Zofia's Turn for School

I'll admit it, I've been pretty lax with Zofia. I baby her quite a bit and with the emotions of Athena starting school, I'm trying to hold on to toddlerhood as long as I can.

All of a sudden she started making it clear that she's learning the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors with or without me. The time had come to bring out The Big Preschool Workbook. Most of it is still beyond her but she's loving the shapes and coloring pages.

For craft time, NickJr.com has always been my go-to site for printables. It's full of fun stuff to make, color, create, and bake and all of Zofia's favorite characters are there. Today she colored Athena a Bubble Guppies Halloween picture and we made a Brobee mask.

I'm excited to do this all over again with a child that is so completely different from Athena. It's a whole new adventure for us.

August 1st.

Today is August 1st. That means Athena officially starts school this month.

She is ready.

I am not.
My first baby is getting too big too fast.

Homeschool journey coming to an end - A new beginning for Athena.

I have been homeschooling Athena since she was a little over 2. It's been one of the highlights of parenting for me and she has really excelled. She always asks to get her schoolbooks down and for me to pull up her school sites. (I talked about our favorites here and here. The plan was to do this for as long as Athena wanted to, and if she ever decided she wanted to go the conventional school route we would. Well, that time has come. She is almost 5 and so excited about all of the new possibilities kindergarten at a public school could bring, and I feel it wouldn't be fair if I held her back based solely on what I want.

We better get ready.

We turned to Nickelodeon's Dora Beyond the Backpack for readiness quizzes, activities and information. After we went through our personalized assessment we're getting to work.

Correctly holding a pencil and scissors aren't something I've been all too focused on,

so we're doing lots of practice with that.

(Her spelling is getting GREAT.)

(Scissor practice is surprisingly tricky.)

Perhaps this lovely lass will take to homeschooling too. :)

So now we study, practice, and wait. Athena's application is in at a local elementary school and we're hopeful it will go through. I've loved doing this will her, but it's time to let her branch out her own way.

Homeschooling Pre-K - Success and Favorites

I started using curriculum at home from the time Athena was 2 years old. Seeing her learn from ME, learning her colors, numbers, etc. is incredibly satisfying. Now as we move into Pre-K curriculum and seeing her grow is completely amazing. Not to toot my own horn (TOOT) but I'm teaching her how to WRITE!!!! And READ! And SPELL! ME! I'm doing it!! Amazing!!

Without prompts!

We've also really started getting into math. Athena loves these kits and is really excelling.

Team Umizoomi Math Kits

She's got her numbers and counting down, she's learning patterns and has even started doing some simple addition. These kits really hold her attention and she feels like she's doing "real school."

We've also moved on from the basic preschool games of Nick Jr. to their premium service, Boost.

They have educator created games that teach over 250 skills in math, literacy, and art. She wins awards and certificates that we can hang on the refrigerator. She can watch clips from shows, play virtual dress-up, and decorate her own virtual play room. It keeps progress reports for me and it's totally AD FREE!!! She's learning an incredible amount from this service.

I'm so proud of her and I feel so confident with her starting school next year. She's totally ready :)

Ring the bell! School's in, sucka!!

Schoolin' the Preschooler at the Casa

I'm not ready to send Athena to school. I'm just not. And you know what? I might not be ready to send her next year either. But hey haters, that doesn't mean that she's going to be behind. I'm using some of that crazyweirdhippie homeschooling that runs rampant in my family. And guess what... it's going amazingly!

My first homeschooling purchase was this book:

It's AWESOME. She's mastering shapes, colors, the alphabet, numbers, logic, and is beginning to write. She's 3 years old and is starting to WRITE!

Over the last couple of weeks we've been trying out a bunch of different websites for preschool learning. Our hands down favorite is NickJr's site. Athena navigates the site by herself, switching games and activities whenever she wants. I sit next to her, watch, and interact when needed. She really began recognizing letters and numbers by playing the "Face" games. This site is also where I get awesome printable activities like her leaf book that we made. We even did the free trial of NickJr's premium educational service "Boost", but she's not ready for it yet. If you have a Pre-Ker, Kindergartner, or 1st grader TRY IT! The curriculum is great and the parents' area keeps you super organized and up to date on their progress.

Honorable Mentions go to:
Sprout Online - PBS's Preschool site of games, videos, and activities.
Fisher Price's games and activities site.
Kaboose's Preschool Activity Center

But what about socialization?

Fear not! She's in ballet, she's talked me into letting her start cheerleading, plus we go out on super-cool field trips like:

Farms!

The Zoo!

The pumpkin patch!

We're really having a great time and Athena is doing so well. We'll just have to wait and see how far we go with this and hope for support.