School Starts Monday!

The schools in the area we live in start on Monday, August 22nd.  A couple of our friends start kindergarten this year.  And, for the first time, my daughter has asked if she'll be going to the big schools like they are, when she goes to school.  Obviously my talks with her about homeschooling haven't really sunk in. Good to know, so we can continue the conversation about it.
For the past many many months, I've been researching curriculum for when we do start Kindergarten. I've finally decided - we will do My Father's World.  I was able to look through a binder of student kindergarten work at the homeschool convention I went to earlier in the summer.  LOVE IT!  I don't know if we'll keep that curriculum going, after kinder, but I'm excited to try it out. 
After I made that decision, I did a lot of researching online for preschool worksheets and learning how to make lapbooks, as you can see in the previous blogpost.  That moved onto some worksheet packets I downloaded from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/.  I put each themed packet into envelopes:

After I got all of these organized, I tried to figure out how best to make a lesson plan.  My brain pretty much froze, until I stumbled across http://www.preschoolpalace.org/.  That got me over my planning block, and I was able to use the curriculum on this website to help with the lesson plan for us.  I'll be using some of the things from preschool palace as well as workbooks we already have, worksheets I've printed, and the worksheet packets I organized into those envelopes.  Also, being a big reader, making our lessons very literature driven and literature rich, I am using the Grade 0 reading list from http://www.amblesideonline.org/.  We went to the library, today, and came home with books to start our school year off, based on the ambleside list:

While we were at the library, Izzy picked out her bedtime storybooks.  Can you tell her favorite topic, still?

Now, I do realize that as ambitious as I feel about what we'll accomplish with preschool work, the best thing for Izzy's age is learning through play.  So there is no pressure for her, and I'll keep the pressure on myself to a minimum.  I want learning to be a fun and life-long pursuit for my sweet girl!

'Til Later!