1st Year of Homeschool: Curriculum

We officially started "school" this week- this will be our first attempt at homeschooling. The whole idea of it is very overwhelming, especially for someone with a Type A personality (such as myself). I am always concerned that we won't do enough.... but then I also worry that we'll try to do too much. Tanek is, afterall, only 4, and I have to remind myself that "playtime" is just as important as "schooltime" at this age. So, the challenge is finding the right balance that works for all of us, so that learning continues to be fun. At this point, I want his "schooltime" to be just as fun as his "playtime".

Anyway, like many others, I have spent hours and hours obsessing over the various curriculum options trying to find the perfect one that will meet the needs of our family. Since I've also spent plenty of hours reading about the curriculum everyone else has chosen, I thought I would post ours as well. Hopefully, in a few years when I look back on how our first attempt at homeschooling went, I will still be pleased with the choices we made! And, hopefully by next year at this time, we will all feel more secure about this whole process in general!

For math, we are using Right Start Math Level A. I spent a really long time trying to decide on a math program, so I hope this will work out well for Tanek. I really, really liked it when I saw a demonstration of it at a convention!

The Right Start program was developed after studying the way math is taught in Japan. It is a very visual and hands-on program that teaches a person to see quantities in groups of fives and tens instead of counting by ones. It also uses a lot of games to teach the math concepts, which keeps it fun and entertaining. Sometimes we do supplement his math with "The Verbal Math Lesson", Miqoun Math (Orange book), or some other workbooks. Tanek loves to do workbooks, so we throw in some of those for fun.


For Language Arts, we are using Language Lessons for Little Ones 2. I definitely like the Charlotte Mason approach to learning and the focus on narration, memorization, and copywork. Narration is not one of Tanek's favorite things to do, so this is a big focus for us this year. He loves to read and be read to, but he doesn't always like to answer questions or tell the story back to you. Especially if it involves studying a picture and making up a story about what might be happening in the picture! Next year we will probably start on First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, but we'll see. We plan on reading many books this year, including classics such as The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit, The House at Pooh Corner, The Wind in the Willows, etc. For memorization, we'll work on Bible verses and some poems from A Child's Book of Verses. Right now, we are working on memorizing Psalm 23.


We are using The Reading Lesson and Explode the Code for his reading and phonics lessons this year. We use Bob books, the 1st grade reader, I Wonder, from the Reading to Learn series, and other early readers such as Dick and Jane, Dr. Seuss, and Little Bear. I'm sure we will continue to use the Reading to Learn series because they are nice, wholesome stories -similar in many ways to the Amish Pathway readers.

Handwriting: We are using Handwriting Without Tears for his handwriting program. This is Tanek's weakest area. He still writes with both hands which doesn't make it any easier. We go slow with the handwriting and I only have him do as much as he will do. Once he says "it's enough", we stop. I don't want him to hate writing later on, so we only do 1-2 pages a day. He does like to do mazes, so sometimes he'll do some of those instead, to work on his fine motor coordination.

Science: We are using The World God Made from Christian Liberty Press. It is perfect for his age and is centered around the 7 days of Creation. We're also planning to do some experiments using Blast of Color, which I know he will enjoy!

Geography: We are using the Beginner's World Atlas and Galloping the Globe. We'll also use geopuzzles and geography songs CD to reinforce what we're learning (and make it more fun). We could end up spending a disproportionate amount of time on geography if we're not careful because Tanek, my Mom, and I all really enjoy it!

History: We're using History for Little Pilgrims (also from Christian Liberty Press) for a brief overview of history. I think this will be a good introduction that won't be too overwhelming for a 4 year old.

Bible: We're using Leading Little Ones to God for this, and Devotions for the Children's Hour. We also have multiple Bible memory verse CDs that we listen to. Tanek frequently prefers to listen to his music than watch tv, which is nice, because there isn't much on tv that I like for him to watch!

Thinking Skills: I have several books and activities that focus on thinking skills and logic. We're starting with Developing the Early Learner. Then, we also have critical thinking books such as "Mindbenders" and "Lollipop Logic", and we're also going to try out the MiniLUK system. I've read a lot of great reviews about the MiniLUK, so we'll see if it is as interesting as others have said it is!

So, that just about sums up what we have planned for the year. He has plenty of educational toys and games that he can do during read-aloud time or whenever else he wants. Oh, we also have a couple of Russian and Spanish language CDs for kids that he listens to just for the exposure.

I think this will be a fun year with lots of learning (I hope). If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know! This first year is a little scary! I want Tanek to have a great education so that he can be successful in the future. But most importantly, I want him to grow up knowing God, having a relationship with Jesus Christ, and developing the character traits that are pleasing to God.

Tanek's School Room - In Progress...

We finally got the new carpet put in Tanek's school room and bedroom. He is pretty excited about it since we let him pick out the carpet. The school room is almost finished except for his table and putting the maps/pictures/calendar/Kazakhstan flag, etc. on the walls. Oh, and we haven't decided exactly what we'll use for his "reading nook". Tanek thinks he might like a big bean bag chair, so we'll see.

We're hoping to figure out a way to use the ribbon we brought back from Kazakhstan to make pillows to use in his school room (or curtains, or something...). The ribbon is very pretty and the colors would look really nice in there.

Here is his bedroom - since we took the bookshelf out, he decided he wanted his bed on this side of the room. So, we rearranged his furniture so he would have more room to play. He thinks the new carpet makes his room "so beautiful"!

"To infinity and beyond..."

Now, I just have to finish planning his curriculum and daily/weekly school routine! And then, I have to keep reminding myself that he is only preK and that a routine is really not that important yet!

Tanek Loves his Hats!

Tanek loves to pretend and play with his hats. This "cowboy" outfit used to be Ricky's when he was a little boy, so it was extra special to play cowboy like daddy did. He likes to "gun" down the bad guys! He hasn't really learned to "shoot" people, which is okay with me. He just guns them instead.

Tanek is having fun riding his horse that Mimi and Pawpaw gave him and yelling "Hee haw"!

He just thinks he is so cute - he was definitely in performance mode!

Now he is a train conductor - also one of Ricky's hats as a boy!

"Woo woo"! Let's get this train moving!

This is Tanek's beach hat, but he was using it as a makeshift cowboy hat this weekend.

Now we have Tanek, the fireman! He usually carries around his jump rope to use as his hose, but not this time.

Tanek, the builder. He has built many, many things back when he was a builder, but most of the time these days, he just wants to be a little boy. He's tired from all the work he's done - he's built the Disney buses, monorail, houses, fixed roads, dug big, huge holes, etc. He needs to rest and play now!

And here he is in his traditional Kazakh hat. It's already too small for him, but he likes to pretend he's a baby when he puts it on!

Saying hello to Mickey Mouse, wearing his Disney hat! He still talks about Disneyworld or the Disney ship everyday!

Tanek in his "baseball" cap, ready to catch a ball!

Tanek is very easily amused and I'm glad he has a vivid imagination to enjoy all of this pretend playing!

Tanek's ER Visit

Tanek has now "officially" been diagnosed with asthma. And, I have to say, being up for 24 hours doesn't really work all that well for me! After getting up to go to work at 4:30 am, having a wonderful day at work (notice the sarcasm here) without having time to eat, we then had to take Tanek to the ER. He wasn't feeling good all day, was having trouble breathing, and complaining that his stomach hurt. Mom said he wasn't interested in doing anything and then he was falling asleep by 5:00 pm (which is not at all normal for him). When she called to tell me and I heard him absolutely screaming in the background, I asked her to call Peds After Hours and bring him over and I would meet them there. Peds After-hours couldn't see him, so we planned to just take him to Shands ER. By the time they got there, he was actually looking and feeling better (since he had just done an extra 5 puffs of albuterol and then threw up all over himself in the car), so we decided to get something to eat and see how he was after that. He finally decided he was hungry after not really eating or drinking all day. By the time we finished eating, he was already wheezing and struggling to breathe again, so we took him to the ER at about 10:30. He started screaming and crying again in the waiting room that his stomach hurt. All of the crying "Mommy, I'm still hurting. I want to feel better. Help me. Mommy" over and over had me in tears, too. But, we didn't have to wait very long before they took us back. They gave him three neb treatments, steroids, and did a chest xray. Then we had to wait a couple of hours for the steroids to start working and make sure he could maintain his oxygen level above 93% before we could take him home.

The doctors and nurses were very nice and made him feel special. I think they especially liked the way his tongue and teeth turned so blue from the gatorade! By the time we left, he had lots of stickers, a little stuffed dog, and some magnets to take home with him! We were finally able to leave a little after 3 am and got home around 4:oo. Tanek was alittle hyped up from the steroids and was not at all happy that he couldn't sleep with his blankies - those were a bit contaminated when he threw up all over them. He picked out some substitute blankets, and although it wasn't quite the same, he finally did go to sleep around 4:30 am (after having to use his inhaler again). The doctor told him his stomach hurt from having to use all of his accessory muscles to try to breathe - he did the equivalent of at least 1000 sit-ups yesterday! The ER doctor sent him home on 4 more days of steroids and more albuterol when he needs it. He's still huffing and puffing and wheezy today, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Hopefully, the steroids will get everything under control and we won't have to do this again anytime soon!

Disney Cruise 2010

We finally made it to our Disney Cruise from January 21-24, 2010! We went down to Cocoa Beach a day early to relax and do a little shopping before leaving on Thursday. It was a nice day, considering the cold weather we've been having, not hot but not cold, either. We hopped over to Merritt Island to shop, had lunch at Applebee's, then spent some time at Barnes and Noble's - Tanek wanted to stay there all day and play with the train they had. We finally got him out of there, went back to the hotel and went for a short walk on the beach. By the time we went for a walk, it was starting to cool off pretty quickly, so we didn't stay out long.

We stayed at the Quality Suites, which was nice and very reasonable. They have a Park & Cruise deal so you can leave your car there during the cruise and avoid the $15 a day parking fee at the Port. We actually left our car at the Radisson and took the shuttle from there at 10:00 am.

We were at the port by 10:30, got checked in, had our security pictures taken, had Tanek registered for the kids' club, and were on board the ship by noon! Here we are outside of the terminal before we boarded - Tanek did have to have a bit of an attitude adjustment because he didn't want to wear his armband/locator for the kids' club, but he eventually got over it (by the time he had to return the locator and beeper, anyway).

Tanek is all ready for his first cruise dinner, but still trying to get that armband off!

The sun was just beginning to set as we were heading out to sea. This was the closest we came to a beautiful sunset while we were at sea!

Here is Tanek getting ready for the emergency drill. He kept wanting to know if we were getting in the water. Ummm, no, I certainly hope not!

After lunch on Thursday, we let Tanek go swimming while we were waiting for our luggage to arrive at our room.

The pool and the slide were his favorite part of the cruise. Attitude adjustments were a necessary part of every afternoon when it was time to go inside!

He barely reached the minimum height of 38 inches, but he certainly wasn't afraid of going down the slide!

This is a picture of part of our room. I have to say, Disney's staterooms are much more spacious than the staterooms I've stayed in on Carnival! And the service is far better as well. Everyone we talked to was friendly and helpful.

Here is Tanek with our dinner servers. Lidia was our Assistant Server - she is from the Dominican Republic; Mladen was our Server - he is from Serbia. Both of them were awesome with Tanek, very friendly and seemed to really enjoy getting to know the guests. We had the late seating (8:15 pm), so Tanek was not the most angelic little boy by that time of night after a very active day. I know that may be hard for some people to believe, but it's true - just ask my Mom! He looks like an angel in this picture, but it is deceiving.

Disney is the only cruiseline that does fireworks at sea! Not quite as dramatic as the fireworks show at Disneyworld, but impressive nonetheless! They do the fireworks during the Pirate's party right after Mickey rides on a zip-line across the top of the ship. Mickey sure showed those Pirates a thing or two.

And, Tanek finally crashes at the end of the night. He had no trouble sleeping after all of his activities during the day.

On a side note, I have to say how impressed I was with Disney's attention to cleanliness - not only with the ship itself, but with the guests. You did not board the ship or enter any restaurant or buffet without first receiving (and using) a sanitary hand wipe. I don't know if this is a new thing or if they have always done it, but the attention to preventing the spread of germs was comforting. Not that it prevented me from wiping down our entire room when we arrived, but...it was nice to think that people were at least entering the restaurants with clean hands before touching anything (especially at the buffets).