Just because I am no longer tying myself down to the public school calendar and curriculum guides, it does not mean I will no longer be planning! Without a plan, you can’t go anywhere. Plus, I love planning! I love looking at where we are now, and making plans for the future!

Our new school year will begin after the 4th of July and I have a plan for what I would like for us to do from now until the end of June.

Little Bug

Little Bug’s last day of school is mid-May and we do not have plans for her to return next year. This school has served it’s purpose in our family this semester and has been a wonderful experience for Little Bug. Her going to school 3 days a week is just not what we visioned our homeschool to be. It is nothing against the school at all. This school is a fabulous option for homeschool families and the environment there is just wonderful.

Bob Jones Reading/Phonics – Little Bug will continue working through this with her school. She does not like the repetitious worksheets at all and I think we will both be glad to be finished with this curriculum in May!

BOB Books + printables – Little Bug is loving the first set of Bob Books. She can read the books fluently without having to sound words out. She really needed an experience like this. I was beginning to see some frustration arise in her with the readers that were being sent home from school. I stopped putting so much emphasize on her reading those each week and instead pulled out the first set of Bob Books. The Bob Books built back her confidence in reading. I found wonderful, hands-on activities for her to do with the Bob Books and Little Bug has enjoyed doing them! We will continue working through the Bob Book sets this summer!

Horizon’s Math K, Book 2 – Little Bug has completed the first book and we are moving into the second book now! We will continue working through the lessons this summer, with absolutely no pressure to finish Book 2 by the beginning of Little Bug’s 1st grade year. So what if she starts 1st grade finishing up her Kindergarten math?! I was trying to find a way to get it all done, but then after reading this, I realized I was putting unnecessary pressure on myself simply because I wanted everything to fit together nicely by her starting 1st grade with 1st grade math. Silly. Just silliness. When I realized it really was okay to finish Kinder math in 1st grade it was so liberating! So we will keep plugging along with Kinder math until we finish it – and then move to the 1st grade curriculum probably sometime in late Fall.

Get Ready for the Code Book A – Little Bug found these primer books for The Explode the Code series and asked to do them, so she is working through Book A now. If she wants to continue with Books B & C I won’t stop her, but if she wants to stop after A I am okay with that too. In July I do plan to start her on Book 1.

Read Alouds – I am sure these will pick back up once she is not in her school because we will have more time! It’s been hard to keep up with Read Alouds while she is in school 3 days a week. Read Alouds are something we both enjoy immensely!

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is about 1/3 of the way through with Ready-Made Preschool Level 1. We will keep working through it this summer. By the end of June we will have completed all but about 6 lessons which I am saving to do with her next Fall/Winter because they have to do with Autumn, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will take a week in August, September, October, November, December and January to do a RMPK lesson instead of her core curriculum for next year.

- Elaine