it’s not about you

So we started homeschooling last week (actually, we started the week before because Mary Judah kept asking me if we could do “Spanish preschool” when her brother took his nap). I’ve had a couple of people ask what curriculum I’m using, so I thought I’d start off some homeschooling posting by listing that here.

Since I don’t really know what I’m doing in all of this, I searched out the requirements for kindergarten in California. The state requires six subjects be taught:

Language Arts (including reading/literature and writing/composition)
Math
Science
History/Geography/Social Studies
Physical Education
Arts (including visual art, music, theater and dance)

In addition to those subjects, we are also covering Spanish and Bible Studies. I’ll list what we’re doing for each subject in the above order. I’m also open to suggestions and advice regarding things to add/take away, advice, etc. I’m definitely going to use the curriculums I have for Language Arts and Math, at least through the semester, and if they don’t work after that, I’m open to looking at other things. But I hope they take.

For every subject, I’m relying on the Content Standards for Kindergarten by the California Department of Education and “What Your Kindergardener Needs to Know” in the Core Knowledge Series.

Language Arts:
I’m using “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.” This book is entirely scripted and teaches phonetically, as far as I can tell. I’m not well-versed in pedagogy, so I might get terms wrong here. I basically read through each lesson and she repeats after me and then has opportunity to practice writing. I bought an alphabet manuscript poster with all the uppercase and lowercase letters. Each letter has numbered arrows showing how to form the letters when writing.

The Need to Know book has lists of nursery rhymes, sayings, poems and books/stories that are common to kindergarten curriculums, so we’ll be sure to get through those. We’ll read children’s classics (Joshua recently finished Charlotte’s Web as their bedtime book and I want to start the Laura Ingalls Wilder set - any other suggestions?) and I let her check out up to 10 books of her choice from the library every time we go that we read to her and she looks at by herself.

We’re big readers in this house, so reading is a part of life. I go through two to three books a week since I’ve discovered the SF library system carries everything on my amazon.com list! Our kids love books. Killian even “reads” books.

I also bought Writing Essentials, and once we get her writing and penmanship skills down, we’ll start using some of the techniques in this. She’ll have a writing journal to write a little bit in every day. I’m pretty excited about this part. I see blogging in her future…

Math:
Math is the subject that scares me the most, but I’m discovering is a lot of fun. I’m using Saxon Math, level K. This is also scripted so I just read it to her. I didn’t know this at the time, but there is the Saxon teaching book, and then there’s a meeting book, and a student workbook (I think) and a whole manipulatives set you can order. I just have the main book. The first couple of lessons require pattern blocks, so I’m borrowing some from my friend Kim, Mary Judah’s preschool teacher. The next couple of lessons require teddy bear counters, and instead we’re using dried beans.

The curriculum has you use the meeting book as a calendar, which is the first half of every lesson. On Kim’s advice, before I even knew about the calendar aspect of the math curriculum, I bought a large blank desk calendar and we fill in the months and dates together (we did this last week for September) and use the calendar every day. Lacey, my sister-in-law, gave us this really cool wall hanging that has Velcro pieces for all the dates and the weather and things like that.

Kim also let me borrow “Family Math,” which is a great book with ideas for doing math with items you would naturally have and situations that are natural to a family environment. I’ve tabbed all the pages I think I might use. She also started getting an allowance last week. She gets $2.50 per week - 50 cents per year of age, and she has to save 10 percent and give or tithe 10 percent. She learned very quickly that there are no toys at Target that can be bought with two dollars.

Science:
For Science, both the Need to Know book and the content standards basically have a list of the things they need to learn. I wrote everything on a post-it note (for example, magnetism, three phases of water) and divided up the notes on my planning calendar (I bought an Office Max monthly planner) to even it out.

We’ll work in the garden and we’ll cook together and we’ll go on hikes and walks and to the beach and we’ll learn about things as they interest her (like the colony of bats that have taken up residence in the gap between our flats and the flats next door, or like butterflies or sharks). I also bought her a subscription to “My Big Backyard.”

History/Geography/Social Studies:
Again, I relied heavily on the Need to Know book and the content standards to tell me what we should be doing. I did the post-it note thing with this.

P.E.:
Really? My child is so active, I’m not even worried about this one. We usually go outside at least once a day - we have a backyard, a playground three blocks away, Golden Gate park HALF a block away; she has a bike, and we’ll go on the aforementioned walks and hikes and trips to the beach. This kid knows how to play. Her gross motor skills are great.

Oh, and she has swim class once a week. She got promoted to Level II last week. I’m very proud. I’d love to get her in ballet or gymnastics or something, but that’s going to have to wait.

Arts:
Mary Judah is really artsy - she even adds tails and curlicues to all her letters when she practices. We’ll do a lot of seasonal crafts and things related to things she’s doing in her other subjects. I have some ideas for painting themes and photo projects. We’ve always done of art around here, and we go to the museums as well.

We sing a lot and play lots of music around the house, so I’ll make sure we’re intentional about introducing her to anything else she needs. If she gets in a ballet class, that would also help with the dance aspect of arts. I’m not quite sure how to integrate theatre into her stuff, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

Spanish:
Last year, Mary Judah went to a Spanish-immersion preschool and she is continuing to go one morning a week this year. Since I speak some Spanish, we reinforce this at home and she’s always asking me new words in Spanish.

Bible studies:
We’re following the lectionary and the liturgical calendar, and we do the daily reading every morning at breakfast. I’ve also noted several saints days and we’ll learn about those as they happen.

So far, I’m taking things slow while we transition, and am focusing the most on reading, writing, and math. I’m learning that if we don’t get her work done first thing in the morning, it’s really hard to do it after that. She’s prime for learning then, and if I wait and try to do it later, it’s much harder and takes longer to do the same amount of stuff.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Homeschool, Parenthood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.