Homeschool- What I am doing

We homeschool:

My oldest is only 6 and in first grade. My other two kiddos are 4 and 18months. I am doing pre-K activities with my four year old though most of these are modified to fit her IEP (individualized education plan put together by her therapists) due to her developmental delays (more on that in another post) and my 18 month old is being introduced to 'work' through the Montessori Method. 

What I do with my six year old:

1) We are apart of Classical Conversations (in fact I am a tutor this year!) I love this program! The classical model of education has three stages (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric) each stage builds upon the last. We are currently in the grammar stage and are learning all kinds of fun facts that will than be built upon in the middle grade years with meaning and deeper understanding... You will find Isaac singing the history songs about the 100 years war and the 7 wonders of the ancient world. 

2) We also use a few specific curriculums in addition to Classical Conversations for reading we use All About Reading, for math we use Saxon Math, and for penman ship we use Handwriting without Tears

3) Each week looks a little different I add in math supplements, or fun science explorations (magnetism has been a big hit) my goal at this age is instill a discipline in learning but without making it drudgery. Learning is fun! And I want all my children to grow up loving learning. 

What I do with my 4 year old

1) I found a book on amazon a few years ago called School Sparks for $6 (normally its $36) now it must be out of print because the price is insane! We go through that, it has your basic letters, numbers, shapes, and colors but also focuses on pre reading, fine motor (like line tracing) and visual discrimination...

2) Because of her delays we also focus on following instructions and lots of vocabulary with sign language and flash cards. 

With my 18 month old 

1) We have started doing work following the Montessori Method. I absolutely love this method and feel like it works well even with my older sons studies. The principles are follow the child, that there are planes of development, and that their is a hand brain connection (there is so much more but that is a brief explanation!) 

2) We set out trays of work on his shelves and than I model how they are to be done and than he does it for as long or as little as he likes. 

3) In the work above he is using the pincer grasp to get little pompoms and set them in each of the suction cups on the bathtub decal. (This particular one is a dinosaur because he loves them) This is helping him with fine motor skills that will later develop into pen grasp... Also concentration completing a task. Things are on trays at this stage as a way to contain the work. Little ones won't go about gathering the supplies they need for a task (as older children will) it is easier for them to have it all together and trays help with that.

Together:

1) We do lots of reading (audio books and me reading aloud to them) We go to the library weekly. We also like to explore outside together and have Peterson Field Guides on hand to research the natural world around us.

Resources:

I love buying books and use thrift books for most of my purchases click here for 15% off your first order.

I also look for curriculum from eBay and facebook homeschool groups (which helps keep our costs down!)


This is a brief overview of what we do. What do you do?