Life always gets in the way....

As is the story of my life, money creates problems.

I have been going back and forth about homeschooling the boys since April.

I finally made the decision to do it. With much excitement, I started piecing   together our curriculum. Some from eBay, some downloaded and printed off. I follow a ton of blogs and got so many great ideas. I've bought storage containers, markers, whiteboards, folders. 

Then my husband and I started talking money. We made a budget. We realized we can't do it without my income. And even then we would be scraping by. 

So I put an ad on Craigslist for babysitting. I got a couple emails. After hearing my prices they find someone else cheaper. I can't lower my prices unless I take in more kids. I can't take in more kids and realistically give my kids the one on one attention I want to give. 

So now it feels like the decision to homeschool has been ripped out from under me. Both the boys are so excited to homeschool. They did well in PS but it definitely is not where we want to be. 

I am putting my trust in God's decision and I know he will provide us what we need if we are meant to homeschool. But sometimes what we think is best and what is God's will are different so we will have to see how this plans out. 

But I am definitely preparing my boys for the possibility of going back to school in a month. And I am secretly sad that I may not be getting the chance to do this because of money. 

Leap of Faith

I am taking the plunge after so much stress, deciding, praying, discussing, and worrying. I have finally made a decision. We are going to homeschool our boys! Love bug will be going into kindergarten and Turbo will be going into 2^nd. 

I took this summer and slowly introduced some school work and routine to see how they would take to it and they love it! There are days when I have not done anything with school and Lovebug comes begging to do something!

That is my hope with homeschool, that they love it! That they love learning! My oldest loved going to school at first, then began to hate going at too young of an age. I think it sucks the life from them in a since. It sucks their love of learning, their creativity, their desire and curiosity that is innate to childhood.

So the decision has been made. Now on to the how’s and what’s of homeschool…

How will we set up the classroom? We will be using our dining room table for worksheets and writing, our couch or the floor or the trampoline or where ever else the kids are comfortable for reading. We are going to try the workbox system followed by so many http://workboxsystem.com/ and we have a bookshelf to store puzzles, games, manipulates, and of course books… lots of books!   

What curriculum will we be using? First, let me say I have researched a ton on this subject! I am a perfectionist to a point and I do NOT want to buy a bunch of stuff and then hate it and have to buy more. So I have been researching. I will not be using a box curriculum. Meaning you find one site that you like and use their whole grade level boxed set for Language Art, Math, Bible, Science, History, etc. I think there are certain companies that have wonderful curriculum for Math and another for Language Arts etc. So I have an eccentric idea for our homeschool. I have also decided on and then changed my mind a couple times so this may be a changing list J

Kindergarten:

Math- I am back and forth with this. I think I can print out my own worksheets from pinterest.com and teacherspayteachers.com and of course use a lot of play and manipulatives, but I also like what MathUsee has to offer.

Phonics/Reading- All about Reading level 1. I have heard so many great things about this company. I have checked out every sample they have and also joined their mailing list to get freebies and LOVE them! Definitely have not changed my mind on this one!

Handwriting- Again this one is unsure, I think I can just do printables and used sensory things (play doh and shaving cream) to practice his handwriting, but if you have any ideas of great curriculum that works let me know! I personally work best when I have a hands on guide of what to do. I do like Zaner Boser handwriting though.

2^nd Grade:

Math- I love Math Mammoth. Turbo is very excelled in most areas, math being one of them. I love How Math Mammoth teaches. We are starting with 2^nd grade workbook B.

Language Arts: I was back and forth on this one but finally found and love Learning Language Arts through Literature. We are using 3^rd grade as this is another area Turbo excels. This is another reason we love homeschooling. Last year Turbo just mainly read a lot because he was above what they were learning in class but the teacher (although I loved her) couldn’t teach to his level, had to stay at class level. So he would go in the back and read or get on the computer. At home I can just move to a level that challenges him!

Science, History, and Art will be taught together and we will be using Story of the World volume 1 for History and Home Art Studio Kindergarten level for art. Science is still up in the air. I was originally going to go with Apologia but then I found A Reason for Science and liked that it was more catered to the younger mind and had a lot of hands on science, Noeo Science was also brought to my attention for the same reason. So Science is still up in the air.

I would love to hear what you all are using and if you have any suggestions for this newbie please share! J

Note: I am not affiliated with ANY of these companies and have never used any of them before. This is just our journey though this life.