The Big Plan

It's been a year now since I started the homeschool journey. I've gone through a mountain of research and strongly feel that this is the best decision for my family at this point in our lives. 

I've spent the last few weeks looking at all of the schooling options in our area and discovered an alternative academy that looks really awesome. If, at any point, the girls are feeling like they don't want to homeschool or we are feeling it is not working for our family, we are open to this option.

That being said, here is our preschool curriculum guide. I have a fairly loose plan (the kids are only 2 and 3) and plan to add and modify as needed until Kindergarten where I plan to purchase an all-in-one curriculum for at least the first year, and then evaluate after that. The beauty of homeschooling is that I can make sure that the kids are engaged and challenged at the same time and mix things up. Right now I have a loose monthly plan and as things come up I change if I need to. The kids are really excited - they love the learning activities we have done so far and are looking forward to doing more. I love seeing their quest for knowledge and the natural curiosity. It is such a fun way to learn!

Here is the plan.

I am following three books:

 Kitchen Table Play & Learn: Activities and Lessons for Building Your Preschooler's Vital Developmental Skills.

Preschooler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities to Occupy 3-6 Year Olds

Mudpies to Magnets: A Preschool Science Curriculum

I've previously written a post about Mudpies to Magnets, but basically it has all sorts of different age appropriate science activities for preschoolers. 

The Kitchen Table Play and Learn book is the book I am going to follow most closely, while doing enrichment activities from the Busy Book. KTPL has 30 unit studies with 5-8 specific lessons contained within each unit. Unit Studies include All About Me, Dinosaurs, Rain Forest, Bugs, Winter Days, Garden, Summer, and much more.  Each lesson has a combination of language, math, physical abilities (fine and gross motor and hand-eye coordination), social skills, and a few other skills. 

I plan to pick a unit topic (e.g. fish, bugs, weather, flowers, etc.) and gather related books from the library and try to tie it in to any travel or activities in the area, and then do each lesson for as long as it takes us - guess a month or longer since I plan to only do lessons 2-3 times a week. I am going to supplement where possible and add activities from the Busy Book and Mudpies to Magnets. 

I also subscribed to the following: 

Koala Crate 

This is a box of craft activities that is mailed to your house each month. One of the things I struggle with most is thinking of crafts for the kids. I'm planning on doing a couple of months to see if I like it as much as I think I will, and am willing to do a year-long commitment if this is all it claims to be. 

Little Passports: Early Explorers

This is a box of activities, printables, and souvenirs mailed monthly that center around world themes like food, space, art, oceans, dinosaurs, and others. I again did a monthly trial to see if it is worth the money, but it sounds great in the description. I plan to try and tie unit studies from KTPL when I can. 

The Young Scientists Club

These are kits you can purchase for doing different science actives. I think that the activities will take several days to get out everything we can out of it. I chose the Clifford Magic Science Kit first. You can buy each kit individually, so I'll see if I like the first one and go from there. 

Academically, that is the plan. I think it is more than enough and I plan to do approximately one unit a month and go from there. I am going to try and have a lesson 2-3 times a week or so depending on how much we have going on.

In terms of learning environment, Ridhwi and I converted the formal dining room into a homeschool room. We are committed to seeing this for at least the next couple of years (possibly K-12 if we feel it will be good for the kids and family) and we felt the kids needed a place dedicated to learning and fun. 

I'm working on organizing it and putting up some pictures 

It is right off the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.

I've already unpacked these tubs and we are planning to make a window seat right here. I think I will spend a lot of time there myself too!

I also purchased a few wall pictures of colors and numbers for Ashima. I splurged and bought two of these educational easels for the kids. Quite a few activities in KTPL require a felt board and a white board. This is also a magnet board, perfect for letter magnets! I think that they will grow with the girls and they get older, too. 

Now to the question everyone (and I mean everyone) asks: what about socialization? I don't like this question. Never in my adult life have I been a room with 30 people of the same age. After high school, we are placed in situations with people of different ages and abilities and expected to learn and work with them, and this is how they will learn being home schooled.  Homeschooling is a much more authentic learning experience in several respects. I will not be locking my kids in a room and not letting them out. Even so, here are the different activities they will be participating in (with other kids so they can be "socialized"):

1. Toddler time/gym time at the YMCA. A 30 minute Physical Education class once a week with about 35 other kids.

2. Music and Movement at the YMCA. A music class with about 45 other kids.

3. Play dates. I have contacted several other homeschool parents with preschool children and we plan to get together and do actives/ let the kids play together. This is in addition to regular play dates with the children of our friends.

5. Dance class. Amita has been begging for a dance class. Our schedule was too busy when she was in school but now we have time for it.

6. Library activities. We are blessed to have tons of classes and activities for preschoolers at our local library. 
7. Swim Lessons. We live on the Wisconsin River so they need to learn to swim as soon as possible. They will be taking classes at the YMCA.

Once the kids are older there are homeschool co-ops with all sorts of actives, music lessons, sports, art classes, etc. for them to be involved it, hopefully not all at the same time. They will actually be able to do more social activities than if they were in school. Whew! So glad I dodged the socialization bullet. 

I have written about what I think I will struggle with already, but I think that getting the kids to understand that when we are doing school we are learning, engaged, listening, and following directions will be most difficult. I might be their teacher but I'm also their mom. Once we get into a routine, though, I think those things will work themselves out. I'm sure there will be frustrating days, but there will be awesome ones too. I'm excited about so much family time and have the ability to do such fun activities with the kids!

I am also going to read, read, and then read some more to the kids. I am going to allow them plenty of time to play, laugh, giggle, sleep, eat healthy meals, and be children. 

The MOST important thing I'm going to do, though, is instill a lifelong love of learning. This is really the root of what I want them to get out of homeschooling, and it begins now. I will not force them or make them do things they hate. There is no need. I will instead begin showing how fun and exciting learning can be. This is the most important I think they can learn. Once they love to learn, the world is their oyster.

This is it. My plan. I'm really excited to begin and I'll make sure to update as we go along regarding activities and things that work for us. 

Book Review: Hands Free Mama by Rachel Macy Stafford

I give this book a rating of 7/10. The book is available here. 

I had really good intentions when I rented this book from the library. I thought it would give me all sorts of practical advice about how to  be less connected to technology. What I found, though, is that it is written to persuade the reader to become hands free. I have already decided to do this, and made strides to do so (no TV, no computer in the afternoon, etc.), so much of the book - personal anecdotes and such - were very unnecessary for me since I had already decided and was in agreement, even though they were cute stories. As for the rest of it - having designated "technology time" and reasons why you shouldn't be on your computer all the time, I already do that. I found that the book was trying to persuade me to believe in something I already believe in. It contained no real practical advice except to play with your kids and leave your phone on vibrate. After waiting two months on the library waiting list, I was a little disappointed. However, I do love the message of the book so I'm giving it a higher rating. It did have some lovely messages in neat fonts and I enjoyed reading them. :)

Book Review - The Everything Homeschooling Book

I give this book a 10/10. It is available here. 


I really enjoyed reading this book. It gave me a lot of insight and very helpful, practical advice about how to successfully homeschool. It includes resources, including many websites, strategies, and methods. It also has different educational activities and examples for K-12 which includes information about different learning styles and specific needs. It also included something that was really good for me - a typical homeschool day - which is one question I still have unanswered for if we decide to continue K-12. 

I think this book is incredibly helpful and I intend to purchase it so I can reference it if I have a question. This one is a winner!

Book Review: Home Learning Year by Year

I give this book at 9/10. It is available here. 

I originally rented the book from the library and ended up purchasing it from amazon. I found it incredibly helpful and informative. 

Let me start out by saying the only reason I didn't give it a 10/10 is because the copyright is 2000. The one I bought on amazon is 2009, so it is still out of date. However, the information is so informative I decided it didn't matter. 

The book is divided into 14 sections - preschool through 12th grade. Each section is subdivided into different subjects and corresponding resources for the subject. So, if you were interested in Preschool, you could find information about preschool, early childhood resources, magazines for parents, magazines for preschoolers, books for parents, books and resources from kids, and best reading lists. If you were interested in 6th grade mathematics, you could find information on what they should know in 6th grade, number theory, ratio and percent, fractions and decimals, operations, measurement, probability and statistics, geometry, and pre algebra. They also have non-core subjects like music, foreign language, health and physical education, and art covered. This book is an organized list of resources and age appropriate materials - a perfect resource for me.

One of my biggest questions about homeschooling was how I was going to know grade-level indicators. This book answers that question and gives me confidence and peace of mind that I will not be leaving anything out of my homeschooling curriculum.

This book is a keeper!

Side note: I think this book could be very informative for parents with children in school to make sure they are meeting all necessary milestones and learning goals. Additionally, I think it could be useful for teachers since it has some great resources and ideas. 

Book Review: The Complete Daily Curriculum - Over 1200 Easy Activities to Support Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles.

I would give this book a 6/10 for homeschooling parents and a 9/10 for traditional preschool teachers. It is available here.

This book would be very useful in a traditional preschool with many students, supplies, materials, and a library, but I found it a bit cumbersome in a homeschool environment with one child and limited materials.

The Complete Daily Curriculum has A LOT of activities - many more than is advertised on the front cover because each activity is expanded to include multiple intelligences. Ideally, you could pick which learning style your child would respond to best and use that only those activities for that style. Once neat aspect of the book is that they have "story circle" books - independent children's books that are related to the theme of each activity. This would be very useful in a traditional school. In a homeschool environment, though, I would have to go to the library and check out the books in advance of even doing the activity.

All of the activities needed quite a bit of prep time. I discovered that I would prefer to find something online that required less prep time than use a lesson in the book. There is an appendix in the back with worksheets and cutouts. They were really neat and could be a lot of fun to do but I didn't find them useful because I don't have a copier, scanner, scrap materials, etc. In a school it would be very useful because all of those things are readily available but it just isn't practical for homeschoolers. For instance, in one activity, I was to find feathers, 6 books for story time, print and cut out 2 pictures from the index, get out crayons and scissors, and paper. This is in addition to learning 3 songs from the index to teach. It's too much work for me for one single lesson! 

I was glad to have a chance to go through it and get a few ideas but I will not be purchasing this book. 

Book Review: Mudpies to Magnets - A Preschool Science Curriculum

I give the book a 10/10. I originally rented it from the library but ended up purchasing it for future use. It is available here.

Mudpies to Magnets is divided into eight categories: science center activities, circle time activities, construction and measurement, paints and prints, science for a special place (meaning messy activities), health and nutrition, outdoor science, creativity and movement, and hodge podge.

Lessons include key words, materials, directions, discussion questions, and ways to expand the "experiment". Lessons are broken down and explained clearly. I had no trouble understanding what I was supposed to do.

Each lesson is labeled with its corresponding age, 3 year-old, 4 year-old, or 5 year-old, so parents don't have to read the entire lesson to determine if it is age appropriate. A definite time saver!

The lessons are very creative yet rooted in important scientific concepts. They are not overwhelming to do with a young child and don't seem to create too much a mess. Additionally, they don't need more than basic prep work: some time to gather materials (mostly what we have around the house), and time to read the directions.

This is a winner, for sure!