I'm sitting here this morning sipping my tea, cutting out little apples for Miss A's letter of the week lessons, and thought I'd share how thankful I am for the Internet and blogs and the homeschooling community I've found since deciding to go down this very unfamiliar homeschooling path. Before, I felt like I was on my own little island in this, but now I see this island is full of others just like me!
Yesterday morning, I stumbled across The Ultimate Homeschool Blogroll by Hip Homeschool Moms. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many homeschool moms and even a list of "first years"! I have to admit, I spend more than my share of "mommy's morning time" looking at other experienced and first year blogs, and I got to peak at what other homeschool moms are doing in their classrooms. It really got me motivated to continue planning what our own homeschool year is going to contain.
I've spent the last three days researching and creating plans for Wiggly's 2nd grade curriculum. Since my idea is that he will rejoin public school in 5th-6th grade, I'm keeping with our state's content standards so he's learning the same concepts as his peers in public school. However, it's just like being a first year teacher again; I'm gathering information and materials for his entire school year without using any text books or pre-made lesson plans. I'm starting from scratch. So far, I've decided to use Everyday Math after talking to a few teachers who are both familiar with this set and the Saxon Math program. Also, since we're not using a combined spelling/reading text book set, I've been reading up on how to teach spelling and word work. My sister-in-law taught talented and gifted for a couple years in the elementary grades and recommended Word Journeys: Assessment-guided Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Instruction by Kathy Ganske. It's not a riveting read by any means, but it does explain the different stages of spelling and how to choose spelling lists based on the student's ability. It also gives lots of ideas and activities for students to do other than just 'worksheets'. It's been very helpful for a former middle school teacher; although I had one phonics class in college, my students came to me already knowing how to read. The mechanics that go behind teaching a child to read is completely unfamiliar territory.
Another resource that has been wonderful to have was finding Erica at http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/. It was her blog that I found when I first started researching this whole homeschooling business. Prior to discovering her blog, I was really unsure if I could do this at all; how was I going to organize everything and run my school day? I was overwhelmed at just the thought of homeschooling. After spending a few mornings searching around and reading up on her blog, I realized that this (hopefully) won't be so bad after all. I'm adopting the Workbox System, and I have since seen many other homeschoolers use this or a similar concept in their classrooms as well.
I've just recently downloaded Erica's Letter of the Week Program for Miss A. Since I've been spending most of my energy compiling lessons for Wiggly's curriculum, it's so nice to have a preschool program all ready to go! She's included everything you can think of that you'll need short of the yarn for the lacing cards and the Velcro dots for the lessons themselves. I'm so excited to get started and I know Miss A is too. As I was cutting out the apples for the letter "A" lesson, Miss A asked if she could play with them. I told her not until we have them laminated... So off to Walmart we go: our shopping list includes milk, eggs, and a laminator. :0)
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