The Heart of the Matter’s Not Back to School Blog Hop begins this week, so that gives me the perfect excuse to update our curriculum post.  Now that I have a whole six weeks of homeschooling under my belt, I have a better idea about what we need to do for the rest of the year.  Even after just a short time, I’ve already had to make some changes. 

Here is our newest plan of attack:

Tot School

Life:  Daily life will continue to be how Ryan learns most things.  This is how Alex learned without me even realizing that I was teaching him.  Whenever I am doing anything with Ryan, I simply describe what is happening.  He is soaking up language at an enormous rate right now, so I fill his day with words.

Tot Trays:  If you don’t know anything about tot trays, you will want to check out 1+1+1=1.  I am going to have no more than three trays per day set up for Ryan and we will work on these during his dedicated tot school time.  These will be challenging for him and I don’t expect these to really take off until about mid-year.

Book Basket: Books that focus on skills and vocabulary to learn such as colors, numbers, and animal names.

Sensory Bin: These are Ryan’s favorite activity right now, so I am going to make at least one themed bin per month.  My budget will be $5 per bin.

Kindergarten

Religious Education: This is where major changes have been made since my original plan six weeks ago.  We are still doing a chronological Bible study, but now it will be through unit studies instead of just reading, narrating, and journaling.  I am compiling my own units and you can follow along on my Religious Education Unit Studies for Kindergarten page.

Phonics/Reading: Alex is an accelerated reader and we have already gone through more than half of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We will start by reviewing short vowel sounds and sight words using You Can Read and Ready2Read pintables, then we will finish the 100 Lessons book. For readers we will use Bob Books Sets 1, 2, and 3 and books from the library. If we finish all of that before the end of the year, we will start on Funnix which I grabbed a few months ago as a free download.

Literature: Nursery rhymes and fables from The Real Mother Goose Treasury and The World Treasury of Children’s Literature.Then we will read all of the fairy tales in an old book that I found on our shelves.  After that, we will tackle our book list which is still a work in progress.

Math: Math-U-See Primer and some supplemental worksheets from Modern Curriculum Press, Level K

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me

Science: Nothing too formal here.  We will be discussing topics that would fall under a physics or astronomy umbrella such as gravity, weather, planets and volcanoes.  I will pick a topic once every couple of weeks and gather up library books.  I am also using Science is Simple and 50 Science Things to Make & Do for experiment ideas.  I am adding The Usborne Science Encyclopedia to our Christmas list, so that may become a resource as well.

History/Geography: Since we are reading through the Bible this year, most of our history discussions will come from the RE units.  We will also talk about history in terms of the formation of the earth and dinosaurs when we are looking at some science books.  And finally, we will be learning a little bit of geography such as the names of the continents and oceans and where they are located. 

Life Skills: Chore chart, personal tasks (tying shoes, complete bathroom independence, etc.), physical skills (ball throwing, swinging without being pushed) and anything else that life presents.

PE: Soccer in the fall, park trips on Fridays, and playing in the backyard. A gym in town also has a gymnastics class once a week that we may try out, but I am not committing to that every week just yet.

That will probably be all, but if we still find ourselves bored to tears in the afternoon, I will add some music, art, and theatre appreciation to the list.  I hope everyone has a fantastic year!