The [boring] life of a SAHM

DH is on board! For the most part....He is okay with the idea of it now but a few other things are bothering him. One being that in Oklahoma you don't have to report to the state, you don't have to tell them you're homeschooling and you don't have to have proof that you're homeschooling (although we probably WILL keep records, just in case.) Joshs boss homeschools his children so he talked to him & got a list of all Oklahomas "laws" or "requirements" for homeschooling. Josh just can't wrap his head around it all.

We plan on purchasing Heart of Dakota: Little hands to Heaven for "Pre-K" this August. Until then he is still kind of HS'ing during the Summer. I was referred to "The letter of the week" program but after looking it over decided he just wasn't ready for it. He would have to know his alphabet since the program focuses on the sounds the letters make and not just learning the letters. But, I looked around on the site and came across a letter of the week prepatory course! It's 26 weeks long and teaches shapes, numbers, colors, the alphabet, vocab words and each week has a theme.

We just started on Monday. The theme was "Cows" Here is a little look into what we did/will be doing:

Monday
-Introduce the cow theme. Talk about cows and the sound they make.
-Print off cow color sheets, color cows, cut them out & paste them to the farm sceneTeac
http://kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Cows/ & http://kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Cows/
-Vocabulary word- Calf: baby cow
-Read a poem about cows (the program gives 3 or 4 different ones.)
-Read a book about cows (again-program gives a list of books about cows)
-This wasnt in the program but we decided to drive around looking for cows and when we found some we let him take pictures of them with his camera.:)

Tuesday
-introduce weekly shape: SQUARE
-gather 3-5 square objects, discuss them with child
-walk through your home looking for squares (Braxton loved doing this! He would get so excited when he would find one!)
-cut squares out of playdough or cookie dough...bake the cookies!
-put a square on your learning poster (pic coming on Friday!)

Wednesday
-Give child a printout of the letter A to color
-Teach your child to trace the letter A using his finger. You can trace in pudding, finger paint or a shallow tray filled with rice, beans, etc.
-Point out the letter A in signs, cereal boxes, etc
-Post the letter A on your learning poster.

Thursday
-Show your child 1 object to count, or eat 1 cracker, 1 cheerio, etc
-Show your child the written symbol (numeral) for 1 and put it on your poster.
-Show matching index card for the number 1 to child.
-Draw 1 square on a piece of paper & count it with your child.
-Walk around the house counting 1 of many different objects

Friday
Nursery Rhyme: Hey diddle diddle
-Build a cow with squares. You will need some white and black paper. Cut out one 4" square of white for the body, one 2" square of white for the head, about nine 1" squares of white to make the legs and tail, three or four 1" squares of black for the cows spots, and three or more 1/2" squares for the eye, ears, etc. in black. Help your child glue the cow together on another sheet of paper (of a different color).

*Each day continue to read books about cows.


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It's been a lot of fun so far & Braxton seems to enjoy it. Hopefully by the end of the summer he will know 1-20, all his shapes, colors, and be able to recognize the letters of the alphabet. He already knows MOST of his colors, and several "simple" shapes, but this program teaches the more difficult ones as well. I think every Friday I will post a pic of his learning poster (which he is SOOO proud of! He has to show it to anyone that comes over!)


I'm very happy with the decision I've made but I'm starting to get tons of negative feedback. Basically no one in my family think I am "smart enough" to do it, or think that homeschooling means the kids will get no socialization. (which is further from the truth) I even had someone tell me the other day that homeschooled children aren't as smart as kids that go to a public school. (Which also isn't true, HS children can be just as smart if not smarter.)

I kind of knew I was going to get a lot of debate/heat over this but I didn't expect it so bad from my family. Then again they have questioned pretty much every choice I have made (cloth diapering, babyled weaning, etc) but once they saw how easy & AWESOME they both were they loved it! Hoping I can prove them wrong this time too!

Daddy was playing peek a boo with her:)

She's trying to pull up on EVERTHING! She gets to her knees but isn't quite strong enough to pull herself to her feet.

Playing in her new playroom (transformed Braxtons room to the toy room since his bed is in our room.)

Crawling

Okay all you moms of girls, here is the time to stock up on babylegs. We LOVE them around here so I'm always watching out for their sales. There are several going on right now.

SUPERSOFT BABYLEGS (Addie doesnt have any but I've ordered them as gifts & they are sooo soft, omg!)
They are on sale for $5 each right now. Use code: SUPERSOFT for buy one get one. This applies to all of them in your cart. I just got SIX pairs for $15!!! They are originally $15 a pair so its six for the price of one!

BABYSOCKS:
Get a two pack for $5. (Normally $10)

CLEARANCE:
Make sure to check out their sale items for babylegs at $5 a pair!

MEMORIAL DAY SALE:
Save $10 off $40 CODE: TEN
Save $25 off $75 CODE: 20FIVE
Save $40 off $100 CODE: FORTY

15% OFF: SWEET


I don't think you can combine promo codes, but you could always try! I know nothing worked with the supersoft promo code but I didn't try combining codes with the others. Surely with all these codes you can find something you like at a great price!

Happy shopping!

http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac259/khills7/
What I've been working on lately.

Adding more photos tomorrow of things I've been sewing.

I've been thinking about homeschooling for quite awhile. I think Public schools are just getting worse and worse each year. DH doesn't like the idea of homeschool & has his doubts about how I will manage it. I gave in for awhile and filled out an application for the 3 year old program the school offers.

However, tragic stories about public schools keep popping up on the news and its pretty hard to say "Oh, that wouldn't happen to my child, it will be okay." It could happen to anyone. This one story in particular is what REALLY made me change me mind, it just pushed me over the edge:

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-news-suicide-due-to-bullying,0,2703559.story

Devastating.

So I am now looking into homeschooling. I found a great Christian based homeschool curriculum called Heart of Dakota. They have a 3-4 year old curriculum for about $40 so I think I will try it out. It goes all the way up to age 15 I believe.

I'll let you know how it goes (that is if I can talk DH into it!)

I love it!♥