I finally have a free moment to share with you more about the homeschool conference I attended last Friday. I took one of my homeschooled friends (who happens to be spending a lot of time with my brother lately...grin), my brother, and the 3 kiddos. They were an invaluable help--to assist with the boys and to hold Ella, and to weigh in on their opinions of curriculum. I thought we would be there for just a couple of hours--after all, I knew what curriculum I wanted to use for Clark (who turns 5 in January) and was pretty sure what I needed for Alex (who turns 3 at the end of this month). Boy was I wrong! It took all morning to just get through the vendors and look through all the options for K5 and weigh the difference between 3-year old and K4 curriculum. My head was spinning when we finally broke for lunch. Money is a big factor, too, but I tried to distance myself from cost and choose what I thought would work best. In the end I was able to skip some of the flash cards, flip charts, CDs, etc. that weren't 100% necessary.
So what did I buy? Clark will be using the BJU Press K5 Beginnings (which includes phonics, listening, and reading comprehension, science, Heritage Studies, and literature lessons), along with the Math U See Primer books and manipulative block set. We are also working through the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book and will do some fun art projects using A Beka's Art Projects K book. Whew! That sounds like a lot! For Alex, we are going to focus on developing hand-writing skills through the Handwriting Without Tears program and continue his alphabet and numbers study using A Beka's ABC-123 and some fun art projects. I hope to teach him to color (back and forth, heavy and dark) and figure out which hand he prefers. Even today he switched the crayon from hand-to-hand. Go figure. :)
Now you know what I have been up to. DH came home sick from work today so my plans for creativity tonight didn't quite pan out. I started on a scrapbook layout while we were on vacation last week using My Digital Studio so hopefully I can put the finishing touches on it tomorrow and share it with you soon.
