A Little Background

I am an English major whose focus was Literature. From an early age, I've been in love with books and for that, I owe a debt of gratitude to my Mom. She taught me to read before I entered Kindergarten.

My parents sacrificed a great deal to make sure that my brother and sister and I had the best education they could provide so we were blessed to attend very good private schools.

My husband and I made a commitment to each other that our children would not be in the public schools, so that left private schools or home school. After talking with lots of parents whose children attended private schools, I realized that the same problems exist there, only you pay a lot more money for them! I want my children to realize their full potential and not be satisfied with mediocrity.

After becoming a parent I was drawn more and more to the idea of home school for our children, but I was a little overwhelmed by the thought. My brother and his wife are homeschooling their two girls. I have gotten most of my material from Christine who has blazed the path before me and found wonderful books like, "Five in a Row" & "The Well-Trained Mind" by Jessie and Susan Wise. (What a treasure! This is exactly what I was looking for and I highly recommend its use even if you just want to supplement what your child is learning in a regular school.)

I used "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" last year for Kindergarten.
Noah already knew his alphabet and sounds so we focused on copywork for writing. He would write his ABCs over and over & write letters to family and friends, copying sentences I wrote out for him.

For math, he learned how to count to 100, write his numbers and compute simple addition and subtraction. He learned how to tell time, the days of the week and months of the year. We even started fractions since he loves to help in the kitchen.

Our Kindergarten year was very low key and he received plenty of socialization with his friends at church since we are there 3 times a week.

We are very blessed to live in an area where homeschooling has grown to be a very large community. There are many families in our church alone who are also homeschooling their children, so I have lots of support.

We are also members of Christian H.O.M.E. a large group of homeschooling families in Michiana that provides support, information, resources, legal aid, and extra curricular activities.

Lastly, I recently became a consultant for Usborne books. These are absolutely wonderful books that are great for all children and ideal for the home school. I'll have my Usborne link up soon.

I hope by reading my blog you will find encouragement, support and ideas for your own family.