Kindergarten is Coming

This fall we will be embarking on the Kindergarten journey - we've been working through our prekindergarten program, but it's been hit or miss with James. I think we're finally getting to the point that we might be able to get him reined in enough to do the schooling that he needs.

No one in our house is interested in writing at all... which I find interesting. Tyler does seem to be showing interest in reading... which is exciting. We researched My Father's World, Sonlight, Horizons, and LifePac - landing on LifePac as our curriculum for next year. Ultimately, we want to end up using the Monarch program by Alpha Omega Publishers and the LifePac program works right into that. So we will use that for Kinder-2nd grade before we move to the Monarch program.

We chose this program for many reasons, but mainly because it uses mastery learning - where the kids work through one concept for a few lessons until they have it down, and then they move on to the next concept. Also because it's a little slower start to the Kindergarten concepts since the boys aren't interested in writing or practicing their letters - this will give them a little more time to focus on various line drawings and things before this becomes the main focus.

After Kindergarten - the LifePac system does have the 5 main subjects (Language Arts, Math, Bible, Social Studies, and Science) and it's a system of 10 worktexts in each subject that makes up the year... so the boys can work through them at their own pace. 

I bought our program a couple of days ago to get the best deal... they sell it for 20% off in April with free shipping, but for the month of May - they still give 15% off and free shipping for purchases of $150 or more. 

I plan on supplementing a few things - like this year I'm going to add the Horizons Health program for Kindergarten - which teaches some basic health things... like basic fire safety, food groups, and hygiene. Next year I will add in Horizons 1st grade Handwriting and Spelling to our program. 

There will likely be times during the year when I will need some time to work one on one with each of the boys, so I'm going to employ the Reading Eggs program to give them some extra supplemental enrichment work. I used a free trial on this program earlier in the year and the boys seemed to do well with it - so I bought a full year subscription. I was able to get a deal on it for 25% off and then 50% off of any additional children. Along with the Reading Eggs program - you get a free additional program called Math Seeds, so I think we will be able to do a lot with these while I'm doing one on one teaching, but also on any days that we have extra time. I love that it allows you to give a little upfront test, and it puts the kids right in the level that they are ready for. Additionally, it gives you reports of what reading level they are on, comprehension rates, and lots more!

So there you have it -- our 2015-2016 plan for schooling. I also bought the Homeschool Planet online planner so that I can keep up with all of our personal and schooling calendar items. There is a 30 day free trial for the calendar as well. Any busy mom should check it out - homeschooling or not. It has some great features like it'll even text you or your spouse a grocery list so that you can keep it all together in one place. It also will email you a daily digest so that you can print out your schedule for the day if you'd like to.