Calm restored, I think!

I have been in a bit of turmoil lately! So far on our home school journey we have not really been going against what my childhood experience of education has been - I, like my sons, didn't attend a nursery, my mum stayed at home with us but at the age of 5 years old I did attend school! Now that my eldest is approaching the time where he would (if we were going to send him) attend school it has caused a bit of anxiety for me - now the home schooling is becoming a reality! The fears that I thought were put to rest a while ago have reappeared - what if I'm useless?, what if I don't know something?, what if don't have the patience?, what if I fail my children & they hate me for it?, what if I pick the wrong curriculum stuff?............ On & on it goes round & round my head. Some times like a lot of people I look at others blogs for inspiration but that just made me feel more insecure because they all seemed to be better than me! I couldn't find one that was voicing the same concerns I was having.

I am pleased to say that calm has now been restored! Thanks to the Lord who has placed people in my path (both christian & non), through these experiences, I am more confident & enthusiastic about home schooling. What an answer to prayer - when ever we need we can ask of our Father and he is gracious & kind, He does supply our need.

Since this mini crisis I have been looking at what to do after the summer and found

these:

This is a set of 20 books by Wonderwise (bought from the book people for a fraction of the cost of others) they cleverly cover many facts & topics in story form. For example one book tells about time differences around the world (covers concept of time & geography), another entitled when I was young tells of generations of a family by granny telling a story when she were young (covers family, time lines, history & a little geography) Really good reads for young children, includes one or two educational activities to do at the end.

By Janice Ross this book of short stories is a resource aimed at developing the thinking, learning and language skills of children aged 5-7 years. Friendly animal characters share their lives and their learning experiences with the children. Each of the ten stories raises an issue for reflection and discussion, such as pride, fear, or being different. Simple teaching resources on Recording skills and Planning a Designing and Making activity have been included for the non-professional. Check out other things from Janice Ross on her web site www.schooloftheword.co.uk.


These books show you how to make shoe box learning centers with full instructions & printable resources. Which will help teach concept or reinforce concepts and can be done independently (giving mum time for other kids).

These along with our bible work, Jolly Phonics & Singapore Kindergarden Maths are going to be our main source of material for our shcooling experience after the summer.

Update

Well it's been a while since my last post, I managed to put my back out while lifting a pillow on to my sons bed!!! Needless to say I have been out of action for a wee while. The experience has highlighted to me the need for some sort of back up education stuff for the boy that any one could step in and do with them. So with that in mind I am spending some time making up pre school work bags, so far I have completed 1 with others nearing completion. Here are some photos:



Basically I have made a pillowcase into a draw string bag and filled it, pictured is our Thomas the tank engine one it has some Thomas the Tank Engine story books for story time, Thomas the Tank Engine toys (handy for the 2yr old keeps him amused) Thomas the Tank Engine cards, for snap or memory game all of which we had at home. To this we added Thomas the Tank Engine shape cards, number accordion mini book & Thomas & friends mini book taken from a lapbook found on the internet at: www.lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/ThomasTotBook.html. I also made my own color flash cards using free clip art sites, printed off coloring in sheets & work sheets from www.thomasandfriends.com/uk/activities.asp and printed on card a puzzle from www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/transportation/mthomas.html.

I am making many different work bags of different themes like noddy, farms, polar animals, jungle/safari, noah's ark, dinosaurs, oceans & insects. All will contain similar elements: relevant story books, relevant toys, a puzzle, a game, coloring in sheets, work sheets & flash cards or mini books covering alphabet/ shapes/ numbers/ colors. They could also be teamed up with a relevant DVD, program or visit. There are many ways to expand this idea or alter it depending on kids ages but I'll let you know how it works out for us & if you have any suggestions please leave a comments.

Thought I'd let you know what we are doing & how we are doing it with regards to our more formal home education time (by this I mean actual work book table type stuff).

I only plan on spending 1 to 1 1/2 hrs per day on this type of thing at the moment and even at that it may not be every weekday depending on home ed group events we attend or other things that may come up like a visit from Granny, plus a short 15 min snack time is included in this. Each week I aim to introduce a letter & it's sound, a number, a color & a shape, plus just recently I have been introduced to lapbooking so I also hope to do a relevant theme lapbook i.e. we are covering letter 'p' next week so I aim to do a penguin lapbook with the boys.

I use Jolly Phonics video, finger books, work books & printable from teachers manuel which will help him to read & write the letters & then word & so on. (even our 2 yr old loves it)

With regards to numbers both boys can count to 10 & our 4 yr old with help to 20 plus. He needs help with numerical recognition & writing so I have some various worksheet from workbooks & the internet, counting & matching amounts with numbers too. I am also going to purchase Math U See soon, it looks good, when I watched the demo it just made sense to me and I believe thats half the battle in imparting knowledge - it's easier if YOU have a good understanding of it first!

Our 4 yr old knows his colors but we cover color just to make sure and so that he looks at the colors that are all around and gets a grasp of shades of color. For this we have been making colour books ie a book with things that are red or blue. I is also helping to teach my 2 yr old his colors.

Our eldest also knows basic shapes (square, circle, rectangle, triangle, star, heart & oval) but we are coving these so that he can destingush what makes a squre a squre (it has 4 equal straigh side) or a rectangle a rectangle (it has 4 straight sides, 2 long & 2 short). So with his colors he will also see the shapes that are all around too.

For letter, number & shape formation we not only use pencil& paper but have also used playdough, shaving foam, lentils in a tray, paint, chalk & black board, pipe cleaners & string, basicly anything.

Hope this helps anyone who is also just starting out too, please comment on these, add your ideas too. In my next post I hope to share some photos.

The Start Of The Journey

I came to know Christ as my saviour while a child & I have been kept by His grace and now have children of my own. I no longer work as a nurse instead I stay at home and nurture my 2 lovely little boys. I am also married to David, celebrating 10 yrs this July.

Since the birth of our first son (now 4 yrs old) I felt this overwhelming sense of responsibility & the awesome task of Godly child rearing which challenged our whole beliefs especially about secular education. Knowing only of a few people who home educated we really searched out what God would have US to do. About a year ago we came to the decision to home educate, at least for the formative years (which could mean anything!)

This is all a work in progress (us, the home education & the blog) so come along for the ride & share with us, hope you enjoy the journey as much as we do.