McCullough Schoolhouse :: Kindergarten + Pre-K

Today was our first day of {home}school! Eli and Maddie started Kindergarten, and Aiden started Pre-K :)

We had a yummy breakfast to kick off the school year, and then we had to take the obligatory First Day Photos! I am not even sending them off to school, and my Mama-heart was still struggling with how quickly the last 5 years have gone...

My cutie Kindergarteners!

Love this crew so much!

Photo with the teacher {aka Mommy} :)

We even got a photo with the principal {aka Daddy} ;)

Last year, we did a more formal Pre-K curriculum, and I mapped out the whole year before we started. It was a big undertaking at the outset, but it really helped me to stay on task and have minimal prep as we faced each new week. So I decided to do that again this year. It also helped to spread out the cost of books and supplies. I was able to shop for deals and not have to pay full price for what we needed! #winning

The biggest changes for this year are that we will be doing school for 4 or 5 days {instead of the 3 we have been doing}, though we won't be doing every subject every day. I'm planning just for mornings, so it still gives us some flexibility if we need to miss days, rearrange lessons, play catch up, etc.

-------

Here's a look at what we will be learning this year! By default, Aiden is going to be doing {most} everything with Eli and Maddie. I have a few things that are specifically tailored for his age, but he hung in pretty well with Eli and Maddie last year, so I don't anticipate him needing too much adjustment. But that's the beauty of homeschool...we can figure it out as we go! :)

Morning Time/Bible: This time is going to consist of multiple elements to help kickstart our days:

• Prayer and a daily hymn
• Bible Time + catechism
• Morning Menus- where we will review calendars, seasons, feelings, letters/numbers, shapes

I have chosen a hymn to learn/sing for each week of the school year. We will sing our new hymn each morning, using the following books to dig a little deeper on the stories behind the hymns: Timeless Hymns for Family Worship by Joni Eareckson Tada & Bobbie Wolgemuth, Hymns, Volumes I and II by The Daily Grace Co, and Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan.

For our Bible curriculum this year, we will be walking through the Bible Road Trip, Year One from Thinking Kids Press. It's a 3-year Bible survey curriculum for preschool through high school. So the goal is to walk through this over the years that we choose to homeschool, with age appropriate study. I'm actually really excited about this curriculum. The preschool/kindergarten years are mostly reading Bible stories and doing crafts. But as the kids grow and learn to read and write, they introduce more intense Scripture memory, journaling, etc.

I dropped the ball with catechisms last year, but we picked it back up this summer, so we will continue with that this fall. We will work through The New City Catechism for Kids by The Gospel Coalition.

The Morning Menu is literally a restaurant menu cover filled with worksheets. The kids can use dry erase markers to fill out their pages, and we can switch it up throughout the week.

Reading: I started teaching the kids how to read over the summer. I have been using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington, and practicing with the BOB Books Collections. It went well for the first part of the summer, but then everyone hit a wall and wasn't interested anymore, so I put it aside to pick back up now. 

Our reading time will also include family Read Aloud time {where I will read longer chapter books to the kids and start asking questions about the stories}. I started reading {short} chapter books to them last year in prep for this, in an effort to improve listening skills and expand their imaginations. I am looking forward to introducing them to more fun stories!

So far we have the following books planned, and we will add {or subtract} as we have time:

• The Bears of Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
• Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle
• Stuart Little by E.B. White
• Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
• A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
• Poppy by Avi
• The Trumpet and the Swan by E.B. White
• The Adventures of South Pole Pig by Chris Kurtz
• The Jungle Books I and II by Rupyard Kipling

Writing: We will be tackling writing head-on this year, as it didn't quite get to where I wanted it last year. Which is totally fine, but I know we need to really focus on this for Kindergarten. We are going to be using the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting workbooks to practice. Aiden has his own pre-writing book to work through, as well.

Math: We will plan to do math 4 days a week {with a break or catch-up day, if needed}. We really did well with Kate Snow's preschool book, so I decided to move forward with her Kindergarten text: Kindergarten Math with Confidence. This year uses many of the same manipulatives, but we will also add workbooks. Eli will really enjoy more math; Maddie, probably not haha.

Science: Science isn't a Kindergarten requirement/expectation, but my kids really enjoyed science last year {especially Eli!}, so I decided to do a small curriculum this year to continue building interest. We will do science 3 days a week, and we will continue using Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids About God and Science by Louie Giglio {we started it this summer}. I want our kids to have a good foundation for how/why God created the world, before we start diving into the mechanics of science. For more hands on learning, we will use Mudpies to Magnets by Robert A. Williams and Everybody Has a Body by Robert E. Rockwell. I'm not 100% sold on these books yet {science is not my strong point}, so I will see how the kids respond and adjust as needed. We're basically focusing on fun experiments this year, so we'll see how it goes!

Music: We will be doing a hymn every day during our Morning Time, but we will also do a specific music focus once a week. We will be using the Early Childhood Cantiamo Tutti Seasonal Guide from Legends of the Staff, and we will be doing a composer study with some of the books in the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers series.

-------

At first glance, it looks like a lot. But that's how it felt last year, and it actually wasn't that bad. It helped give me an idea of what the kids could/couldn't handle, and it really doesn't take as much time as it may seem. So I feel slightly more prepared for this year. It does feel a little scary, though, since I am technically homeschooling "for real" this time. Haha! While we did have to notify the superintendent of our intent to homeschool {Virginia law}, the kids won't have to test or have an evaluation until 1st grade. So we still have some time to find a good rhythm, and for me to identify the best ways the kids learn...at least before we have to have more formal accountability. 

So here we go! Our first {official} year of homeschooling! :)