Okay, I've been homeschooling for a month now. I'm doing kindergarten with my 5 1/2 year old and preschool with my almost 4 year old. The kids seem to be enjoying it, and it gives great structure to our day....but, I'm getting a bit overwhelmed. I've collected so many good resources and now I'm having trouble putting it all together in a way that won't require 14 hour days~lol! I'm trying to keep my curriculum very hands-on with 10-15 min lessons for each subject. We do Bible/Character, Language Skills, God's World (basically mini-units on plants, animals, etc), Reading-aloud with picture books, hands-on Math, and we dabble in art and music for fun. I'm trying to incorporate most subjects together since that's easier for me. But I don't think it is challenging enough for my older child. I really need some perspective: what would you all recommend as essential? Also, I've seen some threads recommending the Moore's philosophy of "better late than never." I'm going slowly with my younger child as far as learning letters and sounds, but my 5 year old is begging me to learn to read. He asks me how to spell words so he can copy them down and he has begun writing words and phrases phonetically on his own. I do have AlphaPhonics and Games for Reading that I planned to use sometime, but I don't want to push him too soon. So all that to ask, does any one have wise advice for me so I don't burn out too quickly? Thanks!
Let your 5 year old play on www.starfall.com. There are free worksheets, etc. that you can download too (check the download center there). If he WANTS to learn to read, take advantage of that enthusiasm. Make it a "you can do THIS if you want...but I want you to go in order, etc.). My youngest (turned 5 in March), just played on Starfall. She started with the Alphabet stuff, and then moved to the learning to read section. She started reading easy books on her own shortly before her birthday. Now, she's reading very well on her own....and I did nothing. (well, except get her to starfall). She learned decoding skills and she sounds out really hard words, too. I can't say enough good stuff about Starfall's Learning to Read stuff. I do think what my daughter liked most is she was doing it on her own...we did not do the worksheets because she's not as advanced in handwriting skills. HTH.
I agree. Starfall is great. I'm glad to hear you don't want to push your son too much at such an early age, but if he is ready and eager to learn to read, why hold him back? One of the best things about homeschooling is being able to go at your children's pace. If he is really ready to read, I'd say go with it.
I also love starfall! I've just started it again with my younger one. My oldest learned to read on his own like Krista said, but then I took him quickly through the Explode the Code series just to pick up a couple things he hadn't seen before and to solidify what he already knew using vocabulary he didn't know. He's also not a writer. We did the books orally except the parts that just had you circle the answer or whatever. He liked those because he felt he was really accomplishing something. He likes working with me even if it's for nothing more than a supportive cheerleader. Are you afraid that you'll burn out or that he will? IMHO, in the early stages of learning you should have the tools available, but take yourself out of the equation until you're clearly needed. If you see mistakes, correct them, of course. If your child asks for help, help them, of course. Otherwise, there is a LOT, LOT, LOT that can and should be learned through exploration, games, etc. Simple things you can do without actually "teaching" are to follow your finger along the text while reading a book to your child (so that the child can see the words as you read them... helps with high frequency word recognition), and ask lots of questions. For example, don't say, "Look, there's the ___", say "Hey... I see a ___, can you find it, too?" (Which can be used with books, trips to the store, or things around the house.) Or for creative thinking, say "Wow, the rabbit in this story really seemed sad. How do you think you would've felt if that happened to you? What do you think you would've done about it?" Make learning fun for both of you. Do kitchen science and math. Do real world history and geography. Check out books at the library (some for you to use in a theme, and some that the child picks without any yes/no from you ... even if it's too hard, like the role plate tectonics plays on volcanoes, you can water it down by showing the pictures of the volcanoes and talking about where they are in the world).
Yes, the more I learn about child development and read about different educational philosophies and observe my children the more I feel pulled to child led and less like pushing my kids to be "on grade level" My oldest will be in 1st grade this year, We'll focus on phonics/spelling and math. But we're not going to push him to read. We'll just work on giving him the building blocks he'll need to do so when he's ready. I find it funny he does great with spelling but struggles to read phonetically. To me, in my mind, it's the same thing just reverse, but to him one if easy, the other is hard...so hubby and I talked and were okay if he finished the year and still isn't reading by 2nd grade. My 3 year old, total unschooling planned next year. But, like many a younger sibling, he wants to do what big brother does, so he'll do phonics as well. We're using a free trial to readingeggs.com right now. When it's up I'm going to try and switch him to a free online phonics program. But, if he doesn't like it, I may buy a subscription to readingeggs, as much as I try to homeschool for free, if he needs to stick with the program, I will find a way to afford it for him. Some of the lessons he doesn't get (like he can identify the letter and the sound it makes but he can't identify which word has that sound in it. Like he knows 'M' says 'mmmm'' but he can't identity if 'tent' or 'men' has the 'mmmm' sound in it) and that's fine. I do those exercises for him and explain it and exaggerate the sound he's trying to identify and one day he'll get it. I'm trying really hard to homeschool for free, which means many sources and lots of planning. Just a week or two ago I decided I needed to scale back. By my state law I have to teach reading, LA, math, science and SS. We'll focus on the 3 Rs and Bible formally. SS will be done by life, reading and documentaries (we're doing cowboys right now). Science isn't a problem cause he's like me, he's a science geek and can't get enough of it. I'm hoping he inherits my love of reading and history as well. We shall see. LOL But my point it is-I feel so much less pressure since I decided to do more unschooling than school-at-home. Esp at such a young age. I find it so much less pressure on all of us to just go with the flow and fly by the seat of our pants. LOL I know some people NEED more structure, but we're going to try it for a while. our 3Rs and Bible will be our structure and backbone. Have you read the 'better late than early' book? My library is holding it for me right now. I can't wait to read it. Have you tried any unit studies? It might give your older child what you think he's missing and unit studies often work for more than one grade level so you younger child can sit in and pick up some crumbs...
