Even though it has been 100° the last few days, summer is almost over! The first official day of fall is just a couple days away, although it won’t feel like fall for months! Welcome to the South y’all!
Anyway, we started our homeschool journey this summer and are finishing up 15 weeks of “school”! I would say at this point my homeschool style goal is a little bit Charlotte Mason and a little bit Classical. I chose to start with Memoria Press Preschool for 2s and 3s. I figured this curriculum was a good place for us to start because Magnolia is 2 and the twins are 3 so they can all start together. The twins have been really interested in everything, but Magnolia comes in and out of attention as she pleases. I let her do what she wants, it’s still early for her but she wants to be included.
Memoria Press curriculum for this age is mostly read aloud books, bible verses, and suggestions for extra activities. Pictured below is the read aloud books for the first 15 weeks; there are a couple review weeks.
In addition to the read aloud books we are very Charlotte Mason inspired. We spend 90% of our days outside and on the farm. We try to incorporate teaching the kids about everything they do and see as we go. This often includes bugs, frogs, animals, and crops.
This summer we also did a lot of cute little activities for the animals around our house. We painted, built, and put up bird houses. We also hung a birds feeder and a hummingbird feeder. The hummingbird feeder is right outside a window on our porch and the kids have really enjoyed watching all the hummingbirds come to visit!
These cute little birdhouse kits are Melissa and Doug and I found them on amazon for pretty cheap. They’re actually really sturdy but were easy to put together. They will require at least a screwdriver but I recommend a drill if you’re doing more than one to speed up the assembly process!
We had a very wet spring and summer this year so we did have to spend several days inside. I purchased a few things for rainy days that have been some of my favorite school things! I found these wood tracing boards on Etsy and I absolutely love them! We have cursive and print alphabet which are double sided with capital and lowercase letters. One board has shapes and patterns. We also have a numbers board which came with cute little wooden balls for counting on one side but my kids are just too little for that choking hazard right now so I put those away immediately.
I have to admit the tracing boards are pretty expensive. They’re solid wood and handmade. They’re pretty heavy and will definitely last forever and with multiple children they’re worth the investment.
On the cheaper side I found these farm themed lacing cards on amazon and they were cheap! These are great for hand eye coordination and fine motor skills! I also got some cheap craft rocks and a paint pen to make these alphabet rocks. We use these for all kinds of things and will continue to use them to put words together as the kids get older.
Another Etsy purchase was this sand tray which the kids love! It has a little insert at the top to hold flash cards so the kids can trace the letters in the sand. This is another great tactile learning tool and building of fine motor skills
We tried to incorporate indoor activities into our read aloud books for rainy days too. While reading The Best Mouse Cookie we made cookies and while reading The Busy Spider we painted spider hands.
We start every day with the children’s prayers and Bible verse recitation. It has amazed me how quickly and easily the kids pick up the prayers and Bible verses!
On top of the structure activities we also make time every day for them to do their own “art” stuff. This usually involves coloring, painting, or cutting. We are at a scissor obsession stage and as silly as it is they really like for me to draw lines on a paper so they can cut along the lines.
I was really nervous to homeschool so I wanted to start early in case I was too overwhelmed, but at this age you definitely don’t need any kind of structure. I’m a very type A person and I do like having the Memoria Press curriculum book to base our weeks on and I look forward to using Memoria Press as they grow. For now it’s a good fit for my style and incorporating other styles in with it!
Raising Rowletts 