Back to school

Is it possible that summer is over already! It flew by this year. Mo son has been doing a summer bridge book that has helped him transition from 1st to 2nd grade. I have spent the last few weeks frantically trying to get ready for the start of the school year… Researching curriculum, methods of homeschooling, activities and more. Today I stumbled across a fun website called DreamBox Learning it is a website full of math games for K-3. I signed Ralph up for a free trial. The subscription is $12.95 a month or $59.95 for 6 months. So far Ralph is liking it a lot. He spent quite a while playing on it today, and I received a few emails updating me on his progress and what he was doing and learning. I’ll have to sit down with him tomorrow and see what it really involves and how much actual learning is going on.
I am doing a less traditional approach to curriculum this year. I have a sort of hodgepodge of different things. I chose RightStart Math which is a very hands on approach. It uses the Abacus to provide a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experience and involves a lot of games and manipulatives. I am excited, I haven’t ordered the curriculum yet, but I hope to write several reviews of it throughout the year. They also have an app in the app store that I need to take a look at.
I received an incorrect shipment from A Beka last year that contained second grade Spelling and Poetry, and Letters and Sounds, so yeah! Free Language arts program! My son and I are familiar with the curriculum and I think it will be great. I also purchases Word Fun, which is a really well illustrated book that teaches about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. We read a little bit of it today and my son loved it. Very entertaining and educational at the same time…score!
I purchased Reason for Handwriting transition level that will take Ralphie from print to cursive, as well as a book called writers toolbox that has some great resources for learning to write letters, stories, and more. It is a very cute and colorful book and I hope it will inspire my son to come up with some creative stories of his own.

For science I am getting a DVD from Sonlight Curriculum called Discover and Do, as well as a kit to do science experiments. We will supplement that with library books, videos, and Internet resources to research different topics throughout the year.
History will be similar, I’m starting with The Usborne Time Traveler, but will supplement from the library and Internet to research different time periods.

For reading I am going to use library books, mostly the leveled readers. Our library has a whole room for just those books with a section for each level! It will save me a ton of money not buying all the readers.

Most importantly, Bible, something I was not consistent enough with last year. We will start each day with Day by Day Devotions and will be memorizing verses each week. Hopefully we will be finding a home church soon and getting some much needed Bible knowledge from there as well.

He will also be taking piano, possibly guitar (if he can convince daddy to teach him), and hopefully get involved in a sports team. I will again be in search of high tech ways to teach using the iPad and computer.

So, I picked my curriculum, joined a homeschool group, sent my letter of intent to the school board, and prayed a lot! I think we are ready for the school year to begin! I don’t have each moment of the day planned out, but I know I wouldn’t stick to it even if I did(not with two little terrors..I mean princesses running aroun:-)). We will fall into a routine that works and go from there. I need to remember to keep records for the review at the end of the year, and figure out how I will have Ralphie evaluated, but there is loads of time for that, right!?  Happy Homeschooling!!