The Boggle Incentive

"School" officially begins for our family on Sept. 6.  Yes, we will be home schooling again this year (yippee!) and I'll post more about our curriculum plans for Aubree soon.  One of the bigger changes this year will be that Bryce will also be "doing school."  Up until fairly recently, he hadn't shown much interest in any formal-type learning, and we're in no hurry.  

In the last few months, however, he's been telling me, "Mom, you need to teach me that," or "you haven't taught me that yet," or "when I do school I'll learn it all."  He's eager to start school and do some of the things that he sees Aubree doing.  

One of Aubree's favorite past times is playing Boggle on my phone.  One day Bryce asked if he could play.  "Sorry, buddy," I replied, "you have to know how to read to play Boggle."

That night he prayed, "Dear Heavenly Father, please help me learn to read so I can play Boggle on mommy's phone."

And since then, he's been very serious about wanting to learn his letters and learn to read.  He's got a long way to go, but I think we'll have a lot of fun along the way.

Here are my plans for our preschool school year:

We'll be doing a combination of Before Five in a Row, Letter of the Week (from confessions of a homeschooler), and nursery rhyme of the week (memorize, crafts, etc).  I tried to organize the three so there's some letter or theme correlation, but wasn't always successful.  Of course, it will all be pretty low key and probably average only three days a week of "formal" learning.  I have a feeling Thane will also be in the thick of things; he's not one who likes to be left out.

Also, I haven't finalized the second half of the year because I thought it was good enough to get to Christmas (which should be letter K or so).  On holiday weeks, we won't do typical books and letters, we'll just do holiday things.

Here's the format of the list:  Letter - Book - Nursery Rhyme (if you have a correlating nursery rhyme suggestion, please let me know!)

A - Ask Mr. Bear - All Around the Mulberry Bush

B - Blueberries for Sal - Baa, Baa Black Sheep

C - Corduroy - Cock-a-doodle-doo

D - The Snowy Day - Diddle Diddle Dumpling

E - The ABC Bunny - Humpty Dumpty

F - Caps For Sale - Five Little Pigs

G - The Big Green Pocketbook - Georgie Porgie

H - If Jesus Came to my House - Hey Diddle, Diddle

I - I am an Artist - 3 Little Kittens

J - Jenny's Surprise Summer - Jack Be Nimble

K - Katy No-Pocket - Old King Cole

L - Angus Lost - Little Boy Blue

M - Goodnight Moon - Little Miss Muffet

N - My Blue Boat - 

O - Play With Me -  Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe

P - Prayer For a Child - Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

Q - The Quiet Way Home - Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat

R - The Runaway Bunny - Rub-A-Dub-Dub

S - The Carrot Seed - Simple Simon

T - The Red Carpet - A Tisket, A Tasket

U - We're Going on a Bear Hunt - 

V - The Little Rabbit - 

W - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? - Wee Willie Winkie

X - 

Y - Yellow Ball - 

Z -