Hooked on Phonics

Yes, I tried this one too already. Melissa's been begging me to teach her to read so I checked it out from the library 4 weeks ago. Well after 4 weeks she's not gotten anything, she hates it as much as I do. Sooooo back it will go on Saturday. I'm going to just keep reading to her for a couple hours a day and see if she picks it up on her own like I did at her age. If not then I have a backup plan already.

Letter of the Week

I tried Letter of the Week a few different times with Melissa, its a great program in theory. Its a free program which was the biggest appeal to me, but once I committed to it I had some real trouble just ging with it. All the prep for materials and books to do, getting things ready for activities, it just took too much of the little free time I actually have available. And it wasn't a good fit with Melissa either, she loves books and being read to but it really wasn't clicking well with her, I had a really hard time getting enough books from the library on the weekly theme to read to her and a lot of the activities just plain didn't interest her at all. So I decided that Letter of the Week isn't a good choice for us to do with her right now, but maybe later when she's grown a bit more she'll show an interest in it. I guess I'll give it a 5th try this summer when we can do some outdoor activities with her instead. And I was really excited about the program too, having it all laid out for me to do (the book lists made out, the themes chosen, activies planned, it really is well thought out) I guess maybe its just not time for her yet with that one.

chucked all my old plans, here's what's now happening

I decided that I really want to try and hold off Melissa a little longer on homeschool to try and combine Lydia in with her as they get older, and that means putting her off one year probably since they are almost exactly one year apart in age. So today I put in a request for a free shipment from a company that does monthly activities and learning themes for kids ages 1-6 and I'm going to try that out with Melissa and see how she likes it and how well we like it. If we like the free monthly theme then we'll think about doing it every month for a while, combining Lydia in when she's ready for the activities. I'm still planning on going with Sonlight curriculum for when we start homeschooling school age (we'll start when Melissa's 5 and Lydia's 4, the cores that Sonlight has are very good for combining multiple kids close in age and if I wiggled it enough I could add Kimmy in the same core with her big sisters but I'm not going to, I already have a plan laid out for Sonlight and hope to stick with it as best I can, depending on where life takes us with teaching our girls) I'm really looking forward to getting our free month package, and I'm not even out shipping costs, which is cool by me. LOL The site I went to for this monthly theme is Brighter Vision and it looks like Melissa may really enjoy it, last month I got a packet in the mail offering the free month and I decided today to just give it a shot and see what happens.

starting up

We decided to go ahead and start Letter of the Week prep program with Melissa, and if Lydia picks any of it up great. Melissa is begging us to let her go to school thanks to a recent episode of Sesame Street (the one where Baby Bear goes to school for the first time, even the Elmo's World segment was about going to school *sigh*) so we are going to start simple with her, I'm thinking I may stretch the weekly lessons out into 2 week lessons if she shows any signs of not getting it like she did the couple times we tried this program with her in the past. I'm also researching Charlotte Mason's approach and figuring it out, it looks from what little I know like it may be a good fit for us but only time will tell as I research it further. I still can't believe there's so many different methods for homeschooling, I just don't know where to go at all or what's going to be the best fit for us. I'm still thinking that we'll probably end up going with Sonlight when its time to start following the state's laws, but I don't really know WHAT I'm doing yet for sure. I'm just going to start Melissa on Monday like I'm planning and just see where it takes us over the next couple years. That's all I can do really.

buying supplies

So my husband and I were at WalMart today, and I stopped to get Melissa some metallic gel pens so she can decorate some valentines I'm planning on helping her make for the grandparents. Right next to the pens were those workbooks that they have, so I leafed through their preschool one (the "complete" book) and my husband said we should pick it up so that we have it if she wants to do any worksheet stuff. So we did, and at a dollar store we got some flashcards for counting and colors and shapes for her and Lydia to use. Its a good start, not what we are planning on using exclusively to get started with school for them but it'll be a good supplement I think once we get going. Since we are on a really tight budget, I'm having to pick stuff up now for use in the future, last summer I snagged an almost complete preschool reading readiness program at the thrift store for only $5, its missing 2 books and a cassette tape. I also got a pack of washable crayons at the store today for her to use with the above mentionedd reading program, the books are made for the kids to write in with them and color in them and all that then just be wiped clean with a wet rag. I've been reading the books from that program to Melissa and Lydia since we got it and the girls LOVE them so I know that it'll be a big hit once we start learning to read. Even though we won't be using any of this stuff formally until fall and the public school starts again for the '06-'07 school year, it feels good to know that we are getting stuff gathered to get started. Now I just need to get another new printer cartridge and a package of printer paper so I can print out the schedule for Sonlight pre-k that I'll be using the first year, and get my weekly library lists made up so that each week I kknow exactly what I need to check out (I'll also try to pick up as many of the books as I can at the thrift store instead so that I don't have to do the library with as many books each week) Now that we are getting things ready to go here and we are picking things up a little at a time as we have the money, I'm starting to feel really good about this and am getting a bit excited at getting started with preschool at home. Now let's see if I can wait until September like I'm planning. LOL

prepping to start preschool

I'm preparing things to start Melissa with some preschool starting in April after her birthday. Since her birthday is on a Friday this year, her party is the next day and then we'll begin preschool on the following Monday. I'm thinking that I'll use a combination of the Letter of the Week program (www.letteroftheweek.com) and the read alouds from Sonlight's pre-k cirriculum (www.sonlight.com) with a lot of free play and fun activities to go with it. She'll also start dance classes in the fall once I find a studio that we like within our budget, I'm still not sure what exactly we'll sign her up for within the studio but I know she'll have a blast once she starts. I'm also starting to work with Lydia on basics like her body parts, shapes, colors, and stuff like that. She's picking things up quickly so I know that it'll be a breeze, I may start her with preschool stuff too in April if she shows that she's ready for it alongside her big sister. This week and next week I'm focusing on printing out things I know that I need to do preschool with Melissa, and then I'll make out my lesson plans and figure out what else I want to add in with school and make up my unit studies to go with the reading we'll be doing and all that good stuff. I'll probably make changes to Letter of the Week so that it meshes better with our unit studies and themes that we'll be doing, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. I think 2 months will be enough time to set up the basic structure and get us into a working schedule so that we are ready when we start lessons. Only time will tell what will happen, this is my ideal plan but who knows if it'll work out that way?