Our "Curriculum" and Resources

At this stage in the game, I have been putting together our "curriculum" from dozens of different sources. I'm constantly finding new things to add to our little school or ideas I want to try out so I don't think I'd ever feel 100% comfortable with a boxed, all-in-one curriculum.

As I've mentioned previously, I start with the Core Knowledge series and then expand outward from there. Here's what we have in place for this year! Note: Everything for each subject isn't pictured, I just pulled out some of the highlights.

Math

As a group, we will start the day with our Number of the Day. This simple sheet will be a fast review on place value, various ways to write numbers, adding by tens and hundreds, equation forms, etc. I will not have all the girls fill out the work sheet every day because it would be a massive waste of time and paper but we will do it all together. Obviously they aren't all on the same level but I intend to teach lessons as a group before they do their own leveled worked. In addition to the four operations, telling time and money sense, we will be spend time learning about geometry, data interpretation and playing all sorts of math games.

Language Arts

Learning to read (or read even better) will be a huge part of this year's language arts plan. I like to combine understanding of phonics, word families and sight words to teach the girls and, so far, this has worked well for us. J, who is well beyond the BOB Book level, will be keeping a reading journal of all the new and exciting books she reads this year. We'll also spend time creating stories together and individually. As part of our weekly routine, the girls get a spelling list to learn and study for a quiz on Friday as well. There are a number of activities centered around these weekly words that have built in writing and grammar practice.

Everything else

As I mentioned before, we're planning to do Unit Studies this year which will bring science and social studies together (along with math and language arts to an extent). We will be watching lots of videos, reading lots of books and probably cruising the web while exploring history and science together! I plan to introduce both Latin (as part of our Ancient Rome study) and Spanish (for practical reasons) to the girls this year though it won't become a major part of the day at this stage.

Every day this week, J has come to me to tell me she "can't wait for school to start!" as all the bits and pieces have come together. I think we must be on the right track then!

Workbooks and Grade Level

Every year I picked up a couple workbooks for each girl to use for extra practice during the school year. Worksheets are not a major part of our daily life but having some that are ready made is good for reinforcing and practicing concepts, particularly in math and grammar.

This year I picked up small math workbooks from Scholastic and then the following from Mead.
*Note: I don't think these are the exact editions we have but the concept is the same

They seemed to have a diverse selection of concepts at first glance and, overall, I'm happy with them. The only problem I noticed, after looking through them more extensively at home, is that my girls could probably do over half the work already for their respective grade level! We haven't even started the school year!

I think I may end up saving some of the early pages that I know they've mastered for their younger siblings (except the K book obviously) to graduate in to later in the year. No reason to give them busy work if they already have the concept learned! I also suspect I may need to go buy new workbooks (or make my own sheets) midway through the year for the next grade level.

iPad Apps for School

We're a very technological family. Robby and I love "gadgets" so when the iPad first came out, we both looked at it with fascination. For me, it reminded me of a PADD from Star Trek and therefore owning it would serve my inner-geek. I didn't realize at the time just how much it would be used both by us and, eventually by the kids!

 I've downloaded a number of educational apps over the last few years and wanted to share some of the ones we use to teach and reinforce skills with the girls.

BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr have fun daily/weekly videos about any number of topics. Last year there was a great one about Rosa Park and one about Martin Luther King Jr. Moby, the robot, helps give a brief introduction to a topic. BrainPOP Jr. is geared toward K-3.

The TeachMe series has a Toddler, Kindergarten, First Grade and now Second Grade (which I haven't looked at yet). They reinforce math, spelling and sight words appropriate to each grade level and reward with coins or stickers in the app.

Word Bingo and Math Bingo are just what they sound like, Bingo games centered around sight words and math facts. These are both great for helping the kids memorize those things without having to bust out the flash cards.

Rocket Math, Sushi Monster and Math Drills are all Math based apps. They can be customized to the level or operation that needs to be practiced. Rocket Math and Sushi Monster are math games. Math Drills, though not a game, we use daily and for end of week assessment since it keeps records and I can email progress reports from the app.

Stack the States, Stack the Countries and Presidents vs Aliens have been entertaining the girls (and me) all summer! They give basic information about the subject matter in a fun, game like environment. Monster Physics is made by the same company and teaches basic physics principles without them even realizing they are learning!

Articulation Station is a great app if you have a kidlet who needs a little extra help articulating certain sounds. You can either buy the entire collection or select the individual sounds your child needs.

Beyond the more free-play, game apps, we also have some reference material apps that do not get used daily but come in handy. These are generally more science or history based but I recommend them - especially This Day in History and Science360.

Enjoy!