What Our Pre-Schooling Looks Like

I started going through the Pre-School curriculum for Hearts of Dakota (which I read about through this blog which I TOTALLY recommend reading) with my girls when they were about 1 1/2... so that was almost a year ago now. We are just about to finish it up by the time summer starts.

If you check out the out-line of a typical week, then you can follow what I am about to explain...

Our daily gist looks something like this:

1. We wake up and do breakfast while I read out the Bible to the kids (we just got done with Isaiah and are now in Psalms)
2. Hayven has Quiet Time while I do the Finger Play, Letter Activity and Bible Story with the twins
3. All the girls join in and dance to the Corresponding Music for that day/lesson
4. The twins will do their Art Project, Math Activity or some sort of Activity that I come up with that goes along with what we learned in the Bible Study. Usually during this time Hayven is playing with something like a bag of sticks, some pots and pans, or some strange kitchen object she hasn't seen before. I do my daily house chore at this time teaching the girls to work independently.
5. After this, the girls have their French Lesson which is just a movie in French or listening to an audio book in French while I make lunch.
6. After Lunch, the girls help clean up the kitchen and living room and then we all sit down and read some book together until about 1pm.
7. From 1pm until 3pm is designated Nap Time. The girls know that even if they wake up before 3pm, they need to stay upstairs until I call them down. This allows me to nap, have quiet time, or work on a project that I can't do with them around.
8. We have our snack after nap followed by a review of the lesson and just some time wresting and tickling.
9. Everyone will have Alone Play (where they each have a toy and are in separate areas playing by themselves) while I prepare dinner. Sometimes I include the girls in the cooking.
10. We eat dinner around 5pm and then clean up dinner and usually we do ministry in the evening or dad spends time going back over the Bible lesson from that day. We may do Family Worship Time, read together, or watch a movie together.

** I DO NOT like having a schedule based on time (9am we do this... 11am we do this...) because we leave our evenings open for ministry. We may be up until 12pm one night and up at 10am, or we might go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 7am) I am not against them, it just doesn't work with our lifestyle.

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There are so many things that I like about this Hearts of Dakota Curriculum that works for what we want for our kids and for our family.

• Big Families: The lessons are so easily laid out you can just pick it up and do it. There isn't much preparation needed.
• Grouped Ages: The Pre-school curriculum ranges from 2-5 year olds and they recommend different activities, and devotionals to do for the "younger pre-schoolers" and the "older pre-schoolers". This would allow me by next year to have Hayven do the same lessons that my twins will be doing (since I want to put the twins through the Pre-School curriculum again before we move onto kindergarden).
• Completely Bible Based: The kids are learning their letters, basic math skills, basic science skills, and everything is based off the Bible... completely!! 
• Values History: As I was looking over the curriculum for the older kids it seems like Hearts of Dakota really focuses on History which is what my husband REALLY wanted in a homeschool curriculum. 

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More and more everyday we are convinced that homeschooling our kids is 

so so so important!

My husband and I just look at where our nation is and we can only conclude that it came from the public schools slowing indoctrinating the kids further and further away from the Bible... it's been subtle over the years, but we can see a Godless generation that 

HATES the things God LOVES 

and 

LOVES the things God HATES.