Home Schooling: Journeying Through the First Year

Home schooling is legal in all fifty states. However, the legal requirements for homeschooling may vary.

In my opinion, it is vital, regardless of the state you live in, to become a member of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).

To view the legal requirements for your state, click here, and on the left of the home page, click on "in your state." From there you should be able to find a link to the legal requirements for homeschooling in your state.

Be aware that the website carries a disclaimer because the home school requirements are ever-changing and the website may not have updated the latest changes when you visit. In order to get the most current legal requirements, you can usually find them by searching on your state's official website.

In Arizona, there are five different topics that we are required to study while homeschooling: Reading, Grammar, Math, Social Studies and Science. Below, I have listed what Abbie has learned in each category at age five. Even though home schooling does not legally have to start until she turns six, we have started early because she is not only eager to learn, she has been learning since the day she was born.

Reading

Abbie has learned to read and write the alphabet, both lower case and upper case, sound out letters and letter combinations (phonics), write her name and easy words, has read several books all by herself (now without any help from Mom), icluding In A People House by Theo. LeSieg, Go Dog Go, by P.D. Eastman, and The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. She frequently asks me how to spell her favorite words so that she can write them in a letter to her sister (who is away at college) or type them on her computer when playing learning games. (Yes, she has her own computer. Don't worry, it is password protected, filtered against inappropriate sites, and I sit directly behind her while she uses it.)

Grammar

Abbie uses a workbook that we found for understanding sentence structure and other grammatical uses for words. She is almost through with it, so I will be removing some of the learning videos on our book store shelves and some online resources to progress her learning when she is through with the workbook.

Math

Abbie can count to 100, add and subtract using her fingers, and is learning fractions using measuring utensils in the kitchen. She watches her Dad make bread and helps me make simple meals and treats like chocolate chip cookies. She can tell time using a digital clock, and is learning to tell time using the hands on a traditional clock as well.

Science

Abbie has several pets that she takes care of with me: two dogs, a cat, and five fish. We have learned how to take care of them via books and the internet.

In the summer of 2008, we ordered five Painted Lady caterpillars and watched them build cocoons and hatch into beautiful butterflies. While we were waiting for them to hatch, we played The Butterfly Game, a board game that has cards telling all about many of the common butterflies of North America. We have recently played this game again to refresh our memories. Abbie knows the names of some of those butterflies by heart, and can spot them in the wild when we go hiking.

In the beginning of 2009, Abbie found a wolf spider that grew to be about one and a half to two inches wide. She named it Flower. Abbie loves animals and every creeping thing. I do too, so I'm enjoying everything right along with her, even the spider. We got really good at catching flies for food. (No, we didn't touch them. We used a cup with a lid.) Anyway, we were able to watch the spider catch the flies and eat them. Later, we found a female and put them together. She made an egg sac and carried it under her abdomen, but the babies never hatched because she kept her abdomen in the water hole in the bug habitat and drowned them. We found out that it is normal for Wolf Spiders to carry their egg sacks with them under their abdomens until the babies hatch and then she carries the babies on her back until the babies spin a web and fly away to wander on their own. (I was grateful for the bug habitat, which prevented escape.)

Abbie is always fascinated with science, asking: "Why do we have bones?" or: "What kind of bird is that?" and then she will say, "Let's look it up on the internet!" So, we look it up and learn something new. We own several science videos that Abbie watches with intensity, memorizing the things she learns. One of her favorites is about the anatomy of the horse. I think she has it all memorized. She also studies equine science by playing a board game with me called Herd Your Horses, which teaches about breeds, breed types, colors, color families, markings, brands, ranch names, and other tidbits, both for wild and domestic horses. (She also learns sportsmanship and practices her reading skills while playing this game.) This kind of learning doesn't seem like learning because it's especially fun.

While we were feeding the spider, we learned how to identify several insects and their names, including the Crane (Daddy Long Legs). Did you know that the Crane Fly does not eat? It lives to breed and then dies! Many people are afraid that they bite like mosquitoes, but they don't. They are completely harmless. Abbie caught one with her bare hands one day in order to feed to the spider. She said it tickled.

We are studying birds. The black birds in our backyard are called Common Grackles. The males have a purple and green iridescent sheen. The females are brown and iridescent. We also have Mourning, Inca, and Speckled Doves that visit the backyard frequently. We set up a hummingbird feeder outside the dining room window to watch the Anna hummingbirds. These are so territorial that only one at a time dares to visit the feeder. They will even kill each other over space. In the town's corn fields are red-wing blackbirds. One of our favorite birds is building a nest under the eaves of the house in the garden... the common house finch. The female is slightly different shades of brown or gray. But the male is red on his head and chest and just between the wings above his tail. He is beautiful to watch, and he sings a cheerful song to his mate just outside our open window at breakfast time.

We are still waiting for Abbie's ants to arrive for the ant farm, but in the meantime, we have been given baby chicks... we got them on Good Friday, which was the same day that we went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum for Plants of the Bible tour with our home school group. I got photos of every tree and plant we were shown, and during our picnic lunch there, we saw a Cardinal and got photos of that bird also. We will soon be looking up Cardinals on the internet, no doubt, but now we can identify a Cardinal's call. Abbie thinks it is "just beautiful!"

Click here to read about our latest field trip to Boyce Thompson Arboretum for a Plants of the Bible tour.

Without a doubt, science is Abbie's favorite subject, and more specifically, animals.

Social Studies

Abbie also loves to watch movies and documentaries. I will sit down with her and we will discuss them when they are over, especially her favorite parts. Videos are a great way to learn about history, culture, and places far and near. Right now, we are learning about all fifty of these United States. We are discovering what each is known for, and Abbie has memorized all fifty states in alphabetical order through song. The song is played in a video below.

One of the topics we cover that qualifies as social studies is Biblical studies, which her father and I have done a lot of already. The Bible serves as a way to learn about the Jewish and Christian faiths, ancient cultures, history, archaeology, and tradition, and the prinicples that the founding fathers of America based the Constitution and our governing system of checks and balances upon.

Abbie has a weekly memory verse and is learning wise life lessons found in the Proverbs, such as how hard ants work and how they store up enough food in the summer that they have enough to last all winter long. The movie, A Bug's Life, has aided me in teaching this lesson as well.

1. Learn the months of the year song above. (In progress.)
2. Learn to swim. (In progress.)
3. Improve reading and writing skills. (In progress.)
4. Decide on a Math curriculum for 1st grade. Considering Saxon.
5. Decide on a Social Studies curriculum for 1st grade.
6. Learn books of the Bible song from 16v Great Bible Songs album.
7. Learn the Gospel Alphabet by Samaritan's Purse. (In progress.)
8. Join a local 4-H or equine program.
9. Renew Zoo Pass or sign up for an age-appropriate zoo program.
10. Zero in on Abbie's learning style by reading about it in 100.
11. Purchase an electronic or upright piano for lessons.
12. Give Abbie and the home-school co-op group tennis lessons. (In the fall.)