School Year 2016/2017 Plans

July means a new homeschooling year in North Carolina and although we school year round, I do like to mark it by starting new subjects and a special first-day of school celebration. I also like to take the time to evaluate my overall school plans for each girl and see what I want to change or add. We had our annual first day of school celebration a few days ago. The girls got some special school supplies and got to eat brownies and ice cream for breakfast. We also went to a bounce house place, Chick-fil-a, and a science museum. All told, it was an exciting day.

Lydia, 2nd Grade

Eleanor, Kindergarten

Adelaide, PreK

The bounce house place took horrible pictures, but Clara did enjoy just taking it all in and sat happily in her stroller, looking around for a solid 2 hours.

Rainbow shadows at the science museum

Not sure what this race track was supposed to teach them science-wise, but they had a blast on it for like a half hour.

Here's our plans for the next year. These are always subject to change, but I am getting better at knowing what will work for us and what won't and feel fairly confident these plans will mostly work out.

Reading

• Lydia-Finish the Mensa K-3 reading list. She's been working on it for a few years and I think she can get it done this year. Also do readings associated with our history and science. Aim for at least a half hour a day. Also do Pizza Hut Book-It
• Eleanor- Start the Mensa K-3 reading list. Also finish Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. She has about 40 lessons left. I would like her to start doing independent reading along with daily lessons. I'm going to aim for 15 minutes a day and up that to 20 or 30 once she finishes OPGTR. Start Pizza Hut Book-It.
• Adelaide- Continue to work in OPGTR. She will most likely not finish this year but should make good progress. 

Math

• Lydia- She's on Christian Light Education 205 right now. I'd like for her to be a year further along, so we're going to aim for CLE 305, but certainly no less than finishing 210 so that she doesn't get behind. I also might continue to do some Ronit Bird math to help her with her basic facts and number sense on the side. And we need to work on skip counting, so we'll probably do a lot of skip counting YouTube videos as well. 
• Eleanor- Finish Miquon Green and Yellow and at least start the final book, Purple. Also Continue working through Beast Academy. Finish 3A and hopefully 3B, but no hurry. This is secondary to Miquon for right now, but will become primary next year once Miquon is completed, as Miquon only goes through 3rd grade. Also continue with Mathematics Enhancement Programme level 2 and then 3. This is really just extra after the other two and we've sort of been skipping through it as needed when topics are redundant. But I'd like it to be secondary once Miquon is over as it is a full elementary program, so we'll keep it up in the meantime.
• Adelaide- Finish Miquon Orange, maybe even a bit in Red and make progress in MEP level 1. Miquon is our primary concern for this year though.

Writing

• Lydia- Continue with Writing With Ease level 2. Probably start Writing With Ease level 3. Possibly start Killgallon writing supplements with WWE 3 for some variation, but we're not there yet.
• Eleanor- Continue WWE Level 1, probably skip to level 2 in a few months as WWE 1 is a bit on the easy side for her.
• Adelaide- Continue working on handwriting using Handwriting Without Tears PreK and Kindergarten as well as extra apps and copywork until mostly fluent in writing letters and numbers. Probably start Writing With Ease 1 sometime this spring.

Grammar

• Lydia- Continue with First Lanugage Lessons level 3. Once she finishes that, I think we may pause before moving to level 4 and do a different approach to grammar for a bit. I haven't decided what yet, though.
• Eleanor (NEW!)- Start First Language Lessons Level 1, possibly through Level 2. She's been listening to her sister's lessons for a while and the accompanying CD and will probably pick it up very quickly. I have a feeling she will finish level 2 this year, but I won't push it.

Spelling

• Lydia- Continue All About Spelling level 3. After that, either move to Rod and Staff Spelling, or AAS level 4. I haven't decided yet. 
• Eleanor- Continue AAS level 1 (almost done) and start level 2
• Adelaide- Depending on how handwriting and reading go, possibly start AAS level 1 later in the year.

Geography

• Lydia- Continue in the Complete book of Maps and Geography. It is teaching decent geography skills but also really working on her "following instructions" skills, which is important for her. My guess is that she won't finish it this year (it is really thick and I only make her do a page a day). That's fine, we're in no hurry.
• Eleanor (NEW!)- She's been begging to do geography for more than a year now. I told her that her reading skills had to be a little better and I think she's finally ready. So she's going to start Evan Moor Beginning Geography

Latin (NEW!)

• Lydia & Eleanor- This would be a new subject for both girls. I intended to only do it with Lydia, but Eleanor wants to do it too, so why not? I am going to start very gentle with a program called I Speak Latin, possibly combined or just followed with Getting Started with Latin. I want to be consistent with Latin, so if I see that this isn't happening, I might put off Latin for another year, but I hope we can start because I think they'll really enjoy it.

History

• Combined All Girls- History didn't really happen this year beyond the informal history as we visited places locally and on road trips and Liberty's Kids. So I'm hoping to be better. We will be working through Story of the World again this year, continuing where we've left off with Ancients.

Science

• Combined All Girls- We've been really awesome about doing science in a sort of unschooly way. We are really deliberate about bringing up science topics in day-to-day life and have lots of apps, shows, and toys to help facilitate that. I really don't see a problem with it for now and at this age, but I might try out Mystery Science, which looks like my favorite theoretical program (Building Foundations in Scientific Understanding) but much more open-and-go (which I need). I only recently learned about this new program, so I need to think about it for a bit.

Piano

• Lydia & Eleanor- Continue Hoffman Academy. We are absolutely loving Mr. Hoffman and it is working very well for our family. I recently backed their Kickstarter, so we should be sticking with them for the long haul. They are both almost done with Unit 2, and I'd like them to be through Unit 4 or 5 by the end of next year.
• Adelaide- Start Hoffman Academy in the spring when she turns 5. 

Extra-curriculars

• Lydia & Eleanor- Take 2 classes/semester at local co-op. They did it this year and it went pretty well, so I hope it continues to work for them. They will also continue in Girl Scouts.

Note:

These are not exhaustive. We use a lot of educational toys, apps, games, books, tv/movies, etc. I also try to be very deliberate in what we discuss and look for teaching opportunities all the time. Homeschooling is a lifestyle, in my opinion, and I try to include it in every aspect of our lives.

School Year 2015/2016 Plans

Our first day of school is on July 1st. We school year round and that is when the government requires me to report for Lydia, so it works out nicely for us. I have mostly finalized our upcoming plans for the year. Lydia will be a 1st/2nd grader (I haven't decided which), Eleanor is legally a preschooler because of her birthday cutoff but for our purposes she is more a kindergartner, and Adelaide won't be doing much school this year, at least not until the Spring, when I will maybe start reading and math with her.

All three girls will be taking classes at a local homeschool co-op for two hours a week this fall. Our main goal is to get them out to meet people and enjoy themselves, but also experience a classroom environment and another teacher besides me. We did not choose these classes based on their academic needs. Adelaide and Eleanor will both be in a preschool class together, which will be below Eleanor's level academically but that I'm sure she'll enjoy anyways. She missed the birthday cutoff for the more advanced classes. Lydia will be taking 2 classes. The first is called Stories and Art and the second will be working from the curriculum Five in a Row. They are both classes where there will be a book and a project related to the book, which I think she will really enjoy. Crafts are not my strong point, so outsourcing them is a bonus for me too!

We do lots of little extras just through our daily lives. We have passes to a science museum with a zoo and aquarium and regularly take advantage of it. The girls also listen to tons of audio books at bedtime. So this is by no means a comprehensive list of everything we'll do, but it is the most formal.

Plans for Lydia:
Math: Last year we started math with Saxon. In theory it worked well for her, but the program itself was taking us almost 2 hours a day, which was just too much. After a few months, I switched over to Christian Light Education math which had all the benefits of Saxon without the downsides for us. As a result of her late start with it, though, she hasn't quite finished Grade 1 math. So she'll finish that up and then start Grade 2.

Language Arts: Lydia finished Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading last year, so for reading I assign her reading for 20 minutes. A few times a week I have her read out loud to me from a leveled old fashioned reader like the Treadwell Readers to catch any mistakes she might be making. She reads a lot on her own as well, so at this point, I'm not too worried about her reading and her writing program covers comprehension. She didn't finish Writing With Ease Level 1, so she'll finish that up and then we'll likely start Writing With Ease Level 2. She finished First Language Lessons Level 1 and will doing Level 2. Her grammar at this point is learning basic grammar terms and memorizing lists of things like pronouns. I bought the First Language Lessons Audio Companion to help with that memorization that we'll be listening to in the car. We also analyze her sentences for WWE, which she really seems to enjoy and we'll keep up. For spelling, she'll continue with All About Spelling Level 2 and then move on to Level 3 when she finishes it.

History: This will be our first year doing deliberate history. She and Eleanor will both be doing Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancients. They've listened to the audio book many times at bedtime, but we'll be going through it together coupled with books from the library and some suggestions from the accompanying activity book. She is also working through Evan Moor Beginning Geography, which she seems to really enjoy.

Science: This last year was the year of human anatomy. We finished the girls' MyBodys, but we really never did Beginning Foundations of Scientific Understanding like I planned. They got a lot out of it, so I don't regret this last year, but I think we'll try more formality this year. We'll go through the first 12 lessons in BFSU as a family with Eleanor (and Adelaide if she wants) participating.


Plans for Eleanor:
Math: Eleanor did an awesome job last year. She finished Essential Math A&B and also Miquon Orange. She seems to have a good grasp on math so far and is thriving in the more experimental, puzzle-type of math that I'm introducing her to. She just started Miquon Red and Mathematics Enhancement Programme Year 1. Miquon Orange and Red together make up a first grade math and MEP Year 1 is also a first grade math, so she is solidly working at that level. If she finishes Miquon Red, we'll start on Miquon Blue. The jury is still out on whether we will continue MEP, but so far it has been a success for her, so I don't foresee changing soon. For some reason, Math Mammoth just didn't seem quite right for her. At some point, I might add in a word problem book, but we'll see.

Language Arts: She will continue working through Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. She seems to really enjoy reading and spends a lot of time reading beginning readers on her own. I expect that she'll be able to move from the sounding out every word stage this year, and if that happens, I'll start her on All About Spelling Level 1. She is also working through Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten (and doing handwriting apps on the iPad) and when she finishes that she'll start on Writing With Ease Level 1. I don't know that I'll do formal grammar with her this year, but she'll be listening to Lydia's grammar and the CD in our car, so I bet she'll pick most of it up on her own anyways.

History/Science: She'll be tagging along with Lydia for these with the exception of geography. We'll probably wait a year for that simply because of the reading skills required.


Plans for Adelaide:
Since Adelaide won't be four until almost the end of the school year, I have no formal plans for her at this point. Mostly I have her working on iPad apps to learn her letter sounds and beginning blending. I assume that I'll start reading with her sometime after Christmas. She has already expressed that she wishes I would teach her, but she just isn't ready yet. I'll probably start her on math around the same time as well.

Other Plans 2014/2015

Most of these will be done together, some more regularly than others, but they are still important parts of our homeschool and I thought they deserved to be listed, if only for my own records.

Religion:
We are very religious, and while I don't really consider us "religious homeschoolers," it is still an important part of our lives.  In the morning, immediately after breakfast, the girls and I will read one story out of the Illustrated Scripture Stories books put out by the Church.

We will probably be focusing on the bible this year, as we focus on the Book of Mormon in the evening as a family.  Every night we read one page together out of the BoM and talk about it as we go.  Lydia reads a verse or two as well.  While we read, the girls look at The Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon set that we happen to own (thanks Mom and Dad!).  It is a 16 volume set that is out of print, but really detailed and awesome.  We recently finished the Book of Mormon for the second time as a family, so we are starting fresh right now and are only a few chapters in.

Memorization:
Since we stopped memorization for a while and are adding Eleanor in, I'll be focusing on reviewing ones Lydia has already learned for a while and teaching them to Eleanor.  So all of our previous memorization lists still apply.  If we finish that (and Lydia likely will, if not Eleanor) then I will just continue with last year's plan and the timeline.


Science:
Science is not a formal priority for us this year.  I do plan on doing some formal science though, specifically Building Foundations in Scientific Understanding.  The first volume is for K-2, so we will be doing 12 lessons out of it this year.  They are fairly meaty, though.  I also plan on doing some interest-led science this year, including a lot of time on the human body, which Lydia is especially interested in right now, and probably space.

We will be doing My Body which is a project where you build a life-size body diagram organ by organ.  We will also likely make a few lapbooks.  Lydia has been enjoying Human Body by Tinybop and My Incredible Body apps, both of which are excellent and she has learned a lot.

I am also getting chickens in a few weeks as day-old baby chicks, so we will probably do some informal science as they help me with them too.


History:
We will do nothing formal for history this year.  The girls listen to Story of the World volumes 1&2 all the way through every few weeks at bedtime which covers from pre-history to the beginning of the renaissance.  We are still working on memorizing the Classical Conversations Timeline too.

And the girls watch Liberty's Kids all the way through every few months, which is a great program about the founding of the United States.  Besides those and reading library books, I plan on no history focus this year.  Actually, now that I list it out like that, this is a fairly decent history plan for a first grader and pre-schooler.


Computer Science:

I consider computer science an important subject in our homeschool, so we will be doing Code.org's new K-1st cs program when it comes out (promised to be this summer).  Looking at it, that is about 20 lessons total.  We will also be doing some pre-coding activities, mostly in the form of apps like Kodable.  I don't think Lydia will be ready for Scratch by the end of this year, but that is our goal in the next few years.

Language Arts Plans for 2014/2015

First Grade 

Reading:  Finish up The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  At this point it is almost just a formality but we will finish it, dang it!  Lydia is already reading as well as I could hope and it is mostly just practice and maturity at this point for her.

We will also be reading books together daily with the hopes of eventually moving her to free-reading time on her own.

We will be doing family read alouds daily.... I hope.  I haven't been great at this in the past, but here's hoping this is the year!

Writing: We will be using Writing With Ease Level 1.  This is almost exclusively narration and dictation, both of which will be good for her.

Grammar: First Language Lessons Level 1.

Spelling: All About Spelling Level 1 & 2.  We're mostly done with level 1, so when she finishes it, we'll move right on to level 2.


Pre-K

Reading: We're starting OPGTR!  One girl finishing it up, one starting!  I'm pretty sure I will be using this book for like 6 years straight, but here goes year 3.

She will be joining us for our family read aloud.

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears PreK.  Eleanor will be learning all of her capital letters.

Math Plans for 2014/2015

First Grade Math

I've tried everything I can think of for math with Lydia, but it just hasn't been sinking in.  All my dreams of creative and alternative math methods have been thrown out the window with her.  I don't think it is a maturity thing either, I think it is just the way she is.  She just hasn't been getting it.  So for this year, I decided to go with the best, most thorough and incrimental traditional math program I could find: Saxon math.

When I first started looking into homeschooling, Saxon was one of the first math programs I heard about and I immediately dismissed it.  I consider myself fairly mathy and some of the other math programs appealed to me much more (Singapore, Hungarian, Miquon, Living Math).  I was sure I could make those work for my children.  But they just aren't, at least for Lydia.  Algorithms are what Lydia needs.  A deep understanding of number relationships is not.  Repitition and memorization are what she needs.  Spiral (constantly reviewing past concepts) and infuriatingly incremental are what she needs, so we're going with Saxon.

Honestly, it is a very respected, proven program that thousands of children have used with great success, but I am a little disappointed to go there.  Also, it is crazy involved!  I have a HUGE teacher's manual (like several inches thick) that is scripted (which I actually like).  I have two workbooks, a "meeting" book, and several masters.  Not to mention the tons of manipulatives that they require (which I mostly had on hand already).  Math is probably going to take us an hour or more a day.  But I am committed.  I am hopeful.  I really think this might work for her, and if it does, we are in it for the long haul, at least with Lydia.

I will not be supplementing Saxon at all this year, at least in the foreseeable future.  It is already so involved that I don't think I'll be up to it!

PreK

For Eleanor this year we will be finishing Essential Math.  She is already on about page 100 in Essential Math A and will probably finish it up in the month.  Essential Math B, from what I learned with Lydia, is much more challenging and I'm sure she'll need to slow down.  I also plan on trying all my beautiful math dreams out on her.  We'll be doing a lot of work with our cuisenaire rods and probably working through Miquon and possibly even starting Math Mammoth if she gets there.  Eleanor is very bright, but she is still very young (almost 4 years old), so we'll take our time and see what happens.

She will also be sitting in a lot on the verbal stuff I do with Lydia, like skip counting and counting backwards, as well as calendar and patterns, so I expect Saxon to benefit her too, somewhat.

Memorization Plan for Kindergarten 2013/14

For PreK, I created what I thought was an ambitious memorization plan for Lydia.  She blew me away with her ability to memorize and I ended up needing to add a lot of content.  This year I have created another ambitious plan for Kindergarten.  I have about the same amount of religious content on this list.  Inspiration for them comes mostly from the Articles of Faith (of which there are 13) and the LDS Scripture Mastery list.  The poems I found are longer and more challenging than last year, but they are fun and appeal to her interests.  Last year, poems seemed to be her favorite thing to memorize, so I may even be adding more to that list as the year goes on.

For facts this year, Lydia will be attempting to memorize a 161 point timeline of the world using the Classical Conversations Classical Acts & Facts cards as our list.  I feel like this is especially ambitious, but I am also OK if it takes us more than one year to complete as I feel like having a timeline memorized will prove incredibly valuable for her.  The CC cards are broken into 4 sets by time period, and we'll be working on one set at a time.  For reference, here is a link to our list for last year, here is a link to how and why we do memorization, and here is a link to the CC Cards we'll be using.

We've completed the ones that are crossed out.  The ones that are italicized are being worked on currently.

Religion:

• Article of Faith 4:  We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• Article of Faith 5:  We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
• Article of Faith 6:  We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
• Job 19:25–26: For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.    
• Isaiah 55:8–9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
• John 7:17: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.       
• Alma 32:21: And now as I said concerning faith — faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.       
• D&C 25:12: For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.       

Literature

"Autumn" by Emily Dickinson

The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on.              

“Dora Diller” by Jack Prelutsky

My stomach's full of butterflies!

lamented Dora Diller.

Her mother sighed. "That's no surprise,

you ate a caterpillar!"

“Knight-in-Armour“ by A. A. Milne

Whenever I’m a shining Knight,

I buckle on my armour tight;

And then I look about for things,

Like Rushings-Out, and Rescuings,

And Savings from the Dragon’s Lair,

And fighting all the Dragons there.

And sometimes when our fights begin,

I think I’ll let the Dragons win...

And then I think perhaps I won’t,

Because they’re Dragons, and I don’t.                                      

                                
               

"Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers                                

That perches in the soul,                                             

And sings the tune without the words,                                 

And never stops at all,                                  

                                               

And sweetest in the gale is heard;                                          

And sore must be the storm                                      

That could abash the little bird                                  

That kept so many warm.                                            

                                               

I've heard it in the chillest land,                                

And on the strangest sea;                                           

Yet, never, in extremity,                                              

It asked a crumb of me.                                               

                        
                       

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.                                                

His house is in the village though;                                            

He will not see me stopping here                                            

To watch his woods fill up with snow.                                    

                                               

My little horse must think it queer                                          

To stop without a farmhouse near                                          

Between the woods and frozen lake                                     

The darkest evening of the year.                                             

                                               

He gives his harness bells a shake                                            

To ask if there is some mistake.                                                

The only other sound’s the sweep                                          

Of easy wind and downy flake.                                                 

                                               

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.                                   

But I have promises to keep,                                     

And miles to go before I sleep,                                                 

And miles to go before I sleep.                                 

                                               

                                               

“The arrow and the song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow                                        

I shot an arrow into the air,                                        

It fell to earth, I knew not where;                                            

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight                                 

Could not follow it in its flight.                                   

                                               

I breathed a song into the air,                                   

It fell to earth, I knew not where;                                            

For who has sight so keen and strong,                                   

That it can follow the flight of song?                                       

                                               

Long, long afterward, in an oak                                 

I found the arrow, still unbroke;                                               

And the song, from beginning to end,                                   

I found again in the heart of a friend.                                     

                                               

                                               

“The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!                                                 

                                               

                                               

“The Fisherman” by Abbie Farwell Brown (started 1-16-14)f

The fisherman goes out at dawn                                              

When every one's abed,                                             

And from the bottom of the sea                                              

Draws up his daily bread.                                             

                                               

His life is strange; half on the shore                                       

And half upon the sea —                                             

Not quite a fish, and yet not quite                                           

The same as you and me.                                            

                                               

The fisherman has curious eyes;                                             

They make you feel so queer,                                   

As if they had seen many things                                               

Of wonder and of fear.                                

                                               

They're like the sea on foggy days, —                                    

Not gray, nor yet quite blue;                                     

They 're like the wondrous tales he tells                                               

Not quite — yet maybe — true.                                               

                                               

He knows so much of boats and tides,                                  

Of winds and clouds and sky!                                   

But when I tell of city things, 

He sniffs and shuts one eye!      

Facts and Lists: 

• Classical Conversations Timeline: Ancient World
• Classical Conversations Timeline: Medieval World (started 10-31-13)
• Classical Conversations Timeline: New World
• Classical Conversations Timeline: Modern World

Math Plans for 3-year old PreK

Ellie will be three years old this next school year and she is already insisting on being included in school plans.  So far I've been able to appease her by printing off pre-writing sheets and having her do "reading" apps on the iPad and call it reading.  I have a feeling she's going to wise up pretty soon and want something more legitimate.  This post is focused on her math.

My plan with Eleanor is to do the Mathematics Enhancement Programme Reception level, also known as MEP Reception.  I attempted to do this program with Lydia, but it was just too verbal for her.  Eleanor shouldn't have any problem with the verbal aspect of the program and it should be right up her alley. 

MEP is a British program based on a Hungarian series.  It focuses a lot on problem solving skills and games.  While meant for a classroom, it does transition to homeschool quite well and is available completely online for free.  The Reception level is only 60 lessons long, so that should give us plenty of time for pausing and working on specific concepts.

We'll also start some C-rod activities.  For now, we will mostly focus on familiarity with them and might start some simple Education Unboxed games or Miquon Orange lab pages.  I did go ahead and buy her the Essential Math A&B workbooks, but I doubt we'll start them this year.  If we do, it will be more towards the end of the year.

School this year is still 100% optional for Eleanor, so all of these plans mostly for fun for her.

Math plans for Kindergarten 2013/2014

Edited: I think we'll begin with this now.  As we get to the end of Essential Math B, I'm finding that I'm dragging her along and that she is just getting frustrated and not really absorbing all that much.  So I think I'll start with this plan as of tomorrow.

I've been putting a lot of thought into what we should do for Kindergarten math next year.  Lydia will be done, or almost done with the Singapore Essential Math program by then, and originally my plan was to move on into Math Mammoth 1a, which is technically a first grade program.  However, I'm finding that she is only absorbing about 50% of the concepts that I'm teaching her and I feel like there would be some great value in stepping back and solidifying her number sense before moving on.  Because she's only be barely 5, I think that now is a great time to pause and really get these concepts down solid.

How to approach this, however, is a little more complicated.  I've thought that maybe we should stick with doing Miquon Orange/Red as our primary math program.  I've also thought about just using a list of concepts and teaching them myself in whatever way makes sense.  I do feel very comfortable teaching at this level, and the latter is a tempting solution.

So after thinking about it, I think we'll do a combination of things.  I plan on using Kitchen Table Math as a sort of guide or check list to make sure she is honestly grasping what I'm talking about.  Rather than worksheets or lesson plans, the book lists the incremintal steps that a child should learn about numbers.  For each little step, it gives some suggestions or ideas on how to teach it.  Up until now, I've mostly been using it as a backup for more ideas if Lydia got stuck somewhere, but I think it will be a great program to follow on its own.

Along with Kitchen Table Math, I plan on using some of the ideas from Education Unboxed.  EU is similar to KTM in that it doesn't have worksheets or lesson plans, but is concept focused.  It is a website with videos of how to use Cuisenaire Rods to teach various math concepts.  We love c-rods at our house, so this is a great resource.

I do plan on continuing with Miquon Orange/Red as I feel like.  Knowing me, it is going to be difficult to not try to finish the program, but as of right now, it is definitely secondary.

Some of the concepts that I am going to focus on with Lydia for Kindergarten are:

• counting to 100
• skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s
• place value to 10s, maybe 100s
• counting "on" (I say 5, she says 6, 7, 8...)
• counting "back" (I say 5, she says 4, 3, 2...)
• greater than/less than, more/less, bigger/smaller
• ordering things by size
• patterns

That list isn't exhaustive, but if she can get there, we'll move on to more formal math, like Math Mammoth and Miquon.  I'm just not sure she's ready yet.

2013/2014 School Year Plans!

It's the time of year when homeschooling moms are getting bored with what they are currently using (and finishing) and are busy planning and getting excited about next year.  Planning homeschooling is one of my favorite pastimes.  I've been planning on homeschooling since Lydia was about 8 months old, well before we knew she was autistic, and I just thoroughly enjoy learning about all the methods available for teaching different subjects.  This is probably a good thing, because Lydia is a very unique learner and I imagine teaching her sisters will be very different from her.  Because I am aware of what is available, I can tailor-fit their resources. 

Doing PreK with her this year has been very encouraging for me.  I've seen what kind of teacher I am and am even starting to get an idea as to what sort of curricula works well with my (and Lydia's) personality type.  Next year I plan on doing Kindergarten with her.  Now, because we live in Arkansas, she actually misses the Kindergarten cutoff by less than a week.  So technically and legally, she'll still be in PreK next year.  None of that really matters, because everything I'm doing is going to be at her level, but after thinking about it, I still think we'll call next year Kindergarten.

At her age and ability level, I plan on having a very heavy focus on the three Rs and memorization.  Everything else will be gravy, but the three Rs and memorization are what I'm most interested in for her at this point.

I will also probably be doing some formalish things with Eleanor too, but I will save that for a later time.

So, without further ado:

Our 2013/2014 School Year Plan!

Math

Miquon Orange (and some Red)

Education Unboxed
Math Mammoth 1a

Kitchen Table Math

Reading

Continue The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Assigned Reading daily

Handwriting

Handwriting Without Tears K

LetterSchool iPad app

Copywork

Spelling

All About Spelling Level 1

Logic of English iPad app

Grammar

Possibly First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind

Science

Little Sprouts program at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks

Nature Study

History/Geography

Story of the World: Ancient Times audio

The Core (Continent Blobs)

Various map iPad apps

Memorization

A list of my own making

Possibly the Classical Conversations timeline

So there you have it.  I'm pretty excited about my choices and will be writing up a post on them all in more detail later, but for now, this is my plan!