Here We Go!

I thought blogging would be a great way for me to keep a log of the girls activity and progress in our homeschooling, and figured that maybe some of you would like to keep up with what we are doing. Of course I will still keep a paper portfolio of their work as we go, but I think this will be a lot of fun, quite resourceful, and keep our friends and family (and of course Drew while he is away) in the loop! I want to say a special thank you to all of you who have been so supportive in our decision to home school. We realize that this isn't for everybody and we aren't trying to 'convert' anyone to homeschooling. Every child and every family is different. We are just very thankful to our friends and family who have been supportive and respectful of this.
First off... Alex is 5 years old and by her age would be eligible for Kindergarten in the fall. However, because of her developmental delay we know (for ourselves and from the professionals) that it would be to her advantage to begin Kindergarten a year later. So, we are currently doing preschool activities and working toward the general goals for Kindergarten Readiness set forth by the Arkansas Department of Education.
Emma will turn 3 years old on March 19th. She won't be of Kindergarten age (by public school standards) until the Fall of 2010. While Emma's activities are much less structured than Alex's, she does participate in some of Alex's lessons and absorbs SO much just by being present.
Our curriculum currently consists of a Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool and the Hooked On Phonics program for Preschoolers. I also have a Giant Encyclopedia of activities for Preschoolers that provides many developmentally appropriate activities.

Now, the beauty of homeschooling (in my opinion) is that we have tremendous freedom to work with what the girls are interested in and we have all the time we need to work on things that are more difficult. In addition to the formal curriculum I am also excited to incorporate the little things into learning. For example, this weekend we played outside in the beautiful weather. The girls love playing in the rocks in the flower beds, so we used that as a learning experience... we counted rocks, practiced big/bigger/biggest, opposites (big vs. little, smooth vs. rough, etc.), and fine motor skills (picking up the little rocks one by one and putting them in a basket).
I have no intention of being a drill sergeant and locking the girls in the house for timed lessons and forced learning. What seems to work best right now is for Alex and I to cuddle on the couch and go through her workbook. I let her pick the things that she would like to work on. Sometimes she needs encouragement to work on things that are more difficult, but she really loves it and I hope to keep it that way. Learning should be fun!!! Drew & I want to instill a love of learning in our children. If we can accomplish that then the rest will come.
Both of the girls will be receiving their physical and occupational (and speech for Alex) therapies on an out patient basis. Once we have worked out that schedule we will work other activities in. My friend Lisa home schools her 5 year old (and also has 2 younger girls) and we plan to get together at least once a week for play and a fun activity. The girls and I have also missed out on our church playgroup since they were in school, so we are planning to get that up and running again. Let's not forget the time that they spend in the Sunday School classroom on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. There are also activities at the local libraries that I would like to attend. There are many more resources available to us as we go, and we look forward to taking advantage of them.
Last, but certainly not least, I am really thrilled for the time that homeschooling will allow us to spend together as a family. We now have the freedom to visit Drew and take our school with us. Our learning doesn't have to run Monday-Friday, 8-3. I don't plan for the schooling to stop because the seasons change, we will have a continuous learning year and take breaks when necessary. We can change our approach when the old way become less effective. Our friends and family all have such wonderful and different knowledge and experience to offer and we hope that will also be an aide in our learning.
Yeah! Here we go!