Thursday, September 8, 2011

2011-2012 Homeschool Curriculum

I thought I'd share what we're doing for homeschool this year, as Moses is starting kindergarten and Judah is doing some preschool stuff. Moses is 5 years 3 months and Judah is 3 1/2 exactly. Clementine is 23 months and I'm sure she'll be joining in some of the hands-on stuff!

I have a lot of Grace's curriculum left over (wasn't it just yesterday that she and I were doing kindergarten at home together!?) so I'm using a lot of that for Moses, but as I am now realizing, not all curriculum used for a prior child is a good fit for subsequent children! The great phonics/grammar program I used with Grace isn't going to work for Moses until at least next year. (I think I actually started it with Grace when she was 6, so that's perfect.  Now that I think about it, how DID Grace learn to read anyway?? I think she just kind of picked it up!)

Because we're following the Charlotte Mason method, our kindergarten/preschool days will be of a more relaxed approach. The basic principles that Charlotte Mason emphasized included short lessons, lots of nature/outside time, reading lots of "living" books, and training in good habits, so that's what we're planning to do! The habits I hope to instill in these little ones this year will hopefully carry them on to be studious, industrious, lifelong learners in the future.

A couple of great resources that have helped me plan the year include The Early Years: A Charlotte Mason Preschool Handbook and this Early Years Guide from the Simply Charlotte Mason website. Here's a summary of the early years focus:
Habits, outside play, read-alouds, and Bible are most important. If you concentrate only on them, you’ll be doing just fine. Reading, copywork, and math come next as the child is ready. (Some may not be ready until they are older than five; that’s OK!) Handicrafts, art, music, and poetry are simply add-ons that will enrich your child’s atmosphere and help him feel at home with those aspects of Charlotte Mason education when he starts “school work.”
So here's the basic rundown of our school year/curriculum:


 Moses (5 years)

Outdoors: Lots of free play and nature walks
Read Alouds: From Five in a Row, and “go-along” books
Copywork: Writing on lined paper, holding pencil correctly, copywork from FIAR books
Science: Projects to go along with FIAR books
Handicrafts: Projects to go along with FIAR books
Music: Play works of great composers in background while working
Bible: Circle Time and Fighter Verses with Mama, Bible Study with Papa

(The main way that we're organizing our Five in a Row studies is through the use of lapbooks. I get all the free resources from Homeschool Share. Here's what we'd do during our week of reading "The Story About Ping" and studying China and ducks.  I'll try to post pictures of ours once we've completed some.)


Judah (3.5 yrs)

Outdoors: Lots of free play and nature walks (Same as Moses)
Habits: Habit Training (Same as Moses)
Read Alouds: From Five in a Row, and “go-along” books (Same as Moses)
Beginning Reading: Learn letter names and sounds while Moses does reading lessons
Copywork: Trace upper-case letters with finger in sand, rice, or air, 
dry erase markers on placemat, etc.
Math: Learning along with Moses Saxon Math K
Science: Projects to go along with FIAR books (Same as Moses)
Handicrafts: Projects to go along with FIAR books (Same as Moses)
Art: (Same as Moses)
Music: Play works of great composers in background while working (Same as Moses)
Bible: Circle Time and Fighter Verses with Mama, Bible Study with Papa (Same as Moses)


I'm excited to try homeschooling 2 kids at the same time! I've only ever taught one child before, so I'm not sure how it will go to have 3 little ones all together, and 2 of them "doing school". But I'm sure we're in for a lot of fun.  =]

No comments: