Introduction

I thought this might be a fun thing for me to do, so I signed up.

First I'll introduce us. I am a stay at home mom of 3. I have a daughter, who is currently doing 2nd grade Abeka, and Math-U-See Beta. I have twin boys, who are too young to do "school," but we have preschool every day. That means I read a story to them, and then we do something else - lace up cards, Alphabet Lotto, cutting, coloring, playing trains, building things with blocks, or just wrestling on the floor.

A little about my blog name "School 4 Us." When our daughter was younger, we took her to Toys 'R Us to pick out her bike for her birthday. Well, instead of calling it "Toys 'R Us" she called it "Toys For Us" and it stuck.

I've been homeschooling my daughter since kindergarten now. We've always used Abeka. I think it is a great program. It helped me teach her to read. I had tried "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," got to lesson 42 or so and gave up. She wasn't getting it. The problem was, I didn't know the rules I was teaching her. I don't remember ever learning any phonics rules, but I do remember being able to read the things in my preschool room when I was 4, and being able to read the instructions on worksheets in kindergarten. Abeka was great as it taught me what rules I was using to read, and it helped me teach them to my daughter. She's now reading just fine.

My daughter is a very active girl. To teach her the blends and special sounds, we would go outside and she would swing while we practiced them. It was unconventional, but it worked. That may have also been a problem with 100 Easy Lessons - she had to sit still next to me. Now, she can sit still, but back then she was just a bit too wiggly.

I picked Math-U-See based on Cathy Duffy's recommendations in her book. It is a good fit for my daughter. We did have to spend last fall just memorizing her basic addition and subtraction facts, but it was worth it. I'm very glad we did, as the new concepts that have come up this year have been easy for her.

In spite of all this, I have decided not to stick with Abeka for next year (fall 2008). It is too much workbook. My dd needs more hands on and "fun" for her to enjoy school. So, we're switching to My Father's World this fall. We're going to do Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC). They had a sale last fall, so I've already bought the Deluxe package, and am looking forward to starting. I think it will be a great fit for us. I'm also hoping the boys will join in for the hands on things. But, I'm not going to force them.