Free Phonics Help & Printable Workbook

Teaching phonics does not have to mean an investment in expensive programs like Hooked on Phonics or A Beka phonics. Now I love A Beka phonics and I have been using it for years for each of my children. The initial investment has been well worth my money as I continue to use it year after year with my six children. However, if I had not already made this investment you would find me using a wonderful free website found at Starfall.

This program allows children to use basic computer skills (operating a mouse) to learn the letters of the alphabet, play some matching games, and teach them the phonetic sound. There is also a great workbook in two different handwriting fonts you can download to accompany this learning. (you will need adobe acrobat) Even if you are not on a tight budget I would seriously check this out.

Handwriting Worksheet Generators

Today I’ve spent the day trying to reprioritize my schedule and goals. It always happens during the year that shifts in the books we are using and in chores and other routines ends up throwing us off our daily schedule which makes for just more than a little bit of chaos in the house.

After another morning of pandamonious schooling –the toddler being into everything, nursing the baby, answering questions on three different subjects going on at the time and the five year old whining that he was bored — I realized my schedule had been undermined and compromised. During lunch we had a board meeting pointing out the haphazard way our days were going and I pointed us all back to the schedule of peace and happy days.

This required me to be more diligent in finding preschool worksheets for my five year old. Since part of his boredom is waiting on his teacher to create worksheets for him (like writing his name) then I decided I need to find something to make that tedious task much more enjoyable. After doing a search and trying out several handwriting worksheet generators I settled on this one from Softschools.com as producing the most professional worksheet with multiple lines, ability to choose font size, page orientation, and more.

Beginning Homeschooling from Preschool

Beginning homeschooling in Missouri is such an easy task.  Although the law says we “may” send in a letter of intent it is not necessary.  I personally have never registered with the superintendent or principal of the public school system.  In this small rural community most people who know me know that I homeschool.  However, if you live in a heavily populated neighborhood with people that you don’t know it may be in your best interest to notify the superintendent of the school district your child would be attending that you will be homeschooling as this will help avoid truancy inspections.

Probably the biggest obstacle faced by any parent who is going to home school is the choice of curriculum to use.  In the beginning I taught my children how to read using the A Beka phonics program.  Once I learned the format to teaching phonics I left A Beka behind and now use a very similar format found in a MUCH cheaper book called Phonics Pathways.  For phonics practice I am now using Getting Ready to Explode the Code and Explode the Code for my two younger sons.  They have become my favorite phonics workbooks for content, ease of use,  and minimal preparation which is an important quality to me.

Not being very confident of my own math skills I wanted to find a curriculum that would be easy for me to use (and didn’t make me look too stupid)  After two to three years using various math curriculum my children and I were frustrated.  The books were either too advance or too simplistic.  If I wasn’t in tears my children were.  Then I stumbled upon Math U See’s website.   I got really excited.  He had a DVD that taught the lesson for that week so that I could either watch it and then teach the children or we could watch the video together.  The price was affordable – not much more than the expensive curriculum I had been buying PLUS this DVD!!! So, I bought it and we tried it and we LOVED IT!!!  We went from tears to happiness and I’ve consistently bought Math U See every year since and plan to continue doing so.  Not only have the children now enjoyed math but I have found new interest in an area I thought dull.  My daughter who cried at the sight of numbers know says Math is her favorite subject.  Hands down Math U See has my vote. www.mathusee.com 

I hope that this insight into what we have found to work for us be useful and helpful information.  When I’m looking for curriculum I’m looking for cost effectiveness, proficiency, and ease of preparation.  I think most of us could say the same.