I will be doing third grade with Raisin. Strawberry is 3 and a half and will be starting at a local preschool in September. Continue reading
Next Year’s First Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices
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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Curriculum and Schedule for a Gifted Five-Year-Old (plus an Infant)
When I decided to homeschool this year, it was about this time last year. My baby was newborn and my son was in a local private preschool. He loved it! But every time I picked him up from his 2 1/2 hour class, he’d be tired. He wanted to learn more and I wanted to encourage his interest, but preschool took him away from me at his peak hours. I knew I could do a better job of taping in to his interests if I had him home for those morning hours.
We informally did school on demand during the summer, and then in September we started more formally with kindergarten. Here’s what we’ve been doing. My daily homeschool schedule and our curriculum choices for my gifted 5 year old (plus infant) are pretty enjoyable.

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