Every year, I look forward to putting together my homeschool curriculum. I usually start thinking about this in February in eager expectation of the following fall. I'm so glad that I started this early this last year because with all the things surrounding the initial move, I did not get a chance to really think about homeschooling again until just two days before we started! Thankfully, it was mostly prepared months in advance!
I love writing these yearly posts about what we are doing in our school. It helps me organize my thoughts, and I love looking back on what we've done in the past as I've often forgotten something that we did or enjoyed. I also see how I've changed in my educational theories and priorities as I've gone along. Look how crazy I was in preschool 2012 or even when I started my journey and had burn out in 2011! Here is is the plan I had for Kindergarten last year.
I feel like this year is pretty straight forward. It could almost be written out as bullet points. We've had to simplify things out of necessity, but I still feel like we have a depth and richness to our education that we are loving.
Bible
We always start our day off with a hymn. We use Simply Charlotte Mason's Hymn Study suggestions, so for September, we learned I Sing the Mighty Power of God. I find the hymns on YouTube and let the boys watch it with the lyrics while I get our Bible stuff ready.
For Bible memory work, we are using Susan Hunt's My ABC Bible Verses from the Psalms. We went through her other book a couple of years ago. We typically read the story and the verse on Monday of our week and then just review the verse every morning before we start school
We are also learning the catechism by reading Big Truths for Little Kids and supplementing with the Questions and Answers CD by Songs for Saplings. This typically happens on Tuesday. Since they've been listening to the CDs at bedtime for about a year, I don't really review this as much as we could.
The other three days, we are reading through The Child's Story Bible by Vos. I'm trying to keep it near the history we are going through at the time, but not too much. We are using the Veritas Press History cards, so we put those up on the wall when we complete a story to make a sort of timeline.
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| Lego Pyramid |
I'm mostly using Story of the World: Ancient Times and it's corresponding Activity Book. We are supplementing where applicable with a lot! We dabble with Child's History of the World, Veritas Press History Cards, Draw and Write through History, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Illustrated Bible, and whatever books and movies I can get from the library. I've also discovered some good online resources like art history in Khan Academy and games at BBC History for Kids.
Science
The first two weeks of school, I wasn't ready to start our science curriculum so we did "Spy Science" instead. The boys are infatuated with spies right now from one of the summer vacation Bible schools they did, so this was a great introduction to our school year.
Now, though, we are using Jay Wile's Science in the Beginning. It is broken up into the Days of Creation and each lesson uses an experiment to show what it is teaching. So, since we are in Day 1, we are learning all about light and colors. It's quite fun.
We also supplement with watching Planet Earth when we need something to do! =)
Handwriting
We are using Handwriting Without Tears again this year.
Art
We are attempting to use Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. This is NOT my forte, so we'll see how well we keep it up. It definitely helps that some of his old videos from the 80s and 90s have made their way onto YouTube.
Art overlaps with our history time quite a bit. We are learning art history in Story of the World, encouraged to complete coloring pages, and even do some fun craft projects. Science in the Beginning also has some drawing exercises.
Still trying to figure out music study. That might have to wait a while. I've also been thinking about using World's Greatest Artists by Confessions of a Homeschooler, but I don't want to overdo anything.
Math
We are using RightStart B (a first-grade book) this year with both boys although we may or may not do something different with Z in the future. Z is very good at math so he could keep up with N, but it might be too frustrating. We're still working on this one. Z also likes his Starfall math and N supplements with Khan Academy in his free time.
Reading
I'm just trying to keep N in books. He reads constantly so I'm not teaching any reading to him. I'm using Delightful Reading and Bob Books with Z. We also supplement with the Leap Frog videos like Letter Factory, Word Factory, and Word Caper. He's enjoying our word-building activities.For literature, we just read a chapter of a book at bedtime. Since the beginning of the summer, we've read Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan, Winnie-the-Pooh, and the House at Pooh Corner. We just started the Chronicles of Narnia so that should keep us busy for the next few months.
We are also reading some poetry (The World of Christopher Robin) and a couple of Aesop's Fables each week.
Foreign Language
We finally know what language to learn! We are learning Thai through Mango that is provided online with our King County Library database. Each week we start a new lesson that we try to review daily.
Extras
TypingN just completed the free BBC Typing Dance Mat. I'm thinking about purchasing Typing Instructor for his further practice. I think it looks like something he'll like.
Tinkering
Phil has always got something for the boys to do. Whether it's putting together a lazer cut Tie Fighter, learning how to solder, or programming with Racket, he's always encouraging them to do something cool and different. We also just signed up for Tinker Crate for the time that we are still in the States.
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