Here's the plan

I thought it might be nice for everyone to see this - my (tentative) plan and curriculum list for Becca this year. I'm planning out first grade work, figuring that it's easier to scale back than amp it up. And it's always a good idea to keep Becca busy! For a closer look at any of these titles, just look them up on Amazon.

Our overall approach is derived from The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. This is called a "classical education," emphasizes reading, and advocates teaching history in chronological order, cycling from ancient to modern times 3 times from grades 1-12. I really like the chronological approach - it's just more... logical!

I'm also getting a lot of guidance from Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp. It's got clear and helpful guidelines for learning goals at each grade level.

Language Arts texts:

Spelling - Spelling Workout level A
Grammar - First Language Lessons For the Well-Trained Mind
Writing - My Printing Book (Handwriting Without Tears), Draw Write Now book 1
Phonics/reading - Explode the Code book 2, plus assorted books


Math:

Saxon Math 1 with manipulatives - this is a thorough and comprehensive self-contained math curriculum. Becca may advance quickly through it if she chooses; it starts out with some things she's already doing.


History:

Story of the World, vol. 1 - ancient history; with corresponding activity guide
History Odyssey - ancients
History Pockets - ancient civilizations
Reference books: Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of History, assorted individual texts fitting with the time period


Science:

The Well-Trained Mind also suggests a life science focus for the first grade, so that's what I'm planning.

Reference books: The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia, The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia

We will also cover basic plant learning - the girls will be involved with my (valiant attempt at) gardening. I haven't yet decided on any text or written reference material for this.


Where's the fun? Well, I also plan to enroll Becca in a program called Fine Arts Friday, which is a full day of Spanish, art/pottery, literature, music/cooking, and praise dance/cheerleading. This is offered by her umbrella school.

What's an umbrella school? My basic beginner understanding is that it provides legal covering for home educators, hence the term. They will keep all records for me - I report twice a year with grades, attendance, and curriculum. There are 3 options in my state for parents who want to educate their children at home, and I am taking the third option. In a nutshell, this allows me the most freedom and the least amount of state intrusion.

The school we are registering with offers on-campus classes for homeschooled students, which is what the Fine Arts Friday is a part of. They also offer regular (non-arts) classes twice a week, but I don't plan to take advantage of that quite yet.

What is poor Sylvie going to do? She will be going to the preschool Becca attended for the last 2 years. And when she's home, she'll be helping out with projects and activities or doing her own little workbooks.

We're under no pressure to finish all of the first grade work (and I say this partly for my benefit too!). She can take two years to do this, or complete parts of it and move at a more leisurely pace on others. This is a learning process for me maybe even more than it is for Becca.

And if you're wondering how Becca feels about this, she's loved her preschool time and is now excited about "mommy being her teacher."

I figured I should do this

As long as I've been on computers, I still don't have a blog. Aside from my dad, I'm probably the last person on earth to finally get one. Okay, my husband too - he's not the most tech-savvy person around.

Anyway, as I am beginning a huge journey, I thought some friends and family might appreciate a peek into things now and then. This can also serve as a place for me to think things through. Sometimes I just have to type it out.

What journey am I undertaking, you ask? Well... I'll just say it. Homeschooling. Get that picture out of your head! You know you have your own little ideas of what homeschoolers look like, but I can pretty much guarantee I don't look like it. If I ever do fit into that mold, you may shoot me.

This came about because my older daughter Becca just turned 5 last month. Here in our state and most states, that means it's kindergarten time! But we've had doubts for a couple of years about her going into kindy. She'd be 5.5 by the time the school year started, and without a trace of mommy pride, I can say that she's past that learning stage now. (Er, okay - a little mommy pride!) Who knows where she'll be in 4 more months? If we had been able to "test" her into kindergarten last fall, we could have sent her then without too many reservations. But she's had another year of preschool and another year of being a little voracious sponge of a learner! As much as she loves preschool, she's showing signs of boredom right now and even the teacher would have concerns about sending her right into a regular public school kindergarten.

And I also started to truly think about this. Your kid turns five, you send him off to kindergarten. That's what people do, right? Are we doing it because that's what you do when your kid turns five, or because it's the right and best thing for our child?

I admit to some parental anxiety about scooting my little Becca off to the "big bad world" as well. She's not sheltered; no I'm not a "helicopter parent," but it just seems like a huge thing to do; sending your five year old into a big school with kids more than twice her age. Times have changed, people - it's not the same as when you were a kid. I pictured it like this: We have nurtured a beautiful, radiant, perfect yet delicate flower. Putting her into a public school is like putting that bit of perfection into a towering thunderstorm. Would she survive? I mean she, the Becca we know and love, that awesome little personality. We want her to be Becca and nobody else. We never want her to sacrifice that for the sake of fitting in.

And I have to thank some online friends, who opened my eyes to the fact that - YES! - you can love dressing your kids in Gymboree and the like and still be a homeschooler. Some things, you never even think about!

So after a LOT of research, reading, asking, thinking, discussing... we came to the conclusion... and we are homeschooling Miss Becca.