Creating My Own Curriculum « Journey to a Gracious Woman

Ok, well, the time has come to get serious about my 4-year old being included into “school”. Something a bit more formal and “sit-down” like. I have my daughter’s previous curriculum from LIFEPAC, so I am going to use it as a guide as to what to teach. I cannot use it again since it is all written in. BUT, it has “extended activity” ideas for every lesson which will be a HUGE help. I can find FREE worksheets throughout the internet to help me with each lesson. It will be a little more work, sure, but not too bad. Pre-k and K curriculums are free and easy to come by on the internet.

Once he is ready for 1st grade (or is 6), he will join us using Tapestry of Grace. So, we have a couple of years yet!

My 2-year old is an extremely bright child and he can probably learn all the same stuff alongside my 4-year old. And no, I’m not exaggerating!

So I am going to use the summer weeks to get things together and gather materials and printables for the coming year. We have a lot to do!

Visit me at my home school blog

Kelly Says:

July 11, 2009 at 2:32 pm

I plan to get serious with Jordan this year as well. I would like to get into a solid routine with the new baby first though (since he is coming next month). I am thinking mid to end of septemeber to get started on pre-K with her. I had thought about putting her in our church’s pre-K program, but with 1 vehicle (the cost of gas it would take me to drive Chris to work 3 days a week so I could take her) and the cost of the program ($165 /month) I don’t think it will work for us. So back to plan A of homeschooling her. Which is actually probably best because I plan to start homeschool all my kids the following year … so this year will be a good training year for me. Anyhoo… you will have to share with me which sites you get your worksheets from!

Debbie Says:

July 13, 2009 at 2:08 pm

How do you capture your 4 year old’s attention to teach? I like to sit down with my 4 year old and work through letters, numbers, and such – but she has NO interest in it. I’m not a homeschooler, but I definitely want to be an active part of her learning – and I really have a hard time capturing her focus. =) Both of my girls love to learn and I want to do more than just read stories to them…

christinnjon Says:

July 13, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I use things that interest him to teach. He enjoys games (file folder games in particular). There is a great site devoted to just this that I use as well as other materials. http://folderfun.ning.com/

I don’t sit more than he wants. I shoot for 10-20 minutes. But even starting off at 5 minutes of focused time is good. Don’t underestimate “only” reading stories to them. Reading is the building blocks of all of learning. Without a rich reading comprehension, the rest of school will be a struggle. So by ALL means, READ. Find books on the alphabet, colors, shapes, etc and read those. You’ll be teaching each of these AND reading comprehension, phonics, spelling, attention span and more. Reading has more to it then just reading itself.