First let me say that your homeschool is unique. You do not have to have all the right "stuff" to make homeschooling great. All you need is a heart that cares and a mind that can learn!
This blog is only intended to encourage or share ideas (which none are original). Please don't compare yourself or fret. Honestly, I mainly started this blog as a "diary" for me and so my mom could see what her grandkids were learning.
These guys are the reason right here.
This is an attic space turned schoolroom.
Got some lovely orange carpet remnants from the church building.
Put a AC window unit in. The back side of the room is still used for storage.
Hope to get rid of or move that stuff somewhere else someday.
Most of the stuff is baby stuff. Can't get rid of it yet. :)
Curriculum storage, puzzles, crayons, markers, glue,
playdoh, the supplies are endless in those bins.
I have them labeled on the outside.
How did I acquire all this stuff already!?
Because I went to school for 5 years to be a teacher.
Notice on the wall, I had to hang my diploma up in my office ;)
Finally got the old computer moved upstairs
so we can use it for educational games and Starfall.
I have a little spot set up as our Post Office in the schoolroom.
I have some real money in the room that they use
to purchase their supplies for writing letters. I used this last year
as a tool to teach Isaac his coins. I hope to use it this year to encourage
Isaac to practice handwriting/writing. I'll stick my own letters to them in their
mailboxes on a weekly basis, and they can respond. Again, these mailboxes were found
in the Valentines at Walmart.
Let me introduce you to Dem Bones. That's what the boys call him.
He is our friend. He was a Halloween decoration that talks.
Hope to use him when we learn about our body!
Started collecting all the math manipulatives and such
in old lunch meat containers. Eli had all this dumped.
Every single bit of it into a nice big pile after I took this pic.
Oh, yeah, he dumped out all the puzzles on top, too.
So what is all this stuff good for? Dumping and sorting.
I keep alot of my college stuff nearby as reference.
I only kept the good stuff.
This shelf holds alot of my Bible class teacher books.
The little white bins are miscelaneous crafts supplies.
More stuff that Eli likes to dump out in the floor.
I used old wipes containers, took a picture of what was inside
and taped the pic on the front.
Used an old bathroom rack and a rack James got
at his office that was going to the dump!
This is our Bible Study section.
We have our Bible Study Guide timeline, maps, and globe up.
My extra BSG material is in the entable there.
I love this curriclum. All Bible. Not all the fluff.
This year for history we are still just focusing on the Bible.
Next year I might use Story of the World and tie in on the Bible timeline
where/when the other world events took place.
That way they can see the Bible and world events as one.
Moses events
We will start all over with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree.
Eli will get to have fun this year as well with his ABCs. For Eli,
I will be using some of the material from My Father's World Kindergarten,
and the Letter of the Week and K4 curriculum found at
Of course, he might not care one bit, but I will have something ready
in case he wants to do school with big brother.
Yes, Eli has no pants on in this picture. Still potty training. Still unsuccessful.
This is their restaurant. They call it Kobe's.
More of the playroom. It is right off of the schoolroom, so it is perfect.
Eli can go play when he needs a change of scenery.
And then I can still hear and see him.
I really debated on getting this. But we did. Isaac is really academically at a 1st grade level in everything but handwriting. But he is barely 5 and needs time to grow, mature, learn obedience, emotions etc. So I went with this because of the Bible, hands on science (so much outside time!), and handwriting. Plus, I can introduce the ABCs to Eli as we go along. I plan to supplement with other material for the phonics and math part of the curriculum.
Just a side note: Isaac was asked, "What grade are you in?" And he responded, "I don't know. Kinda a little bit of first grade I guess." LOL...typical homeschooler answer.
I like plain, empty planners.
Write in pencil!
This is the MFW planner.
I'm already penciling in my supplement plans.
Math Supplement:
Math U See. We did the Primer last year, but some of the lessons towards the end of the book were more challenging. The first half the the text was way easy. So we are going to review lessons 17-30 before moving on to Math U See Alpha. I might get that in December.
Phonics and Reading supplement:
A friend gave me her Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten set.
(not all of it is shown here.) Isaac likes reading the stories. The way
the program is set up, it is perfect for studying word families.
I also have a HOP writing curriculum that she gave me.
I might add some of it to the MFW writing.
Reading supplement:
I kept all of Leah's old take home readers from Kindergarten and 1st Grade.
Yes, I did. Even back then, I knew I wanted to homeschool. I went through them to see which phonics and word families were studied and put them in order as to when I want to introduce each reader to Isaac. These are all the ones he read last year. I have another stack this big for this year.
Reading Supplement:
I like the Apologetics Press easy reader series.
These are Bible-based science.
Reading Supplement:
Another friend gave me a 1st grade set of readers that her school was tossing.
I swear these were the same ones I learned from in the late 1980s.
Isaac doesn't care for the workbook, but he likes to read the stories with me.
Reading Supplement:
This is the MFW 1st grade reader.
I went ahead and bought it cause I knew Isaac would be ready
for some of it. We will read some of these stories in Bible class on
Sundays or at home with our Bible Study Guide.
Phonics Supplement:
Isaac will be focusing on short vowel sounds, blends, digraphs,
and reviewing word families.
This Explode the Code helps with the short vowels.
Phonics/spelling supplement:
This is a text from my college days at OU.
I LOVE this text. I didn't read it in college, but I have now, and LOVE it.
It came with a wonderful CD with file folder game printables.
It helps you determine where your child is in his reading/writing/spelling development.
My Words Their Way file folder games.
So far I have all the concept, Beginning Sounds, Word Families,
Short Vowels, Digraphs and Blends games ready to go!
Isaac did the Beginning sounds and Word Families last year.
This was a spelling inventory "test" from WTW that I gave Isaac the other day.
He fell in the beginning-middle Letter Name Alphabetic stage.
This helped me make sure I knew what he needed to study.
And here is his test and how he spelled his words.
Clearly he needs more short vowel study! Moving on to more CVC words!
I'm excited. He can read and now he is learning to spell!
I was really surprised he did so well considering we still have not formally studied handwriting yet. Will start this year. I was afraid handwriting would get in the way of his ability to spell. Like he'd be so frustrated in forming the letters, he couldn't do it. But he surprised me.
But he wanted to write and not say it outloud to me.
I am one proud Mama.
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