We have successfully finished our first half-week of Pre-K! I've decided to start blogging about our experiences to give examples for anyone interested in homeschooling and maybe give some inspiration and ideas for other homeschoolers. To avoid giving real names when talking about my family or friends I will be using pseudonyms.
About me: I am a married 28yr-old stay at home mom with two beautiful little girls. My oldest(Kyla) is almost three and the youngest(Raye) is a little over a year. I was homeschooled myself from 3rd grade all the way through high school and loved it. In addition to my high school education I also have an associate’s degree in accounting. My sister(Rae) and I used the A Beka books and programs growing up and because of the great education they gave us we are also using A Beka for our kids (she has a 4yr-old girl(Lyssa) and a 1 ½ yr-old boy(Ayan)).
The program we’re using: This year we are doing the A Beka K4 Child Kit(Cursive) with the K4 Parent Kit(Cursive) and the K4 Bible Curriculum Kit with Kyla and Lyssa. The Kits include all the parent/teacher materials, daily lesson plans, workbooks, and flashcards for Phonics, Reading, and Writing; Numbers; and Bible Curriculums.
Why Now: Obviously Lyssa is the right age for entering preschool, but –as you may have noticed- Kyla is starting a year early. The reason we decided to start her in Pre-K now is that developmentally wise she is keeping up with Lyssa despite their age difference. They know all of their colors, all of the basic shapes, can count to ten, and can identify some letters and numbers. Kyla has always been very excited about learning and likes to do everything that her cousin does, so we are starting her early and seeing how she does. I am confident that she will not have any issues staying at the same grade, but if she does in the future it will be easy to let her spend more time covering a concept and dropping her back to the standard grade.
First week recap: We started school with the girls on Sept. 7th and did their first three lessons from Wed-Fri and they did great. In addition to scheduling time for school each day all of the kids are on a stricter schedule for the rest of the day as well. The day starts with Bible class for all of the kids since it doesn’t hurt for the little ones to hear the verses and stories, the Reading/Phonics and Numbers classes start a little later, and we also schedule Music, Pretend, Recess, Story Time, and Reading videos and flash cards for all of the kids.
The first day was a little rough since none of the kids were used to the schedule, and we had to shorten the classes by a few minutes. But by the afternoon they all took a nap at the same time! And it got better each day. Both of the big girls are excited about starting school each day, can recite their memory verse, remember parts of the Bible story we covered, can identify the letter “Ii” , and know the sound for the letter. We are all excited about starting our second week on Mon.
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