Monday, August 18, 2014

Second Grade

Last week was our first official week of school. My little guy is a 2nd grader. I think Homeschooling makes the time feel more appropriate and less like a whirlwind. I don't say "Where does the time go?", because I know where it went. I have the lesson planners to prove it. :)

I am so grateful for all the resources I have found and won for homeschooling. I won $150 to All About Learning, which I used to buy the All About Spelling curriculum 2-4. I won several virtual books and resources including memberships to ShillerMath and AMT. I recently won a Bible Bookcase and I can't wait to receive it. I also won curriculum from Knowledge Quest, two great books from YWAM Publishing, and a prize package from Philosophy Adventure. There were other things, but I can't remember them all. That sounds terrible, but it's not because I'm swimming in prizes. I am just so shocked when I win and then I forget to keep track of everything. I'll update if I remember anything else. I'm also going to try and do reviews for everything as well.

This is our first year of doing our own thing, so to speak. For K-1 we used K12 online school. It was nice to have everything provided, for free, but it wasn't a good fit for us. We felt so rushed and I never felt like DS was able to grasp everything before we had to move on. In contrast, our first week this year  has been such a relief. We move at DS's pace and focus on things he's genuinely interested in. He doesn't beg to not do school. He enjoys it.

Outside of the resources I've won I have amassed a large amount of worksheets and such from online sources. I follow lots of homeschooling blogs and I live on Pinterest. You would be amazed at how many resources you can find online, free! Some of my favorite sites and blogs are:

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teacher's Notebook

Hip Homeschool Moms

Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Free Homeschool Deals

Homeschool Giveaways and Freebies


These are just a couple of the many resources I take advantage of. I have also found good deals from Amazon, local stores, an area Teacher store, and even thrift stores.

Overall I am so excited about this school year. I am praying that God will equip me with the knowledge to teach and instill in my son a desire and capability to learn.