homeschool recap

It was a really hard decision to make when deciding to pull Zoey from preschool and follow my gut to start on a kindergarten curriculum with her. I think she would have loved the social aspect of preschool, but knowing her personality, she would have been bored by the repetition of the things she had already learned and mastered. It's been about a month and a half of following the Book Shark kindergarten curriculum, and I can honestly say we have loved it so much.

My friend Kylie told me about the Book Shark company, and I fell in love with the concept of it. Basically you choose your learning level, purchase the entire curriculum or pick and choose ala carte style, and they ship you everything you need for the year, from books, workbooks, science experiment supplies, to manuals and lesson plans. Unboxing everything the day that it came sort of felt like Christmas! It's super easy to follow, and it took all of the extensive planning out of homeschool. I look at the week ahead on Sunday night, and sticky note the pages of the books we will be reading that week, and then plan enrichment activities like crafts and games to correspond with what we will be learning to make it a little more fun and exciting. 

Something that I didn't expect was how much we can involve Desmond in the lessons. The curriculum is designed for kindergarten level, but was created in a way that lets you incorporate all sorts of ages. Obviously there is a lot that Desmond can't do with us, and that's what we do while he is napping, but he is involved a ton, and he loves getting to experience it with his older sister. 

Right now Zoey is working on writing the lowercase letters, learning about volcanoes and earthquakes, studying Ancient Greece and Rome, and working on graphing.

Desmond is learning to identify and sort his colors, practicing counting to ten, and learning lots through play -- my favorite way to teach.