We are busy busy busy!

The boys turned 5 in June, making them eligible to start Kindergarten this fall. Jason and I made the decision to give the boys the gift of one more year at home. They will start Kindergarten next year, when they turn 6.

I got thinking, what good is one extra year if we don't do anything productive with it? I did a lot of research on curriculum, talked to local teachers in the district and counselors at charter schools, and read reviews from hundreds of homeschooling parents. I found the perfect curriculum combination to give my children one awesome year at home.

With my education in liberal studies (emphasis on teaching and curriculum development), and a huge binder with the state standards, I am teaching my children at home this year. I am combining advanced preschool skills and beginning kindergarten skills. I hope to make it through 1/2 of a kindergarten curriculum this year. When they start kindergarten next year they will start ahead of the class.

I am using the Calvert School Curriculum (the curriculum used by Connections Academy Charter School-virtual public school) with the enhanced science and music materials and curriculum.

I have Hooked on Phonics (a wonderful gift from my mother in law) and I also purchased Zoo Phonics. Both fantastic programs to teach children how to read. The state preschool that the boy's attended the last 2 years used both programs.

Lakeshore Learning has a wonderful Pre-K literacy kit. I have so much stuff from lakeshore learning it would take pages and pages to show you pics of it all! But, this kit is so great I thought I would share it.

Our former preschool teacher recommended Handwriting Without Tears. Our local school district uses it so I figured that I could not go wrong if I bought it too!

I have about 50 reference books from the mailbox.com. I use the resources in the books and magazines to enhance the curriculum. It takes some work on my part to search through the billions of activities and time to make/create the activity but it is so worth it. The boys love the extra activities.

The boys will have tons of fun this coming year playing a sport, doing karate, learning dance, and participating in My Gym and Kindermusic. (Not all at once of course!)

These extra-curricular activities give the boys a chance to get out of the house and experience a variety of settings that will enhance their social skills and development.

These activities at home will be missed when we travel with daddy (we may not travel when the boys have games or a series of classes we don't want to miss), but we will do the best we can. When we travel we make the effort to learn geography and history, and visit museums and other local attractions that have educational value. (When we return to Hawaii we are going to visit sugar factory!)

This year we will be focusing heavy on the arts. I am a big believer in teaching and learning through the arts. Once their new website ordering system is up I will be purchasing a program called Meet the Masters. School Districts in the surrounding counties use the program and I am so excited that we can get it for home use.

We are still working on Spanish but, this year we will start a formal Spanish curriculum. Power Glide offeres a great program. I already have flash cards, music, DVD's, kids movies, books, finger plays, CD's etc... in Spanish. Adding formal instruction will be helpful. We will have weekly playdates with a local Hispanic family who will speak only Spanish with my children.

I am also enrolling the boys in a once a week spanish emmersion program at a local school.

Can you tell how excited I am? I know all this looks like a ton but we will only be working about 3 hours a day. This plan works with our family schedule and offers us the freedom to travel with daddy.

There are so many online rescources that we will be utilizing but it is too much to list. I will create a link section at the side of my blog if any of you are interested in extra learning materials for your kids.