Hey people! Looks like I have some future NBA super stars on my hands. We got this basketball court absolutely free from a friend of my brothers. The boys are loving it. They pick teams and everything. Right now Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade, and Lebron James...better known as Lee Brown James... are the names they talk about most. Pretty amazing how much they learned about the sport so far. Enjoy the pics!

Leijah was 6 in April. He's my oldest and because of this he's my little testing buddy. At least when in came to homeschooling. When he was 3 my husband and I searched around for the perfect preschool to enroll him in. Nowhere seemed like the "right" place for my little pride and joy. This is how we discovered homeschooling! We went out and bought pre-k workbooks, crayons, coloring books, etc. Go figure he didn't want anything to do with them. Same thing at 4, and then at 5. Sure he did the work, but it would be constant complaining (and sometimes tears!). He wouldn't get a lot of the material, and i'd compare him to other kids his age wondering why he wasn't reading at 4 or 5. Why blending words was so difficult for him and why he couldn't sit still and concentrate to do phonics, but could sit for hours watching youtube videos about trucks, and reptiles!
I had heard of Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and of the book "Better late than early". See, they believed that children shouldn't beging formal lessons until the age of 8! Charlotte mason also didn't advise lessons until 6 or 7! And I can see why! I know about unschooling.
At 6, Leijah is now becoming interested in reading. But, not in the form of "sit down while mommy teaches you all these facts". Oh no, he has got his own thing going on. We have quite a few Dr Seuss books that he has taken an interest in. He will get a book and read the words he knows, and if he doesn't know word he will ask me. A few pages in and he'll usually catch on to the words he doesn't know (or not). When we are out he'll point out words or ask me what they say. And I am so proud of him! Some may think It's a little late for him to be doing this since alot of kids his age are in grade 1 and reading. But,you know what? He is is ready now. He wasn't ready at 4 or 5, and I feel kind of bad for trying to push it.
I'm learning to follow his lead. We are taking a new path on this homeschool journey. Right now he is loving sharks...still! So i'm finding everything to do with sharks. 3 part cards on the parts of a shark, shark facts, shark books, shark lapbooks. He's also showing an interest in addition and money so i'm going to get him some fake money and play some games with him.  Teach him how to add money, give change, count money, etc.
Lathan is 3 now. The same age I started homeschooling Leijah! I have not bought him 1 workbook. I have a couple file folder games i've printed out for him and we are having fun with those! I'm going to let him lead me in the direction we need to go. When he's ready i'll be waiting ready to go!

This homeschool year (2012/13) we've been using the MCP plaid phonics workbook. Since L1 was 5...he turns 6 in April....I purchased Book A which is on a Grade 1 level. The first few pages focus on letter and sound review. Since L1 pretty much knows all his letters and their sounds we skipped most of these sections. The rest of the book focuses on short/long vowels, sight words, a bit of spelling, and blends. Towards the end of the workbook the student is introduced to Inflectional endding (ed, ing), more reading, and contractions.
I like that the pages are colorful, but not too busy, and with a good amount of practice on each page. Not too many to burn him out, but enough so that he can graspOne thing I really liked it that there is more than just 1 page of work/practice. For example, a lot of workbooks I've looked at and used may only dedicated 1-2 pages on short vowel a, but this workbook devotes a good 12 or so pages!! This gives L1 time to catch on...which he sometimes needs a lot of!
  We are definitely sticking with MCP Plaid Phonics for the next year and the years to come....unless I can find another phonics curriculum that I like as much as this. L1 isn't done with this workbook yet, but when he is we will be moving onto Book B.