A Day in Our Homeschool

At the time of writing this, my daughter is nearly four, I have a two year old son and a 4 month old daughter.  We began homeschooling my daughter this fall (2007) somewhat in preschool type stuff.  Our day is not rigidly structured, but we do hit on several topics every day.  I am going to be making our curriculum for each child for at least the first few years.  With the vast amount of resources at our local library and online that are free or low cost, I thought I could offer my kids more than a boxed curriculum at this point.

I print out worksheets, games and activities from the internet and usually laminate them or put them into page protectors.  My daughter can then work on them with a dry erase marker, and she can work on it again and again and again, and when my son is ready for it, I won't have to print out another copy!  I download a lot of free stuff online and store it for future use on my computer and use a filing cabinet for things I have printed out.  I have a lot of materials for different ages, and try to keep it organized by age and subject.  I know that what might work for one child, may not work for the next, so I try to find a variety of printables that reach different learning styles. 

I have a list of my favorite homeschooling resources here and here (preschool aged only) and Christian homeschooling/preschool stuff here.  You can find lots of free material to use on file sharing programs, I've heard of www.rapidshare.com but I use Gigatribe (www.gigatribe.com)  My user name is StormySar if you download the program and want to see my files, I can help you get more contacts and more sharing opportunities.  Yahoogroups are fabulous resources also, as there are many groups for nearly any topic under the sun, including homeschooling and preschool (or any aged) printables and activities.  Some groups specifically for this purpose have their files section loaded with items you can download, and they share files through e-mail on a daily basis.  Just be careful not to get too overwhelmed and spend too much time on the computer.

Our schooling technically goes all day long, but we "start" school after breakfast and after any errands that need to be ran in the morning (keeping in mind that errands themselves can lend to learning activities also!).

	We start off with prayer and bible time (reading a chapter or two, memorizing a verse and discussing what we learned, maybe a craft or coloring page).  It is very important to me that my children love the Lord, our Savior.  I became born again only a few years ago and I don't want my children to wait as long as I did!  I pray they make the decision to live 'The Good Life' as soon as they understand and never stray!
	We work on Reading and Vocabulary, reading stories, doing stories with the flannel board, my oldest daughter will narrate picture books on her own (or just add her own words for regular story books), as I read larger-print books I'll follow the words with ym finger so my kids can see what words I am reading, my son will be asked to point out colors, shapes, objects, etc. as we read (one book we are borrowing from my mom, Usborne's The Complete Book Of Farmyard Tales, has a tiny duck hidden on every page.  My kids LOVE to find the duck.
	We also do math, count and work on math through pictures and manipulatives, math comes in during cooking, we stack objects and play with blocks, the kids follow instructions if I tell them to 'stack 4 blocks' they race to find four blocks and stack them how they wish, we make a lot of games out of numbers!
	Sign language is done together as a family and work on new signs each week, watch sing language videos and DVDs from our library (my daughter is awesome at picking up signs when she watches videos like "Signing Times").  I feel it is important for my children to be able to communicate with those who cannot hear.
	We sing, dance, recite rhymes and fingerplays
	Work on Art through coloring, painting, markers, crafts, etc.
	Try to get some Physical Ed in through playtime outdoors, nature walks, active games in the house or outdoors, "simon says" and "red light green light" type games to get the body moving while having fun.
	And most importantly, we PLAY! Matching, threading, play-doh, playing/sifting beans and rocks, we take time to look through catalogs/magazines/newspaper for our ABC Scrapbook, cut, trace, role-playing, bring out the play food, etc.