Cirriculum Journey- Getting Started

If there's one thing I've learned in my many years (oops, I mean one month) of homeschooling it's that your curriculum of choice will change as you go. I really wanted this to not be true when I started. I was determined to figure out the very best and use only that. I was determined to not waste a single penny on dysfunctional teachers manuals and worthless workbooks. However, it didn't take long for me to discover there were so many choices, that I had no hope of finding the perfect thing on the first try.  In addition, Noodle already knew all his letters and could read small words, thanks to an awesome preschool, so I couldn't even figure out which level to start at. So, instead of being paralyzed into never making a decision, I followed the sage advice of homeschooling friends and just got a set of stuff so we could get started.

A friend who's considering homeschooling just asked me what I started with, so here's the run down.

THE CORE:
We started with A Beka's Kindergarten core program. I went with the Kinder set instead of the first grade stuff because I figured reviewing is better than starting off too hard and he's only 5, so it's not like we're behind or anything. I've been very happy with that decision, even though the work has been easy for him. I bought the Letter and Sounds (phonics), Manuscript Writing (handwriting) and Numbers (math) workbooks and borrowed the corresponding teachers manuals from a friend. It's been a nice set, but as I'm gaining confidence I'm quickly getting frustrated with the quantity of fluff in the teachers manuals.  I find myself skimming through page after page of random review and silly songs to find the nuggets of instruction. The efficiency expert in me is screaming and I'm making my own lists of phonics rules. Oh well, it's still working and we're going to roll with it until we get through this workbook. Honestly, I needed all that fluff to give me confidence during that first week, so it's not a total waste.

What's Next?
As Soon as we're done with the A Beka phonics book, we'll switch to Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise's phonic's line. I've already ordered The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and the First Language Lessons Vol 1 from Amazon. An awesome friend let me look through hers and I'm excited to use it. I love The Well Trained Mind and am trying to do a classical type education, so I'm happy to run with her model. If you're a first timer without confidence, A Beka a great starting block, but if you have confidence I think I'd lean towards Wise's stuff. (Take this with several grains of salt because we haven't started actually using it yet!)

For Handwriting, we're switching to Handwriting Without Tears (HWT). People always talk about HWT as the go-to program for kids who are struggling with their handwriting. Noodle struggles with handwriting in that it's the only school work that I have to sit right by him, watch his every move, keep him on task, and not let him make up something else more important to do, but he's not horrible at it or rebelling over it. He'll do it, it's just very laborious- or maybe it's just at his level and everything else is easy???  So, I looked over the HWT material (again, another amazing friend let me sift through her stuff) and decided that it would be great if he were struggling or not. I fully intend to use it when Yogi gets old enough.  But who knows what will happen between now and then. I'd recommend a first time homeschooler just start with HWT for their handwriting (again, grain of salt! Since ours hasn't arrived yet we don't have actual experience with it!)

After we're done with A Beka's Numbers books????  I have no idea. I'd like to look into Saxon Math, but I'm not dissatisfied with A Beka's Math stuff yet, so it'll have to wait.

HISTORY
We bought The Story Of The World (also by Wise and Bauer) because it was so highly recommended by so many people. Instead of getting the paper book we got the Volume 1 .mp3 and instead of getting the corresponding paper Activity Book, we got the .pdf, all straight from their website. It's less expensive and allows us to listen to the book in car. I like the multitasking aspect of it and Noodle is a very auditory learner right now, so it fits perfectly.  The .pdf Activity Book allows us to print an extra copy of what ever we're working on for Yogi to scribble on (lifesaver!) and allows me to ask Noodle review questions from my Kindle app while we're out and about. I love this and have no plans to changes.

SCIENCE
We joined a science co-op who was studying Apologia's Young Explorer Series. They're on Astronomy so we just bought what they bought: the Astronomy text book and the junior notebook.  (FYI: I ordered mine somewhere else, but later noticed that with Amazon's free shipping for orders over $25, it would have been cheaper there.)

EXTRAS
I loved the idea of starting each morning with a little bible devotional so I also bought the kids' version of Jesus Calling. We've been reading it each morning and talking about what it means. It's good stuff. I might be getting more out of it than the kids, but only time will tell.

About a year ago we noticed Noodle was starting to accidentally memorize the books on tape we were letting him listen too before bed. Of course there's nothing wrong with that, but we decided that we could put this "poll-parrot" stage to better use so we found searched for a kids Bible that was accurate, but not so dramatized that it scared him (he's a very literal kid). We found The Little Kids Adventure Bible at Audible.com. When you sign up you get 3 free credits, so it ended up being free (I love that!). It has been a literal God-send. Even Yogi has started listening to them to wind down at the end of the night. (Tip: When the volume is super low, they have to be very quiet to hear their own CD.)

CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS
I just received a box from Classical Conversations in the mail. I'm super excited, but haven't been doing it long enough to say anything yet. I'm sure I'll want to talk about it more later.

Really? Who's teaching?

It's not me. I'm sure of it. I distinctly remember saying I'd never be one of those homeschooling types. My list of reasons was long- very long: My son doesn't like to listen to me, I don't even know phonics, I have no time, He needs that important social interaction stuff... maybe I'll write out the full list someday (doubtful- I'm really not the looking backward type).

Yet here I am. I've pulled my 5 year old, Noodle, out of school and am 'homeschooling' him.  The last month has been a crazy rabbit trail of curriculum research and anguishing decision making, moving furniture, trying out new things and gathering resources.  As I find amazing websites, informative blogs and entertaining videos, I find that neither Pintrest my Firefox bookmarks can really keep up. So, I'm going to try to post things here, mainly as a resource for myself. If you've stumbled upon this and find it helpful- awesome! I'm glad to pay it forward. I've certainly borrowed and stole everything you'll find here. After all, I'm not a teacher, I'm just a mom.