2011-2012 Curriculum Plans

Another school year approaches, and that means it's time to finalize and purchase all remaining curriculum.  Fortunately, it is something I enjoy.  I love researching all of our options, selecting what I think will work best for us, cracking open the new books, and planning out lessons as I envision what our year will look like.      Of course the year never turns out quite as I imagine it will, but that's a topic for another time.  Now that we're entering our fourth (if you count pre-K) year of homeschooling, one would think that we should have the hang of it by now.  I am hoping my plans will meet up a bit closer to reality.  Here's hoping all of these picks are winners here.

Bible:

-Who is God? by Apologia educational ministries
-The Squire and the Scroll along with Life Lessons from The Squire and the Scroll
-Plants Grown Up (selected projects)

English Studies:

-Phonics Road 1 (Finish 2nd half) along with Memoria Press 2nd grade spelling and phonics
-First Language Lessons 2
-Classical Writing primers
-New American Cursive
-Selected 2nd Grade Lit. guides from Memoria Press: The Little House in the Big Woods, Tales of Beatrix   Potter, and Mr. Popper's Penguins
-Kai will also read books from our homemade reading list

Math:

-Singapore 2A/2B

We are continuing with level 2 this year, and we are planning on using all of the extras: Extra Practice 2, Challenging Word Problems 2, and Intensive Practice 2A/2B.

-Teaching Textbooks 3

We actually started this at the end of last year to make sure that Kai had some math to do while I was working with the younger ones. He really enjoys it so far and will start off this year around lesson 30.

History:

-Story of the World Vol. 2

After spending 2 years on Volume 1, I am excited to be picking up the pace a bit. I can't wait for Kai to learn all about castles, knights, explorers, and Shakespeare! We'll do a lot of supplemental reading with this as well.

Geography:

Evan-Moor Daily Geography grade 2

We did grade 1 last year and really enjoyed this gentle yet thorough approach to Geography. I also hope that we will have time to try our hand at continent blobbing and drawing of the great circles as laid out in the The Core.

Science:

Earth Science and Astronomy following the Well Trained Mind cycle for 2nd grade.

I am anticipating that our studies will be a little heavy on the astronomy side since we will be using Apologia Astronomy from their Young Explorer's series. I do plan on using several Science in a Nutshell kits focusing on earth science though, and I did also get the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World.

Latin:

Prima Latina

I am excited to start this with Kai. We went through most of Song School Latin last year, so some of this will be review for him. Overall, it seems a bit more rigorous, and I really like that it incorporates learning latin prayers.

Kai will be doing football football for fall PE, as well as a supplemental art and science class.

Kael and Koen will be doing some preschool activities as well.

School starts August 22nd.  Let the countdown begin!

Week 21 Report

I know that I haven't done a weekly report all year, and it seems odd to start with week 21...but sometimes this teacher/mom gets too disctracted with other things to keep up. Here is where we are now.



We started off on Monday (V-Day) attending our charter school's Geography field day. All of the kids had a fun time, and it was exciting for Kai to see all of the different areas that Geography touches. Some of the highlights included: a 20 ft. blown up globe that you could step inside, bird tracking, a craft booth from each continent, sea life presented by Kai's former Oceanography teachers, a desert dome, a condensed history of California play, and Geography musical chairs. The Geography musical chairs was much the same as regular musical chairs, except if you were the one with no seat, you had the chance to correctly answer a Geography question to stay in the game. Kai did pretty well, lasting until only four children were left, but he was out on a question asking what state has "north" as part of its name. He recognized North Dakota, but got confused while reading the map and said, "North Canada." Oh well! As a result, Mommy has since downloaded the Scrambled States of America and ordered Evan Moor Daily Geography.



Here's how we wrapped up the rest of the week:



Bible:

Leading Little Ones to God

My Father's World Bible Reader



English:

Phonics Road 1 - Week 5



Math:

Singapore Primary Math 1B - Unit 13 Ex. 3-7



Science:

Elemental Science Biology - Human Body Week 2 (Skeleton and Bones)

Bill Nye: the Science Guy -Cells



History:

Wrapping up with Ancient Greece. We did the Parthenon activity from our Ancient Civilizations History pockets.



Books read:

Alexander the Great Rocks the World

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

The Greek News

Dem Bones

Biscuit's Valentine's Day



Books read by Kai:

Pegasus

Green Eggs and Ham

Little Bear

In Kai's Words...

Kai and I recently had a conversation that took me by surprise. I thought he was just being goofy, but when he explained his reasoning, he left me wondering, "where does he come up with this stuff?"

We were pulling out of the driveway, and there were two big turkey vultures sitting in the field nearby. This is what ensued...

Kai: Mom, do you have to have special powers to be a superhero?

Mom: Yes.

Kai: Well, what about Batman? He doesn't have any special powers. He's just cool and tries to help people.

Mom: You're right! I guess you don't really need a special power, then.

Kai: Did you know that vultures are superheroes?

Mom: No, I've never heard that. I thought they were just birds.

Kai: Well, they are birds, but they help people because when they eat decaying animals, they prevent disease from getting in our water supply.

Planning for First Grade: Curriculum

I have such fond memories of first grade. I had such a fabulous teacher. She taught me much more than how to read and subtract money. There I learned many skills that are still useful to me today, including brainstorming, critical thinking, and feeling confident in your work.





Thinking back on my own experiences only reminds me that I want to make first grade a special time for Kai, too. I think what he learns and how it is presented will play a large role in this endeavor, and with that, here is what we have selected for our first grade curriculum.




Bible:

• Leading Little Ones to God

This book is set up with short lessons in a devotional style. For each idea, there is a brief discussion, a song, a prayer, and corresponding verses. I think this will be good because it provides good explanations for several questions Kai has had, like, "why can't we see God?" and "How does God answer our prayers?" The brevity will also help keep Kai's attention and ensure that we get it done each day.

• My Father's World - First Grade

This curriculum is actually much more than just a Bible curriculum (we plan to use it for phonics and science, also), but I think the Bible portions will really help to add to Kai's understanding of the Bible. Part way through the year, the student begins to read from the beginning Bible reader, Bible stories written in kid language. There are also timeline figures to help kids see the order of Biblical events and people. Memory verses are all from Proverbs this year. We have actually already started, and Kai and I have been making up hand motions to help him remember them.

Language Arts:

The bulk of Kai's phonics instruction will come from MFW -1. The Bible reader is his main reader for the year, but I did also get Sonlight's Readers 1 to go along with that. In addition to those, here's what we'll be adding in.

• Spelling Workout A

This spelling program is also phonics based. We'll do this as our schedule allows, but I think we will really get into the meat of it half way through the year or so when MFW's phonics instruction ends.

• First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind - Level 1

This book looks like it will be great for us. The lessons are oral, which helps us so much with two other little ones roaming the school room, and also on the short side. I'm hoping to do this during our morning meeting time.

• Handwriting without Tears - 1

We are already half-way through with the first grade book, but instead of rushing into the second grade book I think we will take our time with the Proverbs copywork from MFW and add in a few days of Writing With Ease 1 a few days a week to equals a whole year of writing.

Arithmetic:

• Singapore 1A/1B

Choosing a math curriculum was definitely the hardest choice for me this year. After much deliberating, spreadsheeting, pro/con list making, and talking with Donald, I finally settled on Singapore. So far math has been something that comes easily to Kai, and I'm hoping that this program will help him develop that even further.

Another change for math this year is that I have decided to break up our math time into two different time blocks. Math lab will be in the morning with all the kids. It'll be a time primarily for math manipulatives and games. I'm hoping this will convince the kids that math can be fun and let them focus on the thought process. There will be nothing to turn in and nothing graded. The second time period, the math lesson, will be in the afternoon during the little ones' nap time. This is when we will do our Singapore work.

Here are the resources I got for our math lab:

• Miquon orange and red

These workbooks are meant to go along with Cuisenaire rods and are designed to be set up with problem solving and a lab environment in mind.

• Evan-Moor Daily Word Problems 1

I'll let Kai work these by himself (unless he asks for help) on the whiteboard.

• Living math books and manipulatives galore

History:

• Story of the World, Volume 1

We'll be finishing up the second half of this book this year. We have enjoyed what we have done so far, and I'm looking forward to learning about Ancient Greece and Rome with Kai. He really gets into the stories, and I am glad we started a year early with this, so that we could take two years to get to it. There are so many extras that add so much to this. I don't know what we'll do next year when we have to actually cram all of volume 2 into just one year!

Science:

We'll be doing science a la Well Trained Mind this year. For first grade that includes life science: animals, plants, and the human body.

What We've Been Up To...

Whew! It's been a long time since I have written anything. We've had a busy year filled with learning to read, potty training, practicing riding a two-wheeler, taking care of the new baby, and juggling so many different people's schedules. Summer was a welcome break to the full days during the school year, and we've done our share of camping, reading, movie watching, traveling, and visiting with some of our favorite people.

I have also been busy, busy around here working on our new schedule, re-organizing the school room, and preparing our work for the new school year, first grade for Kai. I am getting exciting to return to a real routine. I am excited to share all about our school plans for fall, but first, here are some highlights from our summer:

We had a little kindergarten graduation ceremony for Kai, complete with Pomp and Circumstance. He wore Mommy's cap & gown and Daddy's tassel, and he recited all of his memory work. He loved it!

He got all O's (Outstanding) on his report card.

We headed off to Florida with Grandma Rose.

Kael finished his tiny tots sports class. (He is so proud of his medal.)

Koen had his first trip to the beach.

Kai joined a cub scout den! Here he is at the bridging ceremony, where he received his Tiger Cub neckerchief and handbook.

He also participated in the cub scout pack's cubannapolis box car race.

The whole family helped out on his pit crew.

Koen learned to sit up, crawl, and stand up on his own. He is growing up soo fast!

Thank you, Honey!

I just wanted to write a quick note about how thankful I am to have such a handy husband. He is so good about knowing what to do in situations that we have not had to deal with before.

Sunday night after a long day, I decided it was time for a bath. After waiting for the tub to fill up, I went to put my foot in, only to discover that the water was freezing cold. I let Donald know, and he grabbed some tools and went to check the water heater. Yep, it was broken, he determined. So, he got on the computer, looked up the model number, diagram, and troubleshooting page. He thought it was likely the heating element that had gone bad, so the next day, he tracked down a new one at Home Depot.

After soccer practice on Monday, he drained the tank, and switched out the bad part for the new one. Within less than an hour after that, we had hot water again! I am so thankful that what could have thrown a major wrench into our holiday plans if we had needed to call a plumber or unknowingly replace the whole thing only ended up costing us less than $20. Donald, I am so glad that you know so much about things that I have no clue about, and you are very good with crisis management. I love you!

We have a new little boy in our house!

Now that he is just about 3 weeks old, I thought it was time to introduce our new little baby! His name is Koen. He is absolutely precious, and all of us already love him to pieces. He is so sweet, and I just love that he is my third son. I'm not sure if I am just getting better at knowing what to do with babies or if he really enjoys the commotion generated by the other two (or perhaps he just has a very laid back temperament), but so far he has slipped into our family routine so nicely. He seems so wise and observant, like he is already learning so much. I can't wait to watch this little boy grow up and see what he will be like, but for now, I am definitely loving the baby stage and having a newborn to cuddle once again.