Where do you-all find the time?!

The time to homeschool and blog? 

We've been puttering along all fall, continuing to use Moving Beyond the Page as our main curriculum spine, and very much enjoying it!  We are almost finished with the 6-8 level and will move into 7-9 early in 2012.  We're also been spending our time working through Teaching Textbooks 3 and I will order the next level after the holiday rush is over.  Challenging Word Problems and Life of Fred - Elementary are also going well.  We've been using My Pals Are Here! 3/4 for science, as well as several Intellego Unit Studies for both science and social science.  We have workbooks for days when I'm not at my best, but both find that discussion centred around whatever we are reading suits us best.  Fine arts and physical education are mostly done out of house, and as for French - well, let's call it a 'curriculum in progress'...

Kind of like my blogging! 

CKW with his latest Lego 12 Days of Brickmas creation.  Day 2 - Gift Wrapped Present

Finally, An Update!

Things have been going very well, and I can't tell you how relieved I am to be able to write that... 

It took me over a year to decide exactly when would be the best time to remove CKW from public school and begin homeschooling.  For reasons having to due with my health, I knew that I would not be able to homeschool until he was old enough to work at least somewhat independently, and up until late last month I honestly wasn't sure if this year was going to be 'The Year of Independent Work' or 'The Year of Homeschool Hell'!

Finally we had a day where CKW finished up all his work before lunch.  I can remember the time as if it were yesterday; it was 11:47 and we called it a day.  When I congratulated him and told him that he was free to do as he pleased for the afternoon, the look on his face was priceless.  "Can I play lego?" he asked.  "Can I go outside and fly my kite?"...  "Can I ride my dirtbike?"...  After five or six anwers in the affirmative, I guess he realised that I was serious and he broke out into a huge smile.  Since then, we haven't had many days that extend beyond lunchtime and, thankfully, much less wasting time, fooling around, and general 'pain in the butt' behaviour.  He is learning, and I am able to rest as needed.  It's working for us!  It's really working!!

With respect to teaching/learning styles, I have found that 'flipping the classroom' is the way to go at our house.  At the end of each homeschool day, I have CKW watch BrainPop or Discovery Education (for example) videos that introduce and explain the topics we are going to be discussing the following day.  This often gets him interested enough to independently locate supplemental reading on a topic that afternoon/evening, and consequently our teaching discussions have been at a much higher and more in depth level.  His comprehension and retention have also improved.

Writing continues to be our bugaboo, but things are improving.  CKW is doing all the writing required, including making use of the more advanced options when offered, in the 6-8 level of Moving Beyond the Page.  We are also doing The Wand program from Bravewriter.  This program started out quite slowly (it is suggested for K-2 students) but it has been encouraging for my struggling writer since the writing demands are light and the spelling and phonics review is helpful.  I will wait until the program is finished to make a final decision, but I think this will be something that we continue with in future years.

All in all, it has been a successful first month (or so!) of homeschooling.  Hopefully I will be back next week with an update, but no promises!

I meant to write weekly updates... Honest!

I don't know how she does it... 

And no, I don't mean Kate Reddy or Sarah Jessica Parker.  I mean all the homeschool bloggers who manage to both homeschool their children and update their blogs! 

I meant to write weekly updates, so that I would have them to refer to in later years, but time seems to get away from me every single day.  Our days have been going well, we've just been super busy with at home lessons, out of home extras, and sports - oh my doG the sports!  Swimming, karate, riding, zumba, skating, and hockey, hockey, hockey.  Seems CKW has found his religion...

However I will be back - I promise!  With an actual homeschooling update...  Tomorrow?

Note To Self

Homeschool Day at the Science Centre

Our local science centre offers once monthly homeschool days, with activities based upon our provincial science curriculum.  Of course CKW was excited eager to attend, so I couldn't let a little thing like the fact that I felt like death warmed over keep us away...

The morning session included several laboratory demonstrations of Changes in Matter, followed by a self guided tour of the centre's current Biodiversity Exhibit.  This exhibit included a model veterinary clinic and I must admit that I was quite pleased to see CKW enjoying himself while viewing radiographs, auscultating hearts, and repeatedly watching several wildlife surgery films.  Perhaps I'll make a vet out of him yet!

The afternoon was a laboratory session for the students:  Measuring Air and Water.  Each student had their own computer and lab equipment, but CKW's age group did their experiments with lab partners.  They had to measure the weight of air in a balloon, test an hypothesis regarding the mixing of water at two different temperatures, and finally, test an hypothesis regarding the mixing of salt with ice water.

With his lab partner.

 

 

Trying to blow up the balloon!

 

 

Water at different temperatures.

 

 

CKW had a ball!  October Homeschool day cannot come soon enough for him!

Our First Day 'Not Back To School'

Our local homeschool group's  'Not Back To School' get-together at a local beach on the day the public school children, indeed, went back to school.  It started out chilly, but after playing on the jungle gym, eating lunch, making kites and generally hanging out together, the sun came out and we had a perfectly lovely day! 

 

The End of the World As We Know It...

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane...
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs.
...listen to your heart bleed.

Lock him in uniform and book burning...
...this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear!
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...

First official homeschool day tomorrow - the end of the world as we know it - and I feel fine!

'Baby' Science or Confessions of a Curriculum Junkie

I purchased two Singapore Science programs to use in conjuction with our Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU) curriculum.  What can I say?  CKW likes science workbooks! 

We had already started with the BFSU K-2 curriculum, so I purchased Singapore's Earlybird Start Up Science 1,2,3,4 for him to do this year, planning to move onto their My Pals Are Here! (MPH) program for 3/4 (one set) the next two years, and then continue onto 5/6 (one set) afterwards.  I thought I had it all figured out...  Yeah Me!

Whoa!  Not so fast...  The Earlybird program states that it is for grade one/two students, and because I had read numerous times how challenging the Singapore math program was, I felt safe buying it sight unseen.  Live and learn I guess... 

The booklets are cute, colourful and well illustrated, but I'm finding this program to be more suited to a Kindergarten/grade one level and they would probably be more interesting to students who are not very strong and/or interested in science.  I'm expecting CKW to finish them up well before Christmas (we are going to finish them before starting into MPH 3/4), but I have had nothing but complaints from the peanut gallery about the 'baby' science books that I bought him.  I think these booklets would be great for children as an introductory science curriculum, but for a science fiend like CKW, who's spent the last three years reading everything about science that he could get his hands on, it's more then just a little bit light.

 

Wants and Needs

Today we worked on our Moving Beyond the Page curriculum.  We are going ahead with the 6-8 level and the first concept is Community.  Unit one of this concept is Communities Around the World and today was Lesson Four: Wants and Needs. 

CKW's favourite part of the day was making a Wants and a Needs collage.  As soon as I mentioned that he would need to go to the arts & crafts centre to get the scissors and glue, he literally screamed out "COLLAGE!"  The poor boy is well aware that I am not very artsy and I think he was afraid that he was going to miss out on all the fun stuff. 

So, without further ado, here they are!

He needs healthy food (berries), water (he said preferably not bottled, but he couldn't find a picture of a tap), shelter (that's quite the house), clothing (looks suspiciously like paddock boots to me), medical care (rabies vaccine from one of my veterinary magazines!), and then...  then I saw the picture of the Kardashians!  WTH?!  We don't watch much television, and what we do watch certainly isn't that show!  However my fears were put to rest when he said he didn't know who those people were, but it was the only picture of a family he could find and he knows we all need luvins!

Apparently he wants a car, an ipad, junk food (pop and pizza) and a really good cross-country horse.  Unfortunately, the horse in the photo looks very much like the one who kicked me in the head, so he'll have to stick with his pony for now.

We spent a lot of time discussing domestic and international poverty and what we can do, both as individuals and as a country, to help those in need.  Now that's what I like about MBtP!  I might not have thought to bring these topics into the curriculum on my own ("Just the facts, ma'am"), but important issues like these are definately things that I want to take the time to discuss with CKW, as soon and as often as possible.   



Horsepower!

Physical Education

CKW has been involved in tonnes of physical activities this summer:  baseball, soccer, horseback riding, swimming, skating, hockey, and at camp this year he learned to canoe, kayak, sail, and rock climb.  This past month he has been at the pool at 0830 and swimming until 0930 from Monday to Friday.  It has paid off in spades! 

CKW successfully completed both Levels 5 and 6 in the Red Cross Swim Kids program and finished up his first ever timed distance swim of 75 metres in 2 minutes and 38 seconds.  Way To Go!

Do I Have To Write It ALL BY MYSELF?!

CKW is a very reluctant writer - his brain (and mouth!) goes far too fast for his handwriting.  He produces a tonne of ideas, but has trouble getting them onto the page in paragraph form, and sometimes even into sentences.

We had planned to do the full Moving Beyond The Page (MBtP) 7-9 level this year, but the writing was quickly proving to be more then he could handle.  He was really starting to resist even attempting the process of writing, so I backed off and decided to save the 7-9 level until next year and, instead, we are doing the two language arts heavy concepts of 6-8 level this year: Community and Culture.   However, I have informed him that am not scribing anything for him in MBtP!  We do plenty of outside science and social science studies, and if I find that the amount of writing expected in MBtP for a particular day is quite heavy, then I will scribe for him in other subjects, but I really want him to learn to write on his own.   We are also doing (see links at the side) MCP Phonics C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar 2, BraveWriter - The Wand, and WriteStart Primary C this year, so we are going to keep plugging along, with the goal of having his writing abilities equal to the level required at the 7-9 level of MBtP in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.

So far, he's doing great! Yes, he sometimes does find the MBtP readings to be 'babyish' at this level, but we most often discuss the topics presented in great detail, I always have him choose the second option for activities when they are available, and I try, as often as possible, to add in 'extras' as I find them listed on the MBtP IdeaShare forum.  So far, so good...

Happily, his writing is already improving by leaps and bounds and he continues to read more difficult books on his own and in the more challenging literature unit studies I choose that we discuss verbally.  For these, I went through MBtP, as well as Michael Clay Thompson's literature program and left out any books that they included so we wouldn't end up repeating things later on.  (I hope to add bits and bobs of Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program to our curriculum in the not too distant future, but that put the kibosh to this fall's planned Wind In The Willows pond unit study!)    

Last year, it was recommended to me at school that I should not worry about his handwriting, as he could move onto a keyboard anytime.  Several teaching professionals felt that handwriting was no longer a necessary skill 'in this day and age'.  But I strongly disagree!   As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I have discussed this with rehabilitation ocupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists, and they have all strongly supported the studies showing that the act of physically writing letters and words helps both children and adults to build and maintain cognitive function.  Benefits include, but are not limited to, reading, writing, spelling, focus, memory, and executive function.  With this in mind, I've made the choice to slow down for a year to allow him to learn to write more easily - one of the best things about homeschooling is we've got lots of time!

Off Topic...

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." - Jack Layton

You can read the entire letter to Canadians here.

Moved Into the 'Finished' File

Today we finished up our first two Intellego unit studies:   K-2 World History, Volume 1: In The Beginning and K-2 Geography: Maps.

CKW really enjoyed making a treasure map and hiding a chewed up dog rawhide in his bedroom for me to 'discover'.  We also dug quite deeply into geographic and magnetic north pole and managed to veer off into the science of magnets for a couple of days, something neither of us much minded!  Finishing up today we watched a National Geographic documentary on oceans/ocean life and have been discussing how to save the world's oceans ever since.  The actual geography in this unit was a bit basic for CKW's taste, but it's the rabbit trails that I/we find most interesting with these unit studies. 

Volume one of world history was primarily prehistory (which I have already written about) but we spent last week and today working on the third chapter in the unit, Mesopotamia.  I've been using several Dorling Kindersley books for social sciences and we both especially enjoy The History Book for kids.  It's "a trip through history from the stone age to the digital age".

We had read about Mesopotamia when we first started out with The Story of the World (SOTW), so a lot of it was repetition, but we enjoyed making a cuneiform tablet to keep track of our barley trading (don't ask) and then we spent a couple of days reading about the adventures of Gilgamesh and contrasting those with tales from the bible.  I was going to leave the in depth study of world religions until quite a bit later, but I know where this is heading...  So off to CurrClick I go for the Intellego unit study of World Religions!   

We are really enjoying our new Moving Beyond the Page curriculum, and this has caused us to put our Intellego unit studies somewhat onto the back burner.  However, when we do make time to use them, we always enjoy ourselves!  Most of them are supplementary fun for us, but they could easily be used as a main curriculum spine, especially if you make time to follow all the rabbit trails found while investigating the main ideas presented.  I noticed that they are planning to come out with an Evolution unit study for K-2 this fall and I am definately going to pick that one up as well. 


Afterall, we just finished up two units, so that's reason enough to get two more, right?

    

We're Canadian, Eh?

Our main social sciences curriculum Moving Beyond the Page is American, and as you have probably guessed by the title of this post (if you haven't read my little bio blurb thingie), we are Canadian.  Therefore I've been spending quite a bit of time trying to find a curriculum for Canadian history, geography and civics that is secular and at an elementary school level.  Not as easy as you might think!

This is what I've been able to come up with, thanks to several Canucks on The Well-Trained Mind forums.  Our main curriculum was purchased from Northwoods Press and was written by Donna Ward.  They are workbooks, and I didn't purchase the curriculum bundles, but I think they will work just fine for what we are going to be studying at this stage.

Our geography spine will be Canada, My Country and I purchased several books to go along with this curriculum, including several books from Kids Can Press.  Looking through, the spine seems secular and although we both find geography to be a bit of a slog, I think we can make this into something 'fun'.

 

For history, I also chose author Donna Ward, and purchased her Courage and Conquest: Discovering Canadian History as our curriculum spine.  Along with the highly recommended The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn and others, I think we will do okay with this topic as well!

Homeschooling Goals

Today, on a forum I frequent, I responded to a question from Melissa with regards to homeschooling goals.  Much food for thought in the various responses and, in order to keep these goals front and centre, I've dedicated a new page up top to this specific topic.

Love the forum at The Secular Homeschool Community! 

Back From Vacation!

We very much enjoyed our week at the cottage but now we are back home, not enjoying this heat or humidity!  Thank goodness for central A/C!!

We have finished up our Prehistory unit, comprised primarily of Intellego's K-2 World History: Volume 1 - In The Beginning and the documentary series Walking With Cavemen.  We also watched a few episodes of Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking With Beasts - seven year old boys love that stuff!  Great online resources we used were Becoming Human and PBS' Human Evolution webpage. 

I came up from doing the laundry one afternoon to find Homo habilis on our back deck!  Nice crocs 'person with abilities'...

And did you notice something?  I finally played around with Blogger enough to use links in my posts...  Yeah Me!

   

Language Arts

I've placed an order for the Community and Culture concepts from the 6-8 level of Moving Beyond the Page (MBtP), and while we wait for it to arrive, we're going to get started on the other basics of our language arts curriculum. I've decided to push the entire 7-9 MBtP curriculum onto next year (third grade) and use the 6-8 concepts to concentrate on language arts for this year (second grade). This will give us one additional year to use the full MBtP curriculum - I noticed today that the 11-13 curriculum just came out on the website, so we're good until grade seven now!

When I was educated at public school in Ontario, high school included grades nine through thirteen and many of us were already eighteen years old before we left for university. Still, I remember several students, mostly boys, who left school that first year, primarily because they weren't mature enough to be on their own at that age. CKW is very able and responsible for his age, probably because of my chronic health issues, but I will encourage him to take a 'Victory Lap' (fifth year) in high school, whether he is at home or public school at the time. I'm in no hurry to have my son graduate from high school and leave home, nor do I want to pay tuition for a year of mispent youth - that's what high school is for!

Although CKW is a very good reader, I want to go over all the basics with him this year, as he is quite a reluctant writer. More scientific then fanciful, he writes much like I do - preferring lists, point form and 'get to the point' writing over paragraphs full of descriptive sentences. Hopefully Harry Potter and our other literature selections will help him to see the value in learning to write properly. With that in mind, spelling, phonics, grammar and the mechanics of writing are things we will be working on daily this year. I have purchased several workbook style programs for him to do, along with the two 6-8 concepts mentioned from MBtP. We'll get started tomorrow with: MCP Phonics Level C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar Daily Guided Teaching & Review for Grade 2, and WriteShop Primary Book C.

Our Moving Beyond The Page Order Is Here!

We finally received our Moving Beyond the Page order - no thanks to Canada Post!  I ordered just the first concept in the 7-9 level, Environment, as I was a bit worried about the amount of writing that would be required.  Included in this concept are three science/social science units:  Amazing Weather, The Land and Sound, as well as three literature units:  Tornado, Sarah Plain and Tall, and Who Was Helen Keller?.  This concept also includes a human anatomy ear model and a thermometer.

Everything looked great!  I was chomping at the bit to get started right way, but...  I'm still worried about the level of writing required.  It is like pulling teeth to get CKW to write two sentences about almost anything, and I am very reluctant to start out at the level of writing in the 7-9 level and turn him off of the entire homeschool experience. 

Sooo...  I went ahead and read through both the Secular Homeschool forum and the MBtP forum archives and have, reluctantly, decided to put this concept on the shelf for now and place an order for both the Community and Culture concepts in the 6-8 level.  We will start off with those concepts this year (not sure how well three Cinderella themed stories are going to go over!) and really concentrate on the writing aspects of the curriculum, as well as applying critical thinking skills to our discussions of the topics raised - needs vs wants, citizenship, cultures and customs, etc.  I hope this will keep CKW interested and engaged while his fine motor skills continue to mature, and that we will then be ready for the 7-9 level in the not too distant future.



 

On A Roll...

Two days does make it 'on a roll', doesn't it?

CKW started out this morning with his DEAR reading and journal entry, then he 'retold' his independent reading to me while I was getting breakfast together.  I've been noticing people who follow The Well Trained Mind talking about "narration" and I wonder if this is the same as what his public school (and therefore, us) have been calling a 'retell'...  Off to investigate after this post!

In language arts (LA), we read Chapter 6 in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and then discussed the plot, characters, vocabulary, etc as per the LIT and Novel Ideas unit study plans we have been following.  This was a great book to start with, as both of us are enjoying it immensely.  We will be done in no time, unfortunately, but I'm already looking into which read aloud study unit to purchase next.  I'm thinking that The Wind in the Willows, along with a pond study (we have a pond afterall), would be right up our alley!

During social science (SS), we continued with our study of ancient history.  We had started out with The Story of the World, but have since backtracked a bit (!) using the Intellego K-2 World History Volume 1:  In The Beginning unit study.  Today we learned about prehistoric humans, hominid types and the effects of the Ice Age on human evolution and migration.  Next up:  The Stone Age.  We also opened up the Intellego K-2 Maps unit, and finished up the introductory first chapter.  CKW had great fun creating a map of our house, along with a treasure map of his bedroom.  I found the treasure right away, as his map was quite detailed, but wasn't too thrilled to grab my 'prize' of a wet, chewed up doggie rawhide out from underneath the top left corner of his bedroom rug.

After this, CKW did the Odd and Even Numbers lesson in Teaching Textbooks 3, and then watched the BrainPop Jr movie, and completed the quiz, on the same topic.  We went a bit overboard on the LA and SS stuff today, so no time for keyboarding or science, but whatever...  it's summertime, CKW was off to library program, we had fun and we'll get to that stuff some other time.     

"Real Homeschooling"

Today was our first day of 'real homeschooling', according to CKW.  I've scheduled his independent DEAR reading and journal writing for early morning, while I am making breakfast.  Then, after breakfast, we sit down to an hour of language arts, followed by an hour of social science - or thereabouts, we have to leave time for a couple of small snack & dance sessions!  CKW then does a maths lesson via Teaching Textbooks, as well as his Read, Write & Type Keyboarding practice while I rest my brain - oops!  I mean get our dinner ready.  He also uses this time to look at the movies on BrainPop Jr that correlate with what we have been studying that day. 

For the summer, he will be spending afternoons at our local library's reading program on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  I thought that science might have to wait until September, but CKW loves science so very much, that he's asked if we can consider science as an elective course for the summer, as we have two electives periods scheduled for both Saturdays and Sundays.  Truthfully, these were to make up for any horrible health weekdays where I wasn't up to helping him with his most intensive teaching subjects, but if he wants science on the weekends, then I am all in!  Being a veterinarian, I love the sciences (well, except organic chemistry, but I'm hoping that won't come up for some time yet!), although CKW has made sure to explain to me in very great detail that chemistry, not biology, is his favourite science.  I guess I can deal with that.  Today, being Monday, we had our afternoon free and took advantage of this by starting off our science study with the first two lessons in Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (very basic) and then watching a couple of BrainPop Jr movies about matter and it's different states.

After we finished up and CKW was doing some fancy Lego project while I rested, he came into my room and asked me what 'real homeschooling' was like.  I told him that it was like what we had done today, that today was very much like what our homeschooling days were going to be like.  He ruminated on that for a bit and then came back in to let me know that he was very excited about grade two - apparently he found 'real homeschooling' to be a bit harder then regular school, but so very much more interesting! 

Good day, if I do say so myself...

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

We've started our first family read-aloud novel: Harry Potter (HP) and the Philosopher's Stone. CKW had started it on his own this year, but I'm a little bit nervous that the books may quickly get too dark for my comfort level, so I was able to successfully lobby for a 'one HP book plus film per summer' schedule, with a HP movie marathon at the end. I'm not sure how many summers I've bought myself here, but I do think that seven years old is too young for the disturbing themes in the latter novels in this series. I may have to revisit the schedule again in a few years though... Something tells me CKW isn't going to wait until he's fourteen to finish the series!

We are taking turns reading aloud and then discussing the novel using both the Novel Ideas Unit Study and the Literature In Teaching (LIT) study guide. The Novel Ideas guide is right about CKW's level, but the LIT guide is a bit advanced for him at this point in time. However, we both love HP and I can see us returning to the same book series again for more in depth study at a later date.

Teaching Textbooks 3

Today, CKW did his first lesson in Teaching Textbooks 3. It was an easy review of extremely simple addition and subtraction (adding and subtracting zero!) but they did introduce some math terms that he was not familiar with; addends for example. We stopped after the first lesson, as my plan was to simply try out the program prior to CKW leaving for summer camp on Monday.

History - Story of the World & Intellego History of the World Volume 1: In The Beginning

We started The Story of the World (SOTW) last week and although we have been very much enjoying the book, I wanted to add in more depth, along with some online activities. Thanks to the ladies at The Secular Homeschool forum/community, I researched multiple suggested secular history curricula and we have added in the Intellego Ancient History Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Unit Studies.

Today we started with Ancient History Volume 1 and CKW really enjoyed it! We discussed how to think like an historian and archeology, especially as compared to geology and paleontology. We did a quick diagram of our family tree and then discussed how our family history has affected our lives today - drawing parallels to world history and our world today. CKW made up a list of questions to ask his grandfather about his childhood (75-80 years ago), as well as another list he is hoping that his grandfather will be able to answer about his great-great grandfather's childhood (140 years ago). The links in the Intellego units are a hit, to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised how much he had retained from our SOTW readings. When the Intellego unit asked what he knew about history, he was able to state quite a bit of correct information about nomads, hunter/gathers, the fertile crescent, Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, mummies, etc. Any concerns I had about whether or not he was retaining information from our shared reading sessions have been put to rest!

Canada Post is still on strike, so I continue to wait for our Moving Beyong the Page and Teaching Textbooks orders. I have the Critical Thinking books I ordered here, but think I will save those for the 'real' start of Grade Two. CKW enjoys ancient history and when I told him tonight that this was how homeschooling happens, he immediately jumped up onto me and very excitedly said: "Well then, I want to be homeschooled for sure!"

Blogsy Test Post

If you can read this, it worked!

Kindling

Truthfully, I've been thinking of homeschooling my son since before he started public school!  We live in rural Northern Ontario, Canada and have only one local public school available to our family.  No french public school, no public french immersion, no private schools, etc.  Catholic children have multiple school choices, but for a secular education it's english public school - take it or leave it! 

Unfortunately, because I am a single parent with chronic, disabling health issues, I have been unable to do so while he was quite young and required full time adult attention.  The CKW (Cutest Kid in the World) has attended every-other-day Junior Kindergarten, then Senior Kindergarten and is now finishing up Grade One at our local public school.  I've been volunteering in his classroom once weekly this year, helping the children with their reading, and having my eyes opened to the world of institutionalized learning.  My brother is a corrections officer and he agrees with me - in both our eyes, public school is very similar to jail!

Thankfully I found the Secular Homeschool Community online and have been researching homeschool issues, styles, and curriculum for months now.  I've ordered and received several products from The Critical Thinking Company, have placed an order for curriculum from Moving Beyond The Page and Teaching Textbooks, have purchased and started reading Bernard J Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2, have downloaded several elective units from Connect The Thoughts and have started teaching The Story of the World Volume I: Ancient Times From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor by Susan Wise Bauer, using the Mosaic unit studies provided by Bringing Up Learners. 

I've provided links for the curriculum we're using, as well as other educational resources that interest me, and I'll be discussing each element of our curriculum in upcoming posts...  Today, I wanted to get the fire started!