Thursday, September 6, 2007

Homeschooling Hump Day

Okay, I had intended to post this last week, but never got around to typing it up. My friend Carrie is posting about Homeschooling every Wednesday. Since Kara is only three, we are only beginning to enter the realm of Homeschooling. Here are a couple of my favorite resources.

The Well-Trained Mind is a book that can give every parent the confidence to know he/she is capable of homeschooling. This book also gives you many (and I mean many) tips and resources to begin using.

Phonics Pathways This is the book I am using to teach Kara to read. This book includes games and ideas to use to help teach your child to read. It is geared towards helping older children learn how to read, but since Kara already knows her letters and sounds (thanks to Leap Frogs Letter Factory DVD), she is ready to begin learning to read.

Here is our typical 1 Hour of preschool each day -- we have "school" after lunch when Andy and Lydia are down for their naps.

1:00 -- practice her violin -- Kara is beginning Suzuki Violin 1 -- a teenager in the church is giving her lessons. Right now until we officially start lessons, Kara is naming the parts of the violin and listening to the Suzuki 1 CD

1:20 -- we play reading games and work on the lesson in Phonics Pathways.

1:40 -- We read a Bible Story together and I ask her questions about previous stories and the current story for the day.

After the Bible story I'll read her a book of her choice.

Occasionally we work on writing, but I'm not pushing her very much in this area because I don't want to spend more than 1 hour a day on school. When she works on writing though, I write out all of the vowels several times on writing paper. Then, I give her a gel pen (there is something special about being able to use a pen to trace b/c she's usually not allowed to touch pens) and she can trace the vowels.

Hope this gives you some good ideas! If anyone else has good ideas on how to teach preschoolers to use scissors, or other things we should be working on, please let me know.

For today, I wanted to tell everyone about a homeschooling giveaway that's going on over at HsKubes' Haven at Home blog.

Books we would like for Homeschooling our Children

Below is a list of books and music we would like to own for the purpose of homeschooling our children.

Toddlers
Handa's Surprise
The Edible Pyramid
The Lunch Box Surprise
We're Making Breakfast for Mother
Feast for Ten
Yoko
Too Many Tamales
Oh, the Things You Can Do That are Good for You

Preschool/Kindergarten
Books
The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West by Barbara Brenner
Famous Children: Michelangelo by Tony Hart
Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors
Leonardo and the Flying Boy by Laurence Aholt

Music
Wee Sing by Beal/Nipp CD and Songbook
Math Memory Songs: Addition Songs CD by Kathy Troxel
Math Memory Songs: Subtraction Songs CD
by Kathy Troxel

First Grade

Books
Discovering Great Artistsby MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga
The Lightlings by RC Sproul
Legends & Leagues or, Mr. Tardy Goes From Here to There by Ned Bustard
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
The Biggest Bear
by Lynd Kendall Ward
Billy and Blaze by CW Anderson
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys by H.A. Rey (This is the original Curious George book)
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
Corduroy
by Don Freeman
Curious George by H.A> Rey
The Egg by M.P. Robertson
The Emperor's New CLothes by Ned Bustard
Floss by Kim Lewis
Gregory's Shadow by Don Freeman
Harry and the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
Henry and Mudge: The First Book by Cynthia Rylant
How I Became a Pirateby Melinda Long
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Peter Roup
Little Bearby Else Homelund Minarik
Little Bear's Friends by Else Homelund Minarik
The Little Engine that Couldby Watty Piper
The Little Houseby Virginia Lee Burton
The Lonely Dollby Dare Wright
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Magic Fish by Freya Littledale
Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard
Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Teaby Cynthia Rylant
Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
A New Coat for Annaby Harriet Ziefert
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
A Puppy for Annieby Kim Lewis
The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Petersham
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
The Velveteen Rabbitby Marjery Williams
The Canada Geese Quilt
The Courage of Sarah Noble
Gold Rush Winter
Hannah
Next Spring an Oriole
Pioneer Cat
Balto and the Great Race
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
The Case of Hermie the Missing Hamster
Ice Wreck
Tall Tales: Wingin' It with the Wright Brothers
A Taste of Blackberries
Bach's Goldberg Variations
by Anna Harwell Celenza
Bellerophon Music Coloring Books
Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes
The Heroic Symphony and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and The Farewell Symphony by Anna Harwell Celenza

Music
Geography Songs: Sing Around the World CD and Songbook
States & Capitals Songs and Maps CD
Classical Kids