Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Box day came and went :o)

So I was converted to the light side out of necessity for time and structure which I thrive with. I had been eagerly awaiting box day's big arrival and finally last night it was here! We pulled up to find a big sonlight box by our garage and it was pure bliss :op I finally got it upstairs, opened it up and then basked in the glory of the box FULL of books. There really are some fantastic selections in their curriculum and I think the boys with gain a ton of learning and enjoyment out of them. Now the best part was the IGs. For a planner like me, who does best with everything scheduled out and ready to go so I know exactly what I am doing when, this is the perfect curriculum hands down. I followed the suggestions and got them loaded up into binders, got the tabs labeled and sat down on the couch to have a look through them. It really was pure bliss because everything I needed was right there WITH CHECK BOXES! I love check boxes and notes and day view schedules. Man if I could buy IGs for the rest of my daily life could you imagine how much I'd get done and how on top of things I'd be :op Now I just have to wait for the rest of the books to trickle in from amazon and such and then I can start full force into P3/4 which I have a feeling T will tear through. This is really going to be one super fun and memorable ride and thanks to sonlight I won't go out of my mind trying to plan it all now!

Friday, June 4, 2010

you know the small ones like BOB books with nothing on the spine that become a huge mess of disorganization every day when a 3 year old ravages them looking for things to read? Well with mommy ingenuity from hating to reorganize them daily I thought hey what about putting them in a photo album! Well photo pages (4x6) are just a tad too small even for our tiniest readers so.... I thought maybe cut sheet protectors in half and then put them in a binder. Well you can guess what I am trying tonight. I'll add pics if they are worth adding and if not well I will keep searching for the perfect way of storing those suckers in a book sort of thing :op

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The song that started it all from the ever glorious and masterful Talking Letter Factory. It's been a year now since the bog boy has learned his letter sounds almost overnight singing along with Tad and the gang. We made it about halfway through "The Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading" before he hit a wall. Not that he hit an I don't get it wall but more of an I don't like this book kind of wall. Don't get me wrong OPGTR is an AWESOME book and I plan to use it again, it's just at some point it becomes not quite as fun as other methods. It made me step back and figure out how to attack the problem of him not liking the book but also still being ever so hungry to learn. What I have come up with after hours of exhaustive reading and searching on forums and the net is Mcruffy! I cannot say enough about this program. Now I didn't buy the whole SE K package as he already has a pretty good foundation in CVC words and all of the very basics but we did get the transition package for K. It has TONS and I mean TONS of fun to learn books, activities and more that make my big boy not ever want to stop! I think we have stumbled onto our perfect progression and combination here. He is also using All About Spelling which he is loving as well.

So the plan wil be to work through AAS1 and mcruffy for the rest of prek and then move onto AAS2 with the possibility of continuing onto Mcruffy 1st grade phonics for an even stronger foundation.

Now for the littles I think I will use the exact progression I accidentally followed with the big boy. In that we will start with OPGTR and talking letters factory then halfway or so switch over to AAS and Mcruffy. Although I am kind of thinking of just starting Mcruffy right along with OPGTR and at some point getting the full curriculum just for the fun and colorful factor that seems to really captivate the big boy!

It's been awhile since I last posted anything and I keep meaning to be more proactive in keeping my blog updated as a journal of our journey through homeschooling. We have taken a bit of a break and lesson have become a bit more low key due to morning sickness, first trimester sleepiness and a newly mobile toddler on the loose! LOL I've been doing a lot of research, book reading and experimenting to put a game plan into place for this year and the next year for the kiddos. I have some new loves and a lot of new books to review and blog about. So the next few posts here will mostly be about what I've learned and what I am planning to follow for the big boy's pre-k and K years!

;;