Words, Letters and Thoughts on Starting Homeschooling

I have really been enjoying watching my kids develop lately.  The focus has definitely been on linguistics during the past month.  H, at almost 2 years, is in that super cute phase of starting to put words together and form her first simple sentences.  So far, the phrases have mostly been in Estonian, so I might skip the translations for now... I just love the expression and her intonations.
K, who turned 4 at the end of December, has been reading up a storm!  Last night I pulled out the Bob books again and she read four books in one sitting and exclaimed after each one, "This is SO FUN!! Can I read another one?" She has also been practicing writing her letters and numbers (mostly on the dry erase board and it usually gets erased before I can get a picture, unfortunately), but she gets a little frustrated with those. She has also been going through coloring books like they're going out of style.  I love watching her color; she is so precise. Here is one work in progress:

Miss K started telling me this past fall, "I don't know when I am going to school?" I have gotten her several workbooks and tracing books and she likes to sit at her little desk and "do her homework." I'm planning on starting to make some lap books with her, and I have been doing a lot of research on different homeschooling curriculums and styles and trying to figure out what will be the best fit for us, but it's hard to tell without actually touching and flipping through books. That's why I am really looking forward to the HEAV Virginia Homeschool Convention this June!  Of course, since K is only at a kindergarten level, we have a lot of time before we have to settle on anything. I do tend to lean towards unschooling, anyway. 


Because I tend to be a little bit unstructured, but want to make sure I hit all the important topics and give my kids a good foundation, I was thrilled to find this great booklet entitled Kindergarten Basics- Building a Solid Foundation. It provides a practical and straightforward (yet flexible and creative) outline of all the skills that a kindergartener should be mastering, with tons of ideas, resources, and planning tips.  For $15, it's totally worth it, and I highly recommend it. I was able get a print copy last fall, but it looks like it is only available as a download at the moment.