Over on that sidebar in the "About Me" section, I should have mentioned that I disappear for long periods of time, occupied by other things. Blogging has never been something at which I particularly excel--I think it's the diligence thing? Who knows. But almost a month has passed since we started our Pre-K year of homeschool and...we've done stuff! Learned things!
Naturally, now that I've settled in to write an update, I don't remember what any of those things are. Fortunately I'm trying to develop a habit of record keeping in preparation for the official year of Kindergarten, when I'll be accountable to the school system.
The short version is, we spent part of August with Five in a Row and then the latter half with Wee Folk Art's Simple Seasons curriculum. I haven't decided which I like best but for now I have a week's worth of WFA books from the library so we'll do that (learning about farm things) next week and with our upcoming trip to the National Aquarium, I'll bring out Night of the Moonjellies and Five in a Row. I'd like to think the side by side comparison will give me an idea of which way to proceed but I doubt it'll be that cut and dry. I do believe Five in a Row books and studies will be more--well, we'll be able to do and understand more--in the Kindergarten year but I miss the guided literature study and linked activities. WFA's curriculum gives me a nice seasonal thread to follow (which FIAR does not) but I don't feel we're getting as much from the literature portion.
Our week basically looks like themed literature and linked nonfiction, Progressive Phonics and Get Ready/Set/Go for the Code activities (which...might be redundant but I figure better to work from the beginning and go faster, than skip ahead and possibly miss something/come up against more frustration), Handwriting Without Tears (which isn't as great as I expected, maybe because I only bought the workbook and none of the extras), Math through cuisinaire rods and Education Unboxed, a "foundations" workbook from Critical Thinking Co, and I'm trying to incorporate more "living math" fiction. That's tough to find at Pickle's age but I'll keep trying.
I think science, art, etc are falling to the wayside. They were better covered in Five in a Row than in Wee Folk Art and it's possible I'll switch things up to put WFA as weekend reading and FIAR as school-week reading...
In short, I'm still in the "I'm not sure about this" stage. We've certainly tossed the idea of a structured school day, anyway. I might try that again soon, though, by playing less loosey-goosey with bedtime and starting our day deliberately with an alarm clock.
I'm glad we have this exploratory year. I'd be a mess if we were working on Kindergarten right out of the gate.
Despite my continued tweaking I do believe we're learning and on our way! And I'm super proud of Pickle's progress with physical therapy. His scissor work is getting better, he's developing more hand strength and willingly trying letters, and--this is the best thing for me--I feel like he and I are closer. Learning is good. :)
