Wrapping it up

We are finishing up the year here, in fact this Friday we will officially call Kindergarten done!
When we started this journey I wasn't sure what this year would look like for us, I was filled with fear, anticipation, and excitement. I had all these opinions of what our kindergarten year was suppose to be and because of that I placed unneeded expectations and pressures on myself. It wasn't until I got about halfway through the year that I finally relaxed and realized that our homeschooling isn't suppose to be modeled after the public school system, if that is what I wanted to begin with, public school is where I would have put her. When I released myself from those notions I began to really enjoy teaching. Of course we have had our ups and downs but I have a different outlook and purpose for our homeschooling now. I am excited for what the rest of our years will look like.

Trying to get the hang of it

Well, we are now through one semester of homeschooling. As a whole I think it's gone well. I feel like we could have done more and been more productive but I'm not beating myself up for it, I know that we are still further ahead then where she would be if she was at an away from home school. But still I had hoped for more. We are using Sonlight as our curriculum but to be honest thus far I'm not loving it. I think I'm willing to give it another year before I completely ditch it, but I am leaning more toward a unit study approach. I love the Five in a Row curriculum, but I also feel like I need just a little more than what it offers. So I'm playing around with a few ideas. I have always wanted to write curriculum, planning was always my favorite thing to do as a public school teacher, so I might even put together my own curriculum for next year- who knows? Right now my focus is on trying to make school more fun while still maintaining a learning atmosphere. We won't officially start this next semester until This coming Monday- I need to get to work!

Kindergarten Corner

We took almost two weeks off in November due to birthdays and Thanksgiving, so we are not going to take too much time off from our regular schooling in December, Although we are going to add in lots of fun Christmas activities, Especially baking and crafts. I have decided to move our school time from the kitchen into the Playroom. I'm doing this mostly for me, I have such a hard time staying focused on getting school done when I am surrounded by things that I think need to get done ie. laundry, dishes, etc. But the playroom is such a fun and bright place to be that I am really enjoying our time there, plus it's easier to keep the other children entertained.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

We use Handwriting Without Tears, for our writing curriculum. After we do our lesson the wood pieces always end up as roads for Zacks matchbox cars :) We were working on Math with the Geoboard. Right now I'm using Saxon Math, I don't know if I will continue to use this curriculum I really love how it uses the spiral method, but I'm looking for a more hands on approach, and because the lessons are so easy we breeze through several a day.

Zoe is working on a word sorting activity here.

We ended the day by making gingerbread cookies. Even the baby got in on the action.