Our Homeschool Kindergarten Curriculum Choices

We are getting ready to start Kindergarten for our oldest son and we are so excited for this journey.  We started Seton's Pre-Kindergarten program at the end of this past summer when our son was 4 1/2 years old and he FLEW threw it.  I was apprehensive if I should continue to move forward to Kindergarten or find more supplemental preschool material.  After talking to experienced homeschool parents, looking at lots of different materials and prayer we decided it is best for us to move ahead.  I think our son is definitely ready and I like that we have the option to slow down and go more in depth when we need to.  We have taken a nice long break from formal homeschooling between Thanksgiving and Advent/Christmas and are ready to go again this January!

Here are our curriculum choices for Kindergarten:

First of all we, are enrolling in Seton Home Study School and using their curriculum choices as our core material.  I love that because we enroll that we also get a copy of their lesson plans.  Since I am new to homeschooling I enjoy having the lesson plans as a guide as well as the services that Seton provides when I have questions about any of the curriculum.  We are also adding some of our own choices with our Daily Circle Time, Art, Music, Physical Education, Geography/History and a few extras with Phonics/Reading. 

Seton gives you two years, when enrolled, to complete kindergarten.  I am not sure how long it will take us to finish the kindergarten curriculum, as our son amazed me at how quickly he picked up the pre-kindergarten curriculum.  I am giving us a lot of flexibility and for now saying that I want to make sure we finish by May of 2016 (although I have a feeling it will be a lot sooner than that!)  Our son just turned 5 years old at the end of December so this NEXT calendar school year will be the first year that we are reporting to the state that we are homeschooling.  We are blessed to have an amazing space in our home to homeschool and are excited to learn together!

Seton's Kindergarten Curriculum

• Daily Circle Time
• Calendar (Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Weather, Seasons)
• Decade of the Rosary
• Saint of the Day
• Morning Offering Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance

• Handwriting
• Kindergarten Handwriting for Young Catholics (Seton)

• Mathematics
• Math K For Young Catholics (Seton)
• 123 Coloring Book (Seton)

• Art:
• Art Masterpieces: A Liturgical Collection
• Catholic Icing Catholic ABC Crafts

• Music/Theater
• Songs of Praise (Seton)
• Making Music Praying Twice
• Violin Lessons
• Rose Children's Theater Membership (Children's Play Once a Month)

• Phonics/Reading
• Kindergarten Phonics for Young Catholics Vol. 1 (Seton)
• Kindergarten Phonics for Young Catholics Vol. 2 (Seton)
• Everywhere we Go (Seton)
• ABC Coloring Book (Seton)
• Daily Read- Aloud Time (about 20 minutes)
• How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• Little Stories for Little Folks: Catholic Phonics Readers
• Leap Frog Workbooks and Sight Word Flashcards

• Physical Education
• Tae-Kwon- Do (Once a week at the Homeschool Learning Center)
• Membership to Go Gym (An Indoor community gym with extra classes if we want)
• Soccer (6 weeks this spring at our Parish Church)
• Swimming Lessons

• Science
• Kindergarten Science for Young Catholics (Seton)
• Magic School Bus Books and Experiments
• Fontenelle Forest Membership (Nature Hikes and Learning)

• Religion
• Kindergarten Catechism for Young Catholics (Seton)
• My Jesus and I (Seton)
• Catholic Coloring Books (Seton)
• Leading Little Ones to Mary (Seton)
• St Joseph Picture Books (Seton)
• Saint Mail
• Sunday School at our Parish Church

• Geography/History:
• Little Passports
• Saints for Young Readers for Every Day
• GeoSafari Talking Globe Jr

Celebrating the Epiphany

We celebrated the end of the 12 Days of Christmas and the Epiphany on January 6th, which also happens to be my birthday.  My awesome husband took the day off work so we could hang out as a family and he got up with the boys when they woke up at the crack of dawn so that I could sleep in (which is the most amazing birthday gift!)  I then got up and was able to read the daily readings and daily devotion from Blessed Is She.  Have you signed up for their daily devotions yet at Blessedisshe.net?  If not, I recommend doing so as it is a FANTASTIC resource to bring you closer to God's word and deepen your prayer life.

 

I commonly feel that God is speaking to me through his words in the Bible and today was one of those days!  In today's Gospel Mark 6:34-44 it is the story of the loaves and fishes.  But, before we get to the main part of the Gospel Jesus's disciples came to him and said "This is a lonely place, and the hour is now late".   It is often in that lonely dark place in our lives here in the world today, just like the disciples,  Yet, if we watch and wait, Jesus comes to us to help us out of our despair and help us see the good news!  God has recently asked our family to carry a pretty big cross, which I will explain when I can find the right words.  For now, I ask for you to please pray for our family. 

 

Even with the cross that we are carrying we still had a nice celebration of the Epiphany and my birthday together as a family.  We were able to bless our home with the Epiphany House Blessing and our blessed chalk from our priest with my husband leading the prayers.  I love this simple action and knowing that all are blessed who enter our home.  We will leave the marking on our front door until Pentecost which will be on May 24th this year.

 

 

We put up the last of our 12 days of Christmas ornaments and brought all of our wise men to join Jesus, Mary and Joseph at the Nativity scenes.  We talked about the long, hard journey that the wise men must have had, but that they wanted to be able to see and honor Jesus.  Our children love all of the different nativity scenes that we have around our home and look at them or play with them often throughout the days.

 

Then our children wanted to read their books about the Epiphany again as they have become some of their favorite from our Advent/Christmas list.  The Last Straw was probably one of our very favorites from the entire list and our boys almost have it memorized.  Their favorite part is the sweet illustration at the end where the camel falls to his knees out of exhaustion from his long hard journey and the wise men follow suit.  Then little Baby Jesus reaches out his hand to the camel and touches him and takes all of his pain away!  It is so comforting to know God's healing power is able to take away our pain.

 

We had a fun family outing painting pottery at a local venue. It was a great activity to bring our family together with something that we all enjoy! It is also a special way to preserve memories by taking the precious gifts home.  They even let the little ones paint on paper to keep themselves occupied while others keep working on their pottery pieces!

We had a relaxing afternoon and evening with our family at home, which is one of my favorite things to do! Cuddling on the couch, reading stories, playing living room football, having a dance party; those actions of daily life make me truly appreciate the gift of my family.  We are so blessed, and I know that no matter what cross that God asks us to carry that he is there with us. Thank you God for another year, for another day, for another moment with those who I love!

Happy Feast Day Elizabeth Ann Seton

Happy Feast Day to our Family Saint of the Year

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

 

 

I am so excited that we choose St Elizabeth Ann Seton as our family saint of the year!  I started off the morning with a great cup of coffee and beginning my new book The Soul of Elizabeth Ann Seton.  Only a few chapters in I can tell that I am going to learn a lot from studying her life and her reflections.  I pray that I can learn from her strength, grace and virtues to follow God in my vocation as a wife, mother and educator.  I also pray that she blesses our homeschool year and gives me the patience that I need to teach our children with love and our children the passion to learn!

 

We then went to mass, celebrating the Epiphany, although we are going to celebrate on the actual feast day January 6th in our home.  We came home and read our book Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton by Father Lovasik as one of our Read Alouds for the day.  We love Father Lovasik's books and found out a lot of interesting things about St Elizabeth in this book.  I love to hear what each of our children find most interesting when we read different books.  Our oldest son thought it was interesting that she was one of the first American citizens, having been born in New York in 1774 and living in the country during the time of the Declaration of Independence (he is really big into the United States right now and its history).  Our middle son thought it was really cool that her father was a doctor just like his Daddy! 

One thing that I think is interesting  about St Elizabeth's life and want to take time reflecting on is about her losing her mother when she was only three years old and her sister one year later.  She experienced great grief early in her life and she learned to rely on her own father growing up.  Then in her adult life, after she lost her husband to death she learned to trust and rely on her Holy Father as she converted to the Catholic faith in March of 1805. 

 

 Prayer in Honor of St Elizabeth Ann Seton

"Lord God, You blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton with gifts of grace as a wife and mother, educator and foundress, so that she might spend her life in service to Your people.  Through her example and prayers may we learn to express our love for You in love for our fellow men and women.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen."

 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from

St Elizabeth Ann Seton:

"Cheerfulness prepares a glorious mind for all the noblest acts"

 

"In every disappointment, let you heart fly directly to your dear Savior.  Jesus will never leave you or forsake you."

 

"Disorder in the society is a result of disorder in the family"

 

"The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair.  God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other.  The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him."

7QT- Continuing Christmas during the 12 days!

We have been having a lot of fun celebrating the 12 days of Christmas!  We are taking the time to do some fun Christmas activities, listening to Christmas music, hanging out as a family watching Christmas movies and celebrating the feast days and family birthdays during this liturgical season!

--- 1 ---

A 12 Days of Christmas Birthday

Our oldest son turned 5 years old on December 28th, and we had a fun day as a family and a great Green Bay Packer's birthday party for our biggest Packer fan!  Even though he had just received gifts on Christmas he was excited to get some special "big boy" gifts on his birthday.  He got his first set of REAL Lego's from his great grandparents and has been playing with them almost every minute since.  Does anyone have a good organizational system for Legos or ways to keep them away from little hands?  This is new in our house!

--- 2 ---

Celebrating the Holy Family

I love the Feast of the Holy Family as it is such a great time to focus and appreciate family, which seems to really be lacking in our culture these days!  There was a lovely homily that we heard at mass about how the Holy Family had real struggles and hardships just like we do, and it is how they handled them with grace and conviction that we should learn from and model.  I also LOVED how Scott Hahn spoke in his book Joy to the World, that I read during Advent, about how Christmas is all about FAMILY and also about Joseph's role in the family (which is usually not focused on).  Although Joseph is silent in the Bible he obviously had a significant role in helping to raise Jesus during his formative years and always worked hard for his family.  Reflecting more on Joseph's role as a father has really helped me to appreciate and respect my husband more with his role in our family. 

 

We have this Holy Water Font of the Holy Family in our main living space between our kitchen and family room.  I love that it is a constant reminder to bless ourselves and those who come to our home.  Even our 1 1/2 year old says "Wawa" (for Water) every time he passes by it, because he wants to make the sign of the cross like we all do as we go by!



--- 3 ---

Fun Christmas Activities

 

We went to a fun Christmas exhibit of Ginger Bread Houses at the Mormon Trail Center here in our town.  Our boys had a great time looking at all of the ginger bread houses and even doing a fun scavenger hunt to find different pieces around the exhibit.  We then went home and made our own Ginger Bread House!  I love doing these fun Christmas activities to help us continue celebrating during the 12 days of Christmas!

 

 

--- 4 ---

12 Days of Christmas Tree

I really enjoy having different trees in our home with different purposes during Advent and Christmas.  We had a big Christmas tree up in our family room this Christmas and then put up an Advent tree that had purple, pink and silver ornaments, in our formal living room where we also display our nativity set.  We also used our Advent tree to also display our Advent Saint Ornaments from Catholic Icing! 

Now we have a little tree that we also use for our Jesse Tree for our 12 Days of Christmas ornaments.  This little act of putting up a new ornament each day really helps our children understand that the season continues!

--- 5 ---

New Year - New Saint

We decided on our new Family Saint for the year as we brought in the new year!  This year we will be studying St Elizabeth Ann Seton and also be adding some special resources for myself, our couples prayer time and homeschooling to learn more about the saints throughout the year!

 

 

--- 6 ---

New Year and Mary, Mother of God Feast Celebration

We are not really the type to go out and "ring in the new year",  so we had a nice little family celebration in our home New Years Eve with the kids and then put them to bed to have some adult time!  We started out the New Year by going to mass on the Feast Day for the Solemnity of Mary as a family.  I have truly developed a special relationship with Mary over the past few years, especially since becoming a mother myself.  I find myself praying to her and relying on her strength and grace often throughout my days.  I love that we start the New Year celebrating a Marian Feast day.

New Years Toast with Sparkling Cider!

 

We love our prayer pillow from the Heart of A Child Ministry of Mary saying "Hail Mary full of grace", which has an adorable pocket to hold either a Rosary or prayer cards with intentions.  This beautiful ministry was started right here in Nebraska and 100% of their proceeds from these pillows go back to pro-life organizations! 

 

 

--- 7 ---

Traveling Wise men

Our wise men are traveling toward the nativity scene as Epiphany is nearing.  We also have been talking a lot about the wise men and the people who traveled to see Baby Jesus through many of our Advent/Christmas books.  Our favorite books about the wise men are The Last Straw, Visiting the Visitors, and a great book that we found at the library called The Little Boy's Christmas Gift (which we purchased for our book list for next year!)  We are getting excited for celebrating the Epiphany on January 6th!

 

The Melissa and Doug Nativity Set

 

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum

Saint of the Year - St Elizabeth Ann Seton

We love following the liturgical year of the Catholic Church and also learning about the saints feast day each day.  One tradition that we also started last year for our family was to choose A SAINT OF THE YEAR!  This particular person we wanted to study and learn more about throughout the year.  Last year we choose St Luke after our son Luke was born and as my husband was completing his medical fellowship training (as Luke is the patron saint of Physicians). 

 

This year we have started formally homeschooling our children with Seton Home Study School, as we completed the Pre-Kindergarten program this past fall with our oldest son, and will be starting Kindergarten very soon!  Also, I have started my journey with blogging this year and part of my inspiration for this blog came from St Elizabeth Ann Seton, including the name of the blog "Children of the Church"!  It seemed only fitting to choose St Elizabeth Ann Seton as our family Saint to get to know better this year!  We also are excited to celebrate her feast day as a part of the 12 days of Christmas.

 

 

We were able to go to St Elizabeth Ann Seton's shrine when my husband and I went on a trip this past fall.  It was so fascinating to see the shrine and learn more about her life and history.  I got the book The Soul of Elizabeth Ann Seton which I am excited to dive into soon!  I know she will be a great role model as a wife, mother, educator and wonderful woman of God.

 

My husband and I are also going to go through A Year with the Saints meditations together this year.  I think it will be a great way to bring us together during our couples prayer time and for us to learn something new together.

 

For my own personal reflection and growth I plan on reading and following A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms.  I love that this book focuses on a saint per week with only a few pages to read per week!  It makes it very achievable to read and follow, even for busy moms! 

 

Learning about the saints is also something that we do daily with our Homeschooling!  It is the one constant that we have throughout the different liturgical seasons and makes Ordinary time lots of fun!  We have a lot of materials that we use and our favorite are the Saints for Young Readers (Volume 1 and 2).  They are fantastic books that have 1-2 pages per day that give a brief history and reflection on the saint of the day!  Our oldest son also loves the Can you Find Saints book, which is like a Where's Waldo book, except with the Saints!  We also LOVE to play with our peg doll saints to learn about and identify new saints!

 

 

 

 

If you want to pick a SAINT OF THE YEAR for yourself or your family, but are not sure where to start head over to Jen Fulwiler's site and use her Saint Name Generator!  This is a fun and easy way to pick a new saint to learn about and pray to for the year!  Happy New Year!