SO MUCH FUN! Hasting really enjoys it! We've always been on and off with crafts and cooking together, we've just added more crafts and a couple worksheets.
Our first week was full of fun worksheets, crafts, a lot of park time, and a trip to the park in Greensboro for a play date and picnic with friends!
We have very limited structure to our curriculum that we have ordered, but I am still a planner! We do school 3 days a week-- Monday, Wednesday, & Thursday!
Our curriculum we use is Alpha Omega, and is the Homeschool Preschool for threes. I ordered it when they had a great deal going on, and paid no more than $60 shipped. It is a Christian based curriculum. It came with the teachers handbook, children's workbook, children's workbook companion, and bible story book. I just incorporate extra crafts I find via Pinterest! I really enjoy this curriculum. It can be as structured as you want it to be, and all of the subjects (math, science, music, shapes, PE, etc), can be incorporated in to your daily life. So it doesn't even feel like school until you hit the worksheets. Even with the worksheets, those are very basic and simple!
We have a co-op with one other friend we enjoy. Every month we enjoy all of these things at LEAST once:
- park dates
- library story time
- chickfila
-field trip (science center, zoo, children's museum, fire station, railway, farms, etc)
I bought a planner specifically for HS, and at the beginning of the month my friend and I join forces to write out lesson plans week by week in our planners and to plan out the co-op for the month.
I also bought cheap (.17) folders at target for each day we do school (M,W, Th). Every Sunday, I go and plan out each day in the folders. I put the days worksheets in, and anything I can go ahead and do to prepare for a craft if there's going to be a craft that day. So come Monday. I can just pull the folder for the day, grab my teachers book, and we're ready.
We have no specific set time as to when we do things. We just do them, and incorporate it in to our day. If we start to work on something and Hasting seems un-interested we stop and pick up later.
I've known since Hasting was a couple months old that I wanted to homeschool him. I quickly started jumping in around the time he turned 3 trying to prep for it all. I got in way over my head. I was on Pinterest way too much, and trying to be one of those super homeschooling moms who does all that plus EVERYTHING else around the house (and perfectly). I started getting discouraged quickly, even after ordering our curriculum.
I decided to go and tour a local preschool. It's actually the preschool where Chad attended preschool. I was excited in knowing that Hasting would be around other kids, and I would have some alone time (except I wouldn't because I still have Annestyne). The first thing that made me a little unsure (but I still went to tour), was they only had 2 days a week available. I wanted 3. When we got there I learnt that Hasting would be downstairs with mostly children younger than him, and would be stuck in one room the whole time he was there (even the bathroom was in the room). Upstairs, where the 4-5 year old were was pretty much 10x better. It was more of a Montessori style set up, and much closer to where I would have liked to have seen Hasting.
I came home with doubts, and so unsure of what I wanted to do. I had discussions with my husband and my best friend, and that's when my friend and I decided on a co-op creation. I had just gone through all of our bills to lower them all (in able to save extra money and eliminate debts quicker), so being able to save money was a plus. Also, I came to realization I'm not super mom. I don't need to go overboard. I needed to just do what worked for me and our schedules, not focus on someone else's and try to be like them.
So, after all that I decided to stick with the curriculum we had purchased (for only $60 for the whole curriculum), and to create a space for Hasting that he would use for ONLY school.
Previously, we had just been using the kitchen table. I was so unorganized and waiting last minute to get things together, and that was causing Hasting to be uninterested. Creating a space that LOOKED like school, and was ONLY used for school has really helped to keep him interested.
I'm unsure as to whether I will continue to homeschool Hasting after this year. I would like to follow his lead and do what HE wants to do. We could still send him to preschool next year, which is what we have decided on for the moment. IF Hasting will be going to public schools for a kindergarten, I would prefer he have the transition from public preschool vs homeschool preschool. For now, it's one day at a time and doing what Hasting wants.
If he wants to homeschool, we will homeschool.
If he wants public school, he will go to public school.
If he wants public school then decided he wants homeschool, we will pull him from public and come back home.
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