Introduction: Crestwood Oaks Academy

"...So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." Isaiah 61:3

One of the things that made me fall in love with our house were the beautiful established oak trees greeting whomever into the house. They provide shade in the summer, insulation in the winter and cover our house much like I picture the Lord covering our lives. They've been there for years will hopefully be there for years to come. It may sound silly, but they just look wise.

In looking at what to do for school for LittleBear, we have recently come to the decision to start out homeschooling. I have lots of friends who are teachers and have nothing against public or private school. Really. We have both gone to both types of schools and think we turned out ok :) We are going to re-evaluate each year and see what we should do for the next year (this post has some really good questions to ask during that process). Out of that thought process for starting school, Crestwood Oaks Academy was founded.

I love learning and the prospect of seeing what thrills and excites LittleBear really makes any work I put into it totally worth it. I admit I am not naturally a great teacher, but thankfully there are lots of moms out there who are and they are happy to share what they have learned for free via the internet mostly through their blogs. Much of what you will see here is a conglomeration of things I have found through others (I will do my best to give credit wherever possible). If you are not interested, feel free to skip these posts. As long as I have my part time job, LittleBear will attend Mother's Day Out once a week and he also goes to BSF with me once a week, so I'm only planning on four days of school each week. We will also be visiting a dear friend's homeschool to learn with good buddy J at least once a week, so there will be lots of times when we are learning with friends and enjoying the company of others. As best I can tell, for now "school" will be taking about an hour every day, unless he is really enjoying it and wants to go longer.

At the moment, LittleBear is working on his basics. He can successfully identify some colors including yellow, blue, green, red, white, purple and (as of yesterday) pink. Orange still throws him off and sometimes he recognizes black, but not always. He's starting to count to five and loves to shout out "two!" when he sees the number two. He can also identify several letters of the alphabet. So that's where we are starting from.




Each day we start out with The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers by Crystal Bowman (from the Little Blessings series). Ben loves these Little Blessings books and most days will sit with me for "Bible time" as we read that day's devotion. For the rest of school this year, I've chosen to take LittleBear through the book Before Five In A Row. It's for ages 2-4 and uses an assortment of classic children's books to introduce the student and teacher to different subjects including science, arts, Bible, History, and others. It wasn't expensive and we can get most of the books through the library. LittleBear LOVES reading so I thought this would be right up his alley. The book goes through and outlines different activities, but I will also be adding in some other related activities that I think LittleBear will enjoy and benefit from.

Thanks for sharing this journey with us!