It was my goal this week to get my Boo’s curriculum posted for the year. I wanted to give her a very flexible, well-balanced curriculum that will not only help her to progress but to allow her and I to spend some good quality time together!! The recurring thought through this whole planning process was how quickly time goes by and that each minute is precious with our kiddos. With that in mind, I didn’t want a curriculum that would require me to spend more time preparing for lessons and less time playing. With that being said, here it is! In all it’s glory!!!
My Boo’s Learning Plans (a.k.a. Super Work!)
MATH
I have divided this section into 6 sections. I will write what each section is, the learning goals we plan to achieve, and the manipulatives we will be using to teach those concepts.
HANDWRITING
LITERACY/ READING
I have two separate learning activities: one is our reading program (hooked on phonics garage sale special!) and the other is our literacy tray, which will be word play activities. There is so much to consider when teaching your child to read- what do you teach first, when is your child reading ready, which components of literacy should you be integrating into the reading program,… I have thought long and hard about this and I think we are just going to dive in head first and see what happens! I will be doing a week of alphabet sound segmenting. My daughter knows all the letter sounds, I just want to work with her on breaking down the sounds. I think that will help her understand reading more. But who knows- I feel like my daughter is more than ready to read- why should I hold her back because of my apprehensions?
EXPLORATIONS
These little units will be chosen by my daughter. I think it is important for kids to have a say in their education, and it definitely helps if the topic matter is something that is interesting to her! I found a darling little science tool kit with all sorts of exploration tools for 1.50 at our local bookstore. I can’t wait to use it!
EARLY SKILLS
SPANISH
An outline of the Spanish that we plan on learning… I want to be very flexible on what we do learn, and if she has questions about other Spanish words or we happen to hear new words in our community, then our curriculum will adapt!
RELIGION
This was a toughy to plan. I feel like these scripture lessons need to be taught to my daughter in accordance with what she needs at the time. So there is no “set schedule”. but I do have some FHE ideas that I would like to use this year!
ART
An outline of some of the art materials we have… I think it would be fun to center the art around our exploration study, the season, or holidays that are coming up.
PIANO
I made two songs for my daughter’s little tikes piano. Once she has mastered that, I will move her to the real piano. Or who knows- I may start having her look for middle C now!!
This looks great! You are right, it is so easy to get caught up in the planning and have little energy left for the implementing!! Great job!!
Great work! I’m trying something similar at home with my son. We are also using a lot of the Kumon workbooks to help with fine-tuning his skills using writing implements.
Some things you may want to try as well: folding games (nothing so complex as origami, but perhaps just making a peek-a-boo drawing to fold; Kumon’s book Let’s Fold! is great for this); memory games; making physical activities an explicit part of the learning process (hopscotch, jump rope, bowling, gymnastics, obstacle courses, etc.)
Thanks for sharing your home curriculum! It’s great to see the ideas others are using to help inspire me with our own!
hurray! this looks like a packed year. do you post some of these activities as you go along? it can definitely seem overwhelming in the beginning but, having it outlined like this is already a big step.