Even though I wasn’t totally ready and organized when we started school a few weeks ago, everything has been going really well as we’ve been getting into a new routine. We are using Sonlight this year, which is a Christian literature-based curriculum, and it has helped me a lot because a weekly schedule has already been put together for me. However, I have added other programs and had to put schedules together for all of those.
Here are our 2014-2015 curriculum choices for homeschooling:
Kellan – 1st Grade (he’s 6 1/2 and above grade level in several areas)
- Sonlight Core B for our main curriculum, including History, Bible, Language Arts, Reading (3rd grade readers) and Science.
- All About Spelling Level 3 for Spelling – we will work through half of the lessons in the book this year.
- All About Reading Level 3 for additional Reading – Snootz does not need this but he really wanted to do it because he loved the All About Reading Level 2 last year. I figured it couldn’t hurt to do extra reading and it coordinates nicely with the Spelling program.
- Math U See Beta for Math – He completed about 1/4 of this last year so he will complete the remaining lessons this year.
- Home School Art Studio
for Art
- Draw Write Now
for additional drawing and handwriting.
- We are also using workbooks such as Mead Letter Stories, Mead Snip It and School Zone Second Grade Scholar for some fun extras.
- I’ve been looking into the Homeschool Spanish Academy for Spanish lessons. It is an online program where he would receive lessons via Skype with a Spanish speaking teacher. If we decide to do this, we probably wouldn’t begin until January.
- For extracurricular activities he is in swimming. We are looking into additional options for another extracurricular activity but we haven’t made a final decision on anything yet.
Jenna and Alaina – 4K (they just turned 4)
- Sonlight Pre-Kindergarten for our main curriculum, including Bible, Read-Alouds, World Cultures and Science.
- All About Reading Pre-Reading – we are continuing this from last year
- Themed Units from 1+1+1=1 – These are free printables and we will work on one unit every one to two weeks. So far we have done the My Little Pony unit & the Fairies unit and the girls have had so much fun with them. For each unit, I will be adding some additional activities of my own and some books from the library we can read together.
- Workbooks such as School Zone Preschool Scholar and Kumon Let’s Cut Paper! and Let’s Fold!, as well as others.
- Additionally, the girls will do painting, Playdoh, crafts, pop beads, lacing cards, puzzles, coloring, sing-alongs, games and anything else we can think of.
- We are also working on the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program.
- For extracurricular activities the girls are in swimming and ballet.
One day per week Kellan will be in a home education enrichment program where he is in a more traditional classroom setting with eleven other homeschooled first graders. So, we will actually have 4 days per week to fit everything else in. In order to accomplish this we will be on more of a daily schedule this year. Since the girls are older and a bit more predictable this has been easier to do. And since I have to track schooling hours and report them to the state for Kellan (which we didn’t have to do that last year for kindergarten) I am finding it beneficial to be on a schedule.
I will adjust things as needed so we can go on field trips, such as the zoo, museums, trampoline parks, or anything else that comes up. Not necessarily every week but at least one or two times per month.
So that’s the plan for this year! I am sure we will make some adjustments and changes as the year progresses but generally this is what we will be doing for the next 8+ months!
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