Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Workbooks

The past few days my daughter has been showing an interest in her 'learning books' on her own. I will find her coloring or writing in pre-school-1st grade level workbooks with colored pencil or crayons. Mostly we have Schoool Zone workbooks, but there are others too. An occasional School Zone workbook will include a CD-ROM, which , for my kids, is a VERY exciting thing! She has a longer attention span now and enjoys her success. The other day she finished 15 pages in one session! A favorite activity she has is doing mazes...this is since learning the fun of dot-to-dots! We are very proud of her and the example she sets to her younger brother of the fun that learning can be!
http://www.schoolzone.com

Monday, February 23, 2009

Is This Homeschool?

A couple of weeks ago I bought a fun patriotic curriculum for teaching young children. It was written by Julianne Kimber. I am thrilled with it's content and started teaching my children from it 3 days a week. This takes a lot of planning and dedication, but it is rewarding to see the difference it makes for my family. We only focus on it between 1-4 hours each time, and we always start with a devotional, including the Pledge of Allegiance. My daughter now has that learned and finds joy in learning about our country. She even memorized a poem about Freedom by Joy Kimber. I have had a goal to homeschool my children since about 2 years ago, and now that my oldest is set to begin kindergarten this fall I am also expecting the arrival of the newest addition to our family at that time. I think it best to enroll my daughter for at least her first year because of all the adjustments that will need to be made by the whole family in welcoming our new member. I do hope to be able to stay motivated to homeschool and continue teaching in our home in addition to enrolling my daughter in public school. "For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life." --Gus Tuberville, William Penn College.