Writing wrong, and righting the wrong

So, today we struggled all morning with writing during phonics and math, per usual. Caleb is behind on his writing skills for a few reasons. He's always hated coloring of any sort and he doesn't have very strong hand muscles, so it's hard for him to grip the pencil and push down hard enough to make a mark. I've been keeping my eyes and ears open for ideas on how to help him and I think we stumbled upon something today. There is hope!

On a whim, I nixed a subject today and decided to interject something more fun. I dug out our tabletop pocket chart, that I purchased a while back that he hadn't seen. Caleb loves constructing words and these word cards work great for phonics. For example it pairs letters to create the sounds "ch" instead of using separate letters "c" and "h". Overall it just helps with phonics. I got out the pocket chart tent to work on the words when he noticed the back of the tent has a dry erase board on it with pockets under it. At his prompting, we rotated the tent. He told me to spell out a word with our pocket chart cards and he promptly took the dry erase marker and wrote it right out! He wrote faster than I'd ever seen him and with more confidence. We took pictures because that is a major encouragement to him. The fact that the dry erase board is upright and the marker is higher contrast than a pencil were just the things he needed. The tent is stable and at just the right height for him. This activity is a definite repeat!

The pocket chart card set we use is the Smethport- Word Bits Pocket Chart Card Set. It includes a 130 double-sided cards and an activity guide.

Here is some of Caleb's handy work:

"school"

"silly"

I bit the bullet

Our 4 year old, Caleb is supposed to be entering Pre-school this fall, his birthday is only weeks away from the public school's "cut-off" date. He turns 5 in October, and would be one of the oldest in his class. But since we're homeschooling, we're going to be starting him in Kindergarten this fall instead. He is already reading 3 and 4 letter words and from my research, is waaay past preschool curriculum. He would have to be learning below his level for another year and a half before he could be challenged in that area. This is one of the main contributing factors for us deciding on homeschool. According to the public school in our town, they won't let him test into Kindergarten and aren't willing to work with us at all until he is of the age of compulsory attendance. Yeah, can you believe it!

Soooo.....
I bit the bullet and ordered my first official homeschooling curriculum. After extensive research I just ordered:
Horizons: Kindergarten Math
Horizons: P.E.
Horizons: Health
Explode the Code books 1& 2

I'm waiting for the NICHE conference to decide on our science, history/social studies and bible curriculum. I'm excited to page through curriculum there, but didn't want the daunting task of finding all subjects while I'm there. I've really utilized Kathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum as well as her website to decide which Math and Phonics curricula we'll use. Another great review site is homeschoolreviews.com.

I have a few items on our "possible curriculum" list. I'd love any feedback!
Science:
Simple and Fun Science Simplified, K-2

The World God Made
AIMS Education Foundation Books

Christian Liberty: Nature Reader

History/Social Studies:
The Mystery of History
The American People & Nation

Bible:
Egermeier's Bible Story Book
Family-Time Bible in Pictures
Studying God's Word A: Bible