Captivating Homeschooling: Your Simple Roadmap to Starting Homeschool Strong

Today I am going to demystify homeschooling for beginners and help you understand where a good place to start may be for your family to start your homeschool strong.

We are going to talk about some homeschool kindergarten curriculums, my favorite homeschool resources for beginners, and what you really don’t need to homeschool well.

You can have a captivating homeschool and here is your simple roadmap to start strong this year!

Know Your Why: Why Are You Starting Homeschool?

I find that more than anything else it is KEY to start with the end in mind. WHY am I homeschooling my kids? We need to have some reasons so we can work backwards and select the style and materials for our homeschool.

Example of My Why for Homeschooling:

I want to have more opportunities to help my kids know and love Jesus.
I want to invest more time in their lives and really know what’s going on in their hearts, so I can better coach them through the highs and lows of growing into an adult.
I want to teach them real life skills and help shape their character.
Ultimately help preserve childhood for them.

How to Know What Style or Method of Homeschool to Choose:

There are many different styles of homeschool. I would encourage you to not get bogged down in all these details.

You will learn as you go and you don’t need to be an expert to get started!

Anytime we start something new there is a temptation to think we need to know everything before we jump in and truthfully that can cause paralysis by analysis.

That is why I love The Peaceful Press as a good place to start.

Jennifer Pepito the creator of the Peaceful Press homeschool materials is a seasoned mom of 7.

Many of her children have gone on to graduate her homeschool and even do well at the next level. And yet she is still homeschooling a few younger children at home.

She blends a little bit of all the homeschool methods + incorporates projects for different learning styles.

I also LOVE the parent guides she provides as well in her curriculum and all the help she gives in setting up your homeschool schedule, rhythms, and realistic homeschool expectations.

My Favorite Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum:

My favorite preschool and kindergarten curriculum is the Peaceful Press Preschool and the Peaceful Press Nourishing Nature Kindergarten Curriculum.

You can use code: PEACEFULYEAR to get 10% off your whole order!

The Pros of Peaceful Press Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum:

Excellent Parent Guide that helps you with the WHOLE lifestyle of homeschooling. Homeschooling is so much more than the workbooks and curriculum you use.
- This curriculum holds your hand to understand peaceful rhythms for your home and how to keep connection with your kids a priority through all the learning.
The book lists are excellent. Building out a home library for my house has been a spine of my homeschool. Knowing that my kids at anytime can go pull a book of the bookshelf and I can know/trust that the material is teaching them and growing their character is HUGE!
- Most of my books have come from the booklists included in the Peaceful Press curriculums we have used over the last 7 years.
There is a mom community you can join for an extra cost that is made up of primarily Peace Press Moms called Restoration Home Community. This community has monthly meetings, a book club, and wealth of wisdom you can ask questions to.

Cons:

Some of the curriculum is digital only and you will need to do your own printing. (I used Humble Heart Press this time for printing and binding since they give a discount to Peaceful Press users).
Sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming to gather all the materials for the projects and all the books for the lessons.
- I try to actually order all the books for the curriculum at the beginning of the year. I know this is a lot! But I have a friend who just reserves them all at the local library at the beginning of each month too.
- Also, I do not do every project and that is totally fine-the curriculum is there to be a resource to my family. So the curriculum serves me and not the other way around.

Favorite Reading Curriculum (I WISH I had started with this one!)

I am not against Good and the Beautiful, but I definitely wish I had started with All About Reading. I bought both in the beginning and the All About Reading box just sat in my closet. I was drawn to the open and go style of the Good and the Beautiful + how pretty is all was. BUT after using it for 2 years and still struggling to teach reading we made the switch.

That’s right, I had to get that box out and admit to myself that I should have started with All About Reading. After using the reading curriculum for a couple of months both of my oldest kids just took off with their reading.

It turns out I personally needed a bit more hand holding when it came to teaching reading. I had to go back and relearn how to teach certain sounds I had taught wrong (so humbling!).

Favorite Hands on Tools for Littles Homeschooling

Pattern Blocks

These pattern blocks are so open ended, my kids love making designs. But you can also get patten block mats for an additional challenge.

Yoto Mini + Headphones

I love so many things about the Yoto, but my favorite is that it gives children the opportunity to listen to music and books on their own without and kind of screen. You place the card in the top and it plays. Move the little knobs for volume and next chapter or song.

Make sure to grab some headphones though so you can give your ears a little break.

And use this link to give you 10% off your first purchase!

P.S. My kids and I’d favorite cards are the JJ Heller pack I Dream of You! It is sooo good!

Sandpaper Letters

Sandpaper letters provide a multi-sensory approach to learning letters. We will practice the sound of the letter while my daughter traces the letter with her finger. I love too that the letters have a dot for where you are supposed to start when writing the letter.

Plastic Sleeve Menus

If you don’t feel like laminating every little thing, these handy menus are a game changer. Just slide the tracing sheet or activity into the menu. Then they can use a dry erase marker to write. So handy!

Watercolor with Me Book + Palette

The Watercolor with Me book is so sweet because the paper of the book is watercolor paper, the animal or flower is drawn in what looks like light pencil, and then there are instructions on the side for what colors to use and the technique that will help you achieve a similar picture to the one given.

One tip is to get a book for you and a book for them. That way you can both enjoy painting together. And this handy pallet has been great!

Other Helpful Books that I Love for Starting Homeschool:

The Call of the Wild and Free

The Call of the Wild + Free helped me break out of the thought that my homeschool should look like a public school classroom. It freed me up to enjoy being the teacher of my kids and doing things MY way. There is such beautiful freedom we have to share our passions with our kids and help our kids follow their interests too.

The Ology

Whew, The Ology is just GOLD! The pictures are lovely and they get kids asking questions. The book covers tough topics in theology, but in a really easy way to understand. I could tell some of the lessons made my kids start to really think about God in a new way.

100 Bible Verses Every Christian Should Know

We use 100 Bible Verses Every Christian Should Know to help us memorize scripture. There are little stories for each verse that even sometimes I would read to myself and then I would share some tidbits with my kids. I love though the introduction he gives in the book on why Bible memory is so important and how to get started.

Hero Tales

Hero Tales Books shares a story about many Christian heroes of the faith. The stories are very short and it is ok if they go over their heads. We have re-read them over and over. The stories bless my heart and help my kids understand the great price many have paid for the gospel to spread around the world.

Handicrafts and Nature Book

These two books are created by Wild and Free. I love the step by step pictures done by moms with their kids. The projects in these books have inspired me so much that I CAN do little projects with my kids. We learn together!

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