homeschooling preschool......ready set go!

I know not everyone is into homeschooling their kids but, I have known since Jaedyn was a baby that I wanted to homeschool. I just see so many gaps in the educational system, but that is another topic all in its self. We have decided that we are going to take it year by year and see how we do with it as a family and what works for us. We are currently not going to do a co-op or anything since I have Evelyn, cant afford a babysitter, and Kevin is only home with us a little bit during the winter. I also think that at Jaedyns age play dates and outings with other kids provide enough peer "practice".

I just updated my calender wall and weather "center" so we can start looking at the weather each day as well as posting the date up to work on numbers and understanding the days of the week. (btw I love Velcro)

I am going to officially start school Monday January 9th. I figure it gives me the weekend and a deadline to get my butt in gear and make a basic lesson plan. I have not completely decided if we are doing letter of the week, two weeks, or month. I honestly am looking at letter of the week as a lot of work but I know it is probably best for him. We will see how it goes with this first week. The beauty of homeschooling is I can change it up anytime I see things are not working.

The current plan is to work the way through the alphabet with corresponding numbers, words, colors, and shapes, like first week A, 1, Apple, red, circle. Second week B, 2, bear, brown, square. Then once we have gone through the alphabet I will see how he is doing and I may start to do months with concepts.

We are also going to restart potty training now that he has shown more interest. So tonight I made a potty chart and a behavior chart using picture frames I already had hanging in the playroom. Jaedyn picked red as the background for the potty chart and I am using a dry erase marker to make marks when he goes in the toilet. This is going to save paper, time, and stickers :). The marks count as points and points are counted at the end of the day and then a certain activity is picked as a reward. We are NOT doing candy or toys as rewards.

The behavior chart was created because Jaedyn has been having trouble with his attitude as of late. He is extremely jealous of Evelyn and has been acting out a lot. So the same thing goes for good behavior. He still gets time outs for bad behavior but we wanted a physical reminder and reward for good behavior as well. We are going to do the same thing with points except that the more points means more books being read before bedtime with either myself or Kevin. We want the reward to be a positive activity and to not take away from his accomplishments by saying act a certain way and you will get candy or a toy. We already read each night before bed, this is just an extra incentive to get more books (he LOVES to be read to).