Notes from My First Year Homeschooling

Disclaimer: this post contains an affiliate link with Christian Book Distributing. I only give my honest opinion.

Entering into William’s Kindergarten year I was terrified. Teaching a child to read seemed so daunting. I spent a lot of time researching which curriculum I would choose. I spoke to every homeschooling momma I knew and sought my college teacher’s wisdom on it, too. There were two things I was sure of, though: I wanted to do Phonics and cursive.

In the end I chose <a href="http:// Abeka Kindergarten Kit ” target=”_blank”>Abeka Kindergarten Cursive Kit and I am so glad I did. I loved their lesson plans, visuals, game ideas, work books, flash cards, etc. Everything about this kit was just perfect. It definitely made my first year of homeschooling a little less scary. A friend of mine had suggested to me that we introduce cursive in kindergarten. I had never heard of that before but trusted her and went for it. It’s so awesome to see my five year old reading and writing in both print and cursive. I am so glad we went that route and I would highly suggest it to anyone else! This curriculum does it in such a way that it’s not overwhelming at all and William picked it up so easily!

Finding a schedule that worked for William and I was a little tricky. We started out with a typical schedule: breakfast, get dressed, devotions, schoolwork. We were done by 11 or so. This was okay for a couple days…maybe even weeks. But the one year old brought that to a loud halt. I couldn’t take her standing next to me crying all morning and we needed to make a change. We switched to afternoons. I put the girls down for their nap and William and I had at least two hours each afternoon to do school work in a quiet environment. This was key to his success. As much as it felt wrong to not be doing schoolwork first thing in the morning I am so glad we made the switch. Next year, however, the one year old will be two years old and we will attempt an A.M. schedule for homeschooling.

Realizing and accepting that there were going to be good days and bad days made a big difference in our year as well. Some days we’d be on fire and just blaze through the work. Other days we’d struggle to get through one lesson. On those day we closed the books and worked on mazes or played checkers. Accepting bad days and using the good days to make up for them was something I had to learn.

Pinterest has been an amazing resource for this homeschooling mom. I am amazed how many women put time into developing curriculum, visuals, charts, etc for homeschooling and give them away for free! Not only that but there are a ton of homeschooling moms who blog about products they love, free programs to get involved in, tips and tricks for homeschooling, etc. If you are homeschooling
or plan to homeschool start following some of these blogs! And pin, pin, pin! There’s nothing wrong with looking ahead. You can head over to a couple of my boards to get you started on some awesome ideas: Homeschool Board, Music Class, Art Class, Science Class. And be sure to follow me to be constantly seeing homeschooling pins in your feed!

One of my favorite blogs about homeschooling is Cornerstone Confessions. She actually blogs about a lot more than just homeschooling but I have found her site to be an excellent resource for me. And when I ask questions she answers and really helps me out! The Homeschool Village is also a great place to check out!

Okay, ladies, I want to hear from you! I know many of you have homeschooled or have been homeschooled. Tell me what you know! What tips, what tricks would you share with other women? What encouragement might a newbie need? What warnings need to be heard? Share with us here!