Kindergarten! Official Homeschool Begins!!!

So! We've decided to officially homeschool! My daughter is now five years old and we've been trial homeschooling/living without sending her to daycare or preschool. With that, I've got no real clue what I'm doing. I have my degrees, I've taken classes, but I've never officially schooled my own child.

I haven't an idea whether I will take grades or not (my state does not require this). I'm not certain if I will test or not. I see the pros and cons of many different homeschooling styles. What I am consistently told by more experienced homeschool families is that you absolutely have to trust the process and be okay with trial and error. If something doesn't work, find something else. Rinse and Repeat that process per year per child. I'm an enneagram type 1 and an INFJ so I understand that to succeed in homeschooling I need to be okay with the above mentioned, however, naturally, I want to get it right. I don't want to mess this thing up. This is the education and foundation for thought for my children. This is serious. Okay, I'm going to go off the ledge if I keep talking like that.

Here's my plan for school year K (2019-20);

1. Focus on reading skills

My daughter did "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" last year for pre-k! She did great and can sound out most words. This year we'll focus on a few tricky phonics and a few sight words to help with reading speed. We'll also be focusing on reading comprehension.

2. Focus on math skills 

Math is not my strong suit. I've got no clue where to begin other than basic counting and skip counting. She can count 1-20 now and identify those numbers. I'd like for her to be able to count to 100 by 1s, 2s, and 10s. I purchased a math curriculum from Crafty Classroom for this. I refuse to go at math alone. Know thyself and know thy limitations.

3. Handwriting

We will continue to work on handwriting. She can write to the appropriate age/grade level at this point. We will try to continue to progress and work on handwriting and spelling. I've got a nice handwriting book that will help boost confidence in writing words and sentences. At the end of the school year, I'd like for her to be able to write a paragraph about a simple topic.

4. Science & History 

While these are not required subjects to teach in my state, I think five is an appropriate age to begin to learn about history and the sciences. She's into rocks so we might begin with earth sciences even though everything in me is pointing to start with anatomy. Maybe we'll cover both in the year, who knows. I guess that's the beauty of homeschooling.

Bonus Subject: ART! 

My daughter is an artist! She did not get that from me, but rather I think from my older sibling and maybe even her father. She's great with color palettes, drawing, and getting her emotions down on paper. Art is her happy place and I fully intend to foster that and develop her skills!

So there's my rough estimation of our Kindergarten school year. I'm not really wanting to recreate public school at home. I'm wanting to make learning natural whilst still making sure that there is some form of structure. Hopefully, it goes well! I hope to keep a weekly journal of how things are going so that it's much easier to go back and modify bits that just need tweaking.

I'm thankful to have a nice group of online friends who homeschool and are years ahead of me in experience. It's encouraging to see someone else is doing it. I always think okay if they can do it (and they're not rich paying hundreds and thousands for curriculums, then I can do it too!).  To any fellow newbies, Bezrat HaShem (with the help of HaShem) we got this!