Homeschooling Update

When I was a regular teacher my fellow teachers and I used to talk about how great it would be have skills-based classrooms. What we meant was the children would be grouped together by skill instead of by grade for those subjects that are skill-based. They could still be grouped by age for the knowledge-based subjects. It was a complicated dream for a public school. But...for homeschool it's easy!

The skill-based subjects are reading, math, writing, English, music, keyboarding, foreign language and art. For these subjects it is best to master one level before going on to the next.

The knowledge-based subjects are science, geography, history, religion, music appreciation and art appreciation.

We have not started any of the knowledge-based subjects yet. I will be doing kindergarten level science and history with both of them together starting in the fall. I may need to alter Anna's work a little bit but it will be so much more interesting, thorough, and fun to do it together.

For the skill-based subjects, Mia has been doing mostly kindergarten work. And as she finishes a level we go right into the next one whether we are "in that grade" or not. If she is having trouble we can slow down and supplement until she gets it even if that means not being at "the right grade level".

Mia and Anna have very different academic strengths. Anna is not as far in math as Mia was at her age, but she is further in language. I find this strange as Mia is so much more interested in books than Anna is. But it doesn't matter. With homeschooling we can go at their paces.

Right now we have Mia signed up for two different homeschooling public school options for next year. We will have to decide on one as legally she can't do both. One is science and Spanish for three hours Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It is close to home. The other is all day Friday, further from home. On Fridays she would have one hour each of: art, music, PE, language and scientific method. We are leaning towards the Friday option.

Right now Mia's curriculum is:

All About Reading Level 1 (Just finished Pre-Reading level today)
Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten
Singapore Math Kindergarten B (Just finished A today)
Bob books Set 2
Xtramath.com for math facts

Anna's curriculum is:

Abeka letters and sounds (She will be starting All About Reading Pre-Reading in about three weeks)
Math games and activities (Probably will start Singapore Math Kindergarten A in the fall)

They still do art class on Fridays, swimming lessons on Thursdays, field trips, play dates and homeschool coops. Homeschool park days will start in May and on good-weather days before that. We had one today!