The Methods to Our Madness

We have been informally homeschooling since our children were born. We talk to them, read to them, play with them. We make it a point to answer their questions and give them active roles in our day-to-day lives.

As required by our lovely state, we are just beginning our first year of formal homeschooling. We plan to continue on as we have been, with the addition of a portion of "table-time" during the day. During this time we'll focus on phonics, handwriting, and mathematics. I'll have to get used to keeping more detailed records to compile into a portfolio.

I'm not sold on any one curriculum just yet, so I have compiled an eclectic list of materials.

For reading instruction: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, various Easy Readers from the library, homemade flashcards (upper/lowercase letters, consonant blends/digraphs, Dolch sight words).

For handwriting instructions: Alphabet worksheets, paper, pencils, easel, dry erase markers, Magnadoodle, workbooks from Sam's for variety.

Mathematics: Games from Family Math, bucket of various dice, different types of counters (beans, plastic animals--from the $1 bin at Target, shells, pebbles).

We will also be learning about science and history as we have in the past: through reading books of interest and through play. Only now we will be calling it 'research' and 'experimentation'. And we have plenty of paints and a new-to-us book, Mudworks, for our 'visual arts' portion of the day. We also intend to join our local co-op (but more on that tomorrow).

All subjects are loosely guided by our state's educational standards, What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know, Homeschooling: The Early Years, and what strikes our fancy at the moment.

This all sounds so loosey-goosey, well, because it is. At least at this point. We are going to see what works, what doesn't, and adjust accordingly. Ahhh...the beauty of homeschooling!