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| Most of our curriculum |
I wasn't sure if we would be homeschooling this year or not. Blue Rock really liked the preschool he went to last year and they are even starting a kindergarten program this year. Originally I thought, how great, he can go there two more years and then we'd give homeschooling a try. However, it became clear to me at the end of the year that I would need to find a different school for him. I toured 4 new preschools in my area and came close to enrolling him in one. After much prayer and consideration, we decided we would start our homeschool journey this year. If it doesn't go well, we can start looking at kindergarten programs for next year mid-year.
We got most of our homeschool curriculum in the mail this past week. I am super picky when it comes to education and also a little indecisive. I have taught all ages from preschool classes to teaching college kids as a History Student Instructor while in college. Mostly the curriculum was provided for me, except Sunday school classes occasionally and when I tutored 3rd graders in math and English. However, when it comes to deciding what the focus is for my child, I tend to go overboard. I was torn between two curriculums, My Father's World Kindergarten and Sonlight P4/5. After much prayer and research I decided we'll do both! We're also going to be learning phonograms with Wordy Worm and possibly adding Math U See Primer mid-year if My Father's World math is not challenging enough. Since we're starting a kindergarten program, I'm okay with us taking things a little slower and if we don't finish in a year, that is fine. I just want us to have a good schedule going before the baby arrives. Also, I need structure in my life and having a plan is very helpful to me. I also didn't feel like putting together my own program. I know you can teach pre-K and kindergarten for a lot less. However, we are saving quite a bit by not sending him to a preschool and I really wanted everything laid out for me this year. The most important thing is I want Blue Rock to have fun this year. I want him to always be eager to learn and grow as he learns about the world around him and how much God loves him.
Why We Are Using Sonlight P4/5:
Sonlight P4/5: When Blue Rock was 2, I bought Sonlight P3/4. It basically consisted of a bunch of really good books. Also included was an instructor's guide with activities to do with each book. Seeing how the past books were such a hit, I decided that I didn't want to stop using Sonlight. One thing I love about Sonlight is how you teach children through living books, rather than text books. It makes concepts come alive. It's also Christian based, although not every book is Christian. Through books, your child will learn about many concepts and beliefs and gives the parent or teacher the opportunity to talk about different world views. Some negative comments I've read is that some books introduce certain concepts and ideas earlier than many parents would want. As a parent, I'm going to read the books ahead of time and if he's not ready for a certain idea or concept, we'll wait. But I also think it's important that he's aware of other beliefs as we lay the foundation for his faith. Also, for preschool, you only spend about 30-40 minutes per day, about the amount of time we spend reading anyway. Included in this year's instructor's guide are questions and activities to go along with different stories. In the Bible section you learn about character development and I really appreciate that. Also the book choices are pretty advanced. Before the year is over, we'll be reading chapter books without pictures. Sonlight is almost a complete curriculum. The one thing lacking is math.
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| My Father's World Kindergarten with Literature Package |
Why We Are Using My Father's World Kindergarten:
My Father's World Kindergarten: There are so many reasons why I really love this curriculum. The main reason is it's God-centered. A main reason we are homeschooling is that we want Blue Rock to fall in love with Jesus. My Father's World Kindergarten teaches all about how God created the world while teaching kindergarten skills and doing lots of fun hands-on activities. My Father's World also support missions, which my husband and I appreciate. And, like Sonlight, Blue Rock will learn about different cultures around the world.
My Father's World is also a complete curriculum. If I don't have time to add anything else, we'll be okay. Of course we'll be reading through Sonlight and I bought the literature package to go along with My Father's World so we'll get plenty of reading in.
Both Sonlight P4/5 and My Father's World Kindergarten use the Charlotte Mason method with classical education. My Father's World combines unit studies as well and they both incorporate a Biblical Worldview. I know he's only 4, but since he's already reading and writing some, he's ready for the kindergarten level.
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| Wordy Worm Level 1 and 2 |
Why we are using Wordy Worm:
Finding a solid reading program was difficult. Then I came across Wordy Worm and decided we'd give it a try. Wordy Worm teaching reading through using phonograms which make up the smallest sounds. It's a more thorough form of phonetics. For example, "a" makes 3 sounds, not just one, the letters "oa" say "o," etc. Blue Rock can already read simple words by sounding them out. However, I hope by teaching him phonograms which make up 98% of the English language, it will make learning other languages easier in the future. While I'm unable to give a complete review of this program. I will say, you don't get a whole lot for the price. I honestly was a little disappointed when I received everything in the mail. I'm hoping once I print stuff off disks and we really start it, it will be worth the price.
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| Spanish and German |
Foreign Languages:
My husband will be teaching Blue Rock Spanish and German. We'll be working mostly on vocabulary for German and start teaching him phrases and continue growing his Spanish vocabulary.
List of books we'll be going through:
- 101 Favorite Stories from the Bible
- Children's Book of Virtues
- Developing the Early Learner, Volume 1 (we might add 2-4)
- Eric Carle's Animals Animals
- How Do You Lift a Lion?
- How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World
- Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?
- Milly-Molly-Mandy Story Book
- My First Dictionary
- New Toes for Tia
- Stories from Africa
- Stories from Around the World
- The Berenstain Bear's Big Book of Science and Nature
- The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit (not pictured)
- The Gods Must be Angry
- Then and Now
- Uncle Wiggily's Story Book
- What's Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?
- What's Under the Sea?
- Why Do Tigers Have Stripes?
- A Treasury of Mother Goose Rhymes (not pictured)
- Things People Do (not pictured)
- The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book (not pictured)
- People (not pictured)
- Dinosaur Activity Book
- Big Thoughts for Little People
- Little Bear
- Swimmy
- The Bee Tree
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Make Way for Duckling
- Moonbear's Shadow
- Katy No-Pocket
- The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit
- Love You Forever
- Frog and Toad Are Friends
- The Story of Ferdinand
- If the Dinosaurs Came Back
- Mouse and Mole, Fine Feathered Friends
- Amazing Animal Alphabet
- Seven Blind Mice
- Tacky the Penguin
- Little Jewel Bird
- Fritz and the Beautiful Horses
- The Color Kittens
- The Year at Maple Hill Farm
- How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
- I Am a Leaf
- Annie and Snowball and the Cozy Nest
- Stone Soup
- How to Hide a Butterfly
- What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?
- Cuisenaire® Rods Alphabet Book
We're also going to create a Butterfly Garden and Ant Farm. Looking forward to a great year!! If you want to read more blogs of people using My Father's World, click here.
Hi Marisa. It sounds like you have a great year planned for Blue Rock! Could you tell me a little about the Sonlight P3/4, you did with your son previously? Were you able to do all the activities with him at the age of two and did you feel it was beneficial and worth getting for that age? My son, Beckham is turning two in a few weeks, and I am not interested in homeschooling really at this age, but I would like to have something fun and educational with structure to work on. I have tried to plan activities on my own and have set time devoted to educational games throughout the day, but it becomes overwhelming at times. I think we would enjoy something that is already planned for us that I could tweak if I needed to. Anyway, I would just like to know more about the Sonlight P3/4 and the experience you had with it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Em,
ReplyDeleteI didn't know if I would homeschool my son or not when I first bought from Sonlight. All I knew was that, like walking, I wanted to teach him as much as I could while he was home with me while still having lots of fun.
My son loved Sonlight 3/4. Some books were a little advanced for a 2-year old and he ended up loving them more after he turned 3. However, the games, Teddy Mix & Match, Mighty Mind, and the wonderful silky crayons were an instant hit. I ended up buying certain books from Sonlight and certain books from Amazon, used, for less. The benefit of getting it sooner is than you can use the books for longer and see what books your son likes. A few of my son's favorite stories are from Harper Collins Treasury Picture Book: Harold and the Purple Crayon, George Shrinks, Goodnight Moon, Hats for Sale, etc. I highly recommend that book. Those stories been great from the beginning and to this day he still picks at least one story from that book every night. Since we were in Germany when he was 2, I really wanted to start building a good home library. He learned a lot about his body with the Flip-Flap Body Book. I think reading these books helped his vocabulary and while he might not have necessarily understood everything, it provided a good educational backbone for future books. The guide was helpful but not necessary. Although it did give me a few fun ideas, such as make an ark by putting a blanket or sheet over a coffee table and have your child put his/her stuffed animals inside the "ark." If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. :)