Modern Homeschool Today

I must say I'm much more relaxed about my third child officially beginning homeschooling than I was with the others. I've observed in my other kids an amazing ability to learn through play and in the freedom of exploration that homeschooling offers. Therefore, I trust that he will continue to learn in the same way so no need for a formal curriculum just yet. Reading DS5 showed readiness to read when he was 3 when he learnt the alphabet while we were doing an alphabet puzzle together and knew all his letters from that day forward! I then set him up with a reading eggs account and purchased some simple readers and we were off. I advocate watching for signs of  children's readiness to read before introducing reading. I was in no rush to teach my children to read but found that my firstborn actually taught himself to read with very little prompting - I just provided some books and alphabet games! It made me realise that some kids WANT to learn to read when they are ...

DS7 will be in year 2 this year. He has always been advanced so this may not look like your average year 2 curriculum. This is why homeschooling is awesome for him as he gets to work at his own pace and no one teases him because he can do freaky things with numbers in his head! When homeschooling gifted children they become less defined by academic ability and more by character which is so important. We knew the day he got offered a scholarship to a prestigious school  that if he grew up in that environment that he would learn to define himself by his academic ability not who he was as a person. We chose homeschooling because we want more for our kids than just academic achievement - we want them to grow up to be people of integrity, compassion and empathy for others and with a strong sense of who they are and why they are here on this planet! Literacy DS7's reading list. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series  Zac Power series Abeka books Pilgrims progress The chron...

The Christmas break has been an awesome opportunity for me to rest and reflect on what we want to achieve as a homeschool this year. I admit that I love planning for a new year and a few weeks ago I completed our homeschool daily planner for 2013 . So, now I thought I would list the curriculum we are planning to use for Term 1 and beyond. Devotion / Bible Study - 10 days of character studies  Confessions of a homeschooler is one of my favorite non-Australian blogs. It is beautifully written and she offers great insight, tips, curriculum reviews and also free material such as the character study  What I love about this character study is that it's ready to go and includes memory verses (which I print and laminate) as well as cute little apples to stick on the wall for each character trait which include patience, self-control, diligence,  honesty etc. Maths - Singapore Maths   I am a huge fan of Singapore maths. My boys both really love maths wh...