November 1, 2010

Homeschool Year 2010-2011

Yes, I know it's November 1st. I know I'm a little late. But, I am giving myself the liberty to be late in starting back into our preschool program. With baby number four on its way, helping my husband gather ministry partners through MAF, and caring for the needs of my other two small children (while trying to employ the help of my eldest), I think starting preschool two months late is perfectly fine. Mostly, I am thankful young children are sponges and tend to pick up things without me realizing it or trying very hard. (Which, may I mention, has worked negatively for me as well). I am also very thankful that at this stage of the game of "homeschool" there is much flexibility and time to develop style. No, for the record, I do not hope to start every school year practically before Christmas holidays begin!

I was browsing Sonlight's website tonight, honestly in hopes of becoming inspired to actually get down to business this year, and found myself practically drooling over next year's (Kindergarten) program! After closing the web browser, I cracked my preschool instructor's guide, sadly to find my sticky note on Week 18. Well, we are halfway there folks! So, we must begin now and faithfully continue through to Spring if we hope to finish our first curriculum of Sonlight.

I am very excited to see how God has orchestrated some of Sonlight's reading selections for our family. As we prepare to move to Africa, part of our preschool social studies program focuses its attention on a book called "Stories From Africa." To my surprise, this book even contains a story about a missionary pilot! How fantastic is that?!

How is your school year progressing so far?

5 comments:

Sarah DeSalvo said...

Well... we just started ours, actually! My Natalie will be 5 in a week and a half, and she is itching so bad to learn that I brought back Sonlight's K curriculum back with us. Since we just got back a few weeks ago, and I've NEVER homeschooled before, it took me a bit to get ready to get her started on it. We are in our 2nd week now and some of it is a bit advanced for her, but she really is loving it. So, I am not sure when we'll finish it but we are enjoying the process for right now! I picked Sonlight because I had heard good things about it, and so far am really happy with it, especially how it really lays everything out for a first-time homeschooler like me!

I am really sorry that we never got a chance to meet up with you guys while we were in the States. I hope that everything is going well for you in your deputation process. You are headed to Africa? Do you know where in Africa? I am very excited for you and wish you all the best in your journey!

The Barbers said...

Hi there! I also have heard fantastic things about Sonlight, including the fact that it was developed for missionaries to use! Neat eh? We are also sorry we didn't get to meet you guys, but we are learning that the schedules in our lives (deputation) and missionaries on home assignment don't lend themselves to much 'free' time. we will continue to get to know your family through blogosphere for now. :) Blessings.

Becky Perez said...

We are on week 8 of the same sonlight curriculum and are loving it! Reece's favorite book is Uncle Wiggly :-) I struggle with cheating and looking at the other books, but I'm trying to stay on track! The only part I have a problem with is the activities that go along with the stories. They are mostly all too easy for Reece and I have a hard time coming up with my own things that go along with the stories. I usually do some writing practice, a little bit of counting for math and then a little bit of reading (we just started this a week or so ago, it's mainly just sight word practice and I think she knows three so far :-) Anyway, do you have any suggestions on activities that go along with the stories? Maybe the activities we do with everyday life are enough, but sometimes I feel like we should do more.
I think you're doing great by being intentional with your preschool! You have SO many other things going on right now!! We are pretty much just waiting around for visas and finished with raising support, so that is why I feel that it's not to hard to get the preschooling in. It would have been hard to do it in the middle of deputation!
Congratulations on number four!! What a great family you have!

Our Father's Heartbeat said...

I'm excited for you! For your homeschool year start, number four and Africa. Wow. We are still waiting for our Sonlight catalogue, but I'm happy to hear it was designed for missionaries. One of the reasons we like the idea of homeschooling is so that when / if God calls us to a different country, we can just up and go.

Looking forward to hearing more about your move to Africa!

Joanna

The Barbers said...

Hi Becky, I don't have ideas for activities directly related to the stories. But the 'extras' you are doing with Reece sound fantastic. I found a really neat website called Funmomonline.blogspot.com and she has really neat activities that are fairly simple to set up. Aside from the traditional "academia" I have been focusing attention on teaching Faith to be responsible for her things. God has given us everything we have to take care of e.i. her room! So she is learning how to clean it well. Also just learning to listen to mommy and daddy! That is a pretty time consuming thing to teach! I'm glad she is home with me all day to practice it. ;)

Joanna, I am excited that you are getting the catalogue! I hope the program gets you and your family excited about learning as well. You can check out all of their curriculum choices on their website as well. Depending on your internet connection however, it might be really difficult to navigate. You may follow more about our ministry directly about MAF at our family blog
Take care!