USA Map

We purchased this awesome USA Map for H2 at the gift shop in The National Archives in Washington, DC. It's just a map of the USA but comes with reusable stickers for each state. There are also additional little stickers that the kiddos can put anywhere.

When I purchased this map, it was really to keep H2 busy on an airplane flight. I knew he would be semi-interested because he loves stickers, but he hasn't shown much interest (or been too exposed) to geography. He loves history, but we hadn't done any geography - other than viewing a few maps and GPS stuff when we traved to CO on vacation a couple of years ago.

The other day I pulled it out during a break from our seat work. HE LOVED IT.

We ended up having a great intro to geography lesson. We discussed several states, talked about directions (NESW), spatial words (above, below, to the right of, to the left of), and matching.

H2 loved finding the different states. For each state he located I would give him a few fun facts about each state and if we know anyone who lives there or is from there. (Cool thing about this map is that the stickers each include a couple of illustrations that indicate what that state is "known" for.)

We even mapped a route for a summer road trip (If we ever win the lotto and can afford a 2-week long road trip!) to South Dakota to visit Mt. Rushmore.

We had a lot of fun, so I counted this as a successful homeschooling project. I found that it actually sunk in when a few hours later when Daddy came home he told him that he wanted to go to Wisconsin to visit his baby cousin M. He remembered the state name & that he had family there!

We will definitely continue to use this sticker map as a geography tool. I am looking forward to pulling out the Leap Frog USA Map (part of the TAG reading system) to see what it has to say. H2's nana purchased this for Christmas, so I think he will enjoy it as well.

Day One...

Day One Lesson Plan:

Pages 1-2, Hearts & Hands

Pages 1-5 Science

Pages 1-5 History

Pages 1-4 Handwriting

SIGHT WORDS FOR WEEK ONE: THE & AND

Notes about each lesson:

Hearts & Hands is really simple for H2, but I like the Handwriting part of it and it reinforces letters & letter sounds. This book also has a lot of following directions style coloring pages - which I like, but H2 does NOT like because he does NOT like to color at all. He gets bored and usually only colors a tiny portion of each section.

H2 enjoyed the Science lessons. He liked me reading to him, and he identifying his sight words of the week ('the' and 'and'). He followed along as I read the pages and he said every "the" & "and" in the lesson. He like drawing a picture, but did not like coloring the Earth. He said that he wished the Earth was smaller!

History was kind of boring for H2 today. I did not make him do the bible verse copy work as I don't think he's quite ready for that kind of intense handwriting. For now I will just write the verse in and we'll read it together. He continued to read his sight words along with me. Oh ~ and he still doesn't want to color!!

Handwriting was SUPER simple for H2. The beginning of this handwriting book is WAY easy in my opinion, stuff that he's been doing for quite a while. We are still going to complete these assignments, so as to do the entire curriculum, but he zips through it.

Lessons that MOMMY learned in homeschooling today:

• Teaching your own kid requires patience and a good attitude. I will pray for this constantly.


• I have to remind myself that even though H2 is bright, he still has a 4 year old attention span.


• Curriculums are great, but I will edit/adjust things that H2 has already mastered.


• NO TOYS at the school table!!!!!! Those Lego's were just too tempting.

All in all, a great first day of homeschooling. We did NOT do all of these lessons right in a row. We took play breaks & snack breaks, etc. That is my favorite part of homeschooling: being able to go at a pace that is good for H2 (and me), and being able to break up the day so that he stays intersted and focused. Very important for a 4 year old!!

Our current curriculum...

Here are the books I am using with H2 (for now). I feel comfortable teaching out of these books and I know that they produce kids that are way ahead of the public school Kinder curriculum.

This is the curriculum I used in my Kinder/1st grade class last year and all of the kids who transitioned into public school were at least a grade or more ahead.

You can order from Christian Book Online. My total for all books and shipping was just a little over $50.

Science: The World God Made, by Edward J. Shewan

History: The American People & Nation, by Michael J. McHugh

Phonics: Adventures in Phonics, Level A, by Florence Lindstrom

Math: Liberty Mathematics, Level K, by Florence Lindstrom

Bible & Very Basic Fundaments (letters/numbers): Hearts & Hands, by Darrel A. Trulson

Handwriting: K - In the Beginning, By Geoffrey T. Garvey

Then I am supplementing with a bunch of history/states/presidents stuff that I have found during lesson planning & my trip to Washington, DC. H2 loves history and museums and stuff, so that is what he's most interested in.

I get a lot of ideas from this AMAZING blog called 1+1+1=1. It's a missionary family in Philly who have to homeschool their kids b/c the public school in the inner city is not safe. They are an incredibly faithful family and I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the ideas they have for Tot School and homeschooling.

She started a spinoff website called Totally Tots that is a collection of awesome Christian homeschooling moms. I have built my Pre-K curriculum at my school around the stuff I found on this website.

I will share some of the supplemental stuff that we are using, as we use it.

The Adventure begins here....

So...

After a million years of saying that I would NEVER homeschool my children, here I am.

Homeschooling H2.

It's been an easy decision, though. H2 has a late birthday, so won't be officially old enough (according to our State) to start Kinder until Fall 2012. He's always been a very bright child, but I still never expected him to be ready to start Kinder almost 2 years early.

He is in the 3YO class at his Pre-School due to his age. He is LEAPS AND BOUNDS ahead of the rest of his classmates. He sounds out every word he sees and whizzed through some Pre-K workbooks I purchased for fun.

He has a great desire to learn and retains knowledge like no other.

He has a passion for history and museums and can remember people/places better than most adults.

Because of these things, we decided that I would start supplementing his Pre-School with homeschooling. I taught a Kinder/1st Grade combo class at a small Christian school last year, and feel confident in this curriculum.

This blog will be a place where I can share photos and stories of what we are up to in H2's School of Cool. I can vent my frustrations & celebrate our successes.

I also hope to use this blog to document H2's progress and our journey through Homeschooling and H2's educational journey. Maybe even through College! I will try to keep this blog strictly about H2's schooling, and save the personal stuff for our family blog.

I welcome any hints/tips that any reader might provide. Like any teacher and mom, we are always on a learning journey right along with our kids, so I plead for your feedback!

Welcome to H2's School of Cool - Only 4 Year Old Allowed (this year!)

Many Smiles,
E