The Plan

If you've been following this blog from the beginning, then you might notice that there are posts about our lessons and posts about homeschooling in general, and in particular how our family is handling the homeschooling option for our children. Side note: some of what I write is purely to help me sort out all of the thoughts I have zooming through my head, and is probably not beneficial to anyone else besides me. I'm not offended, and actually encourage you to take what you like and leave the rest.

So today I felt like writing about our plan for homeschooling, which is really more like a vague idea at this point! Sophie is 4, and if we were to send her to school outside of our home she would start kindergarten next year. Zoe is 3 and is exactly 12 months younger than Sophie. Right now we are doing school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for one hour. That does not include piano or computer practice, and of course all of the learning that goes on during our play time. That one hour is spent on prereading and pre-math skills. As mentioned before, I have not purchased any materials or curriculum. I make great use of free online resources such as Starfall and Preschool Express. We plan to continue with this type of schedule through the end of this year. During these next couple of months I will be gathering resources and creating materials (my wonderful husband is going to make me a beautiful felt board!!!). I've also been looking at different scopes and sequences, learning different methods of homeschooling (not sure what type I like best yet) and making connections with other homeschooling families (I'd like to work in a co-op).

After rereading what I just wrote, I'm suddenly both excited and nervous - that seems like a lot to do! Not to mention I still have all of the regular parenting of three little girls and a house to take care of and a husband to spend time with! *Deep Breath* Okay - so then what?? My vision is that come January, I will have a plan. I think that Sophie will be ready to start kindergarten, and Zoe seems to be keeping up with her, so she'll just do school right along with us, and I'll have to make sure that I remember she is a year younger and may not always be able or ready to do everything that Sophie does. I don't think I'll purchase any curriculum yet - I feel pretty comfortable creating my own at this point as long as I have a scope and sequence to work from. I'd like to plan my lessons 1-2 weeks at a time with some type of assessment at least once a month. I might increase the amount of time that we're doing school for Sophie and keep it at 1 hour for Zoe. Chloe is still napping for 2 hours in the morning (which is when we do school now), but over time that will decrease and I'll have to figure out how to occupy her while I'm teaching. We'll follow our plan, make adjustments as needed, and see where we are in May. At that point I imagine we'll have yet another family discussion about our choice to homeschool, and I'll probably be ready for a break!