As I mentioned before, we are new to homeschooling. Part of last year we took the girls out of their private school and started sing, spell, read and write with them. They liked it, but we didn't have the money to spend on anything complete and I supplemented with workbooks from walmart, Iphone apps, and a couple of websites.
I by no means felt like it was sufficient, but we also went through a move right after we took the girls out of school and it seemed like it was no time before it was summer.
I had intended to HS through the summer, but it didn't work out that way.
So I was on the hunt for a complete home school package. I am not yet one of those mom's who can pick and choose the best thing for each subject for each kid. I just don't have the capacity for it yet. I also don't know my children's learning styles well enough to choose. So I decided to go with Abeka. It is expensive for sure, but there was something about it being a complete curriculum that put my very troubled doubtful mind at ease. So to me, it's worth it. Also the great thing about the option we chose is that it's the video program. The video's are a recorded teacher in a classroom teaching the lessons. I love that idea. I am no longer responsible to explain things to my kids. ESPECIALLY phonics. For whatever reason I have a hard time explaining that to my kids. I feel like I'm confusing them.
I am basically there to get their materials ready, supervise their workbooks and have them read to me.
I will also be adding in my own arts and crafts things I find on pintrest to break up the subjects and make it a little more fun. Especially with girls !
I plan to also start Matthew with sensory type activities during out school time. With him being 2 I feel like most of the tot school things are too big for him, but their are ton's of idea's on pintrest for tot busy activities to keep them entertained and quite while the girls work. I do plan to have him watch the video's with them too. The video's seem very interactive. They have a lot of speaking out loud with the class, and answering the teacher back etc. I look forward to seeing how Matthew reacts to it. It reminds me a lot of how Dora the explorer is. The girls would scream out the answers when they were tot's ! lol
So this Tuesday marks out first day of school. We had a financial snag ( joys of being self employed ) and then had an issue with our debit card not going through due to a daily limit, which caused half of our shipment to be late. So even though we don't have Katie's books in, we are going to go ahead and start this Tuesday and I hope it's in that evening. We will be doing school Tuesdays through Fridays with our HS Co Op on Mondays.
