My Little Boy is Reading!! WooHoo!

Talk about exhilarating! When you hear your child reading for the first time, it's like nothing else. Especially when you know that you're the one who taught him. It has to be one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.

Not to mention his excitement. He's reading the Biscuit series of books and almost completely without any help. There are only a couple words in each book he gets stuck on, but other than that, he's on fire! He's also reading very well from his Bible Reader that accompanies My Father's World first grade curriculum. I don't know what other first graders are doing, but my husband and I both agree that he's reading at a more advanced level that we did at 6. Maybe the expectations are just higher these days? I don't know, don't care, I'm just thrilled!

That brings about another important issue I'd like to address. My Father's World gets two thumbs up for it's reading program. I wish it had more teachings on social studies and geography, but the reading program is wonderful! I didn't fully appreciate it until we started going through the lessons and realized that there was a reason for everything they were having my son do. The lessons have been carefully thought out and are really on the mark. So far, I would definitely recommend MFW to anyone teaching first grade. You might just want to supplement with other books to complete the curriculum, in the areas I mentioned before, but that's not such a bad thing anyway. It's actually kinda fun to construct some of your own lessons from other sources.

Ok, more later!

My Father's World Curriculum it is!

After many many months of research and a trip to a local homeschooling convention, I finally made the decision to go with My Father's World for my first grader.

As a Christian home schooler I couldn't escape the wonder and excitement of how this curriculum incorporates so much Bible knowledge, even to the extent that by the end of the school year my son will have created his own Bible! Filled with his own artwork and verses or story lines that he's written in his own words, it will truly be a wonderful keepsake that he'll no doubt treasure in future years... we might have to arm wrestle when he's grown over who gets the rights to it though! lol

There are so many excellent home schooling curriculums out there, but considering this isn't as structured as some and isn't worksheet heavy like A Beka (my son isn't ready for that), I think this is a wonderful choice.

That said, I am supplementing this curriculum with a few workbooks from Hooked on Phonics. This wonderful series actually includes more than books on phonics, but also math, which are among my son's favorite workbooks. He actually enjoys math thanks to Hooked on Math!

I'll also continue to incorporate worksheets I find online, computer games and lessons, and reading from a variety of books we continue to accumulate including the wonderful Bob Books that are perfect for early readers.

Daddy will play science teacher, so can't wait to see what he comes up with for the kiddos. Should be pretty spectacular though. He loves to teach and is very excited to share the world of science with his kids. ; )

So, according to UPS tracking, we'll be receiving our curriculum on Tuesday. In the meantime we're working through multiple workbooks we've purchased at Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and a school supply store. I'll keep you posted on the My Father's World experience!