Am I Really Homeschooling????

The time that I thought would always be far off in the future has arrived. We are officially a homeschool family. There is a perfect spot in our home on the second floor for our schooling. We are working on Math through the Shiller Math program. LOVE IT! Alongside your basic math programs Shiller introduces simple logic. For example, you are given 3 circles and 1 square. The student is asked which one is different and then asked "why." The program uses manipulatives and music and most importantly Adeline is enjoying it.

Our Phonics program is Phonics Road to Reading and Writing. Again, LOVE IT! What sets this program a part from say Leap Frog is you learn ALL the sounds of the letters. For instance, "a" and "o" both have 3 sounds each instead of just the short and long vowel sounds. "G" has two sounds as in "give" and "giraffe."

As you can see from the picture we are now on our vowel teams. To give you examples of this, the sound "er" has 5 spellings - er, ir, ur, wor, ear. The vowel team "ou" has 4 sounds as well and to help the student remember the sounds you remember that this vowel team sounds like you are in pain - /ow/ round, /o (long)/ four, /oo (long)/ group, /u (short)/ touch. [I can't mark the sounds correctly which is why I indicated in parenthesis the sound.]

The English language, a combo of German, French, and Latin, is crazy! I think that Phonics Road has broken it down to a very easy way to learn our language. This approach will actually teach Adeline how to spell before she reads.

We are also going through the shortest catechism and have currently covered the first 3 questions and answers.

Who made you? God made me. What else did God make? God made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For His glory.

The biggest challenge right now is making sure I am prepared to also include Darton. He can work alongside us when he's willing, but most of the time he is too much of a "busybody" and enjoys connecting different objects with rope.