Our Curriculumn

I was just thinking about what we are now doing in homeschooling and figured it was about time to write up a post on our current daily schedule/ curriculum.

I admit that we really don't have a very consistent daily schedule.  It varies greatly from day to day depending on how busy we are and what kind of moods my kids and I are in.  My kids are still young enough that if they are in bad moods we don't even attempt school work. 

Our curriculum is as follows.

Math: (We do this about 2-5 days a week, about 15 minutes per day)
I just started my 4 year old son on the Alpha level of Math U See.  This is the first official home school curriculum I have bought and so far I absolutely love it.  I am a high school math teacher who loves math and I am very picky about math curriculum as a result.  The other kindergarten curriculum I have reviewed were mostly just handwriting books for my son.  Learning to write numbers is of course important, but that is not math.  Math U See allows me to write for my son so that he is not held back in math while we wait for his fine motor skills to catch up with his math ability.  He is currently working on learning place value and addition.  He has memorized his +0 and +1 facts and soon we will begin learning the +2 facts. 

My younger son who is 32 months old is beginning to count.  We are working on counting in the correct order, and using proper one to one correspondence.  I recently bought him a leap frog number writing tablet (we also have a letter one that he loves).  He spends time using that to practice writing numbers, and listening to it count.  I of course also count with him constantly.

Reading: ( 1-6 times a week about 30 minutes a day, or however long they want to continue)
My 4 year old is currently using the website Reading Eggs to learn to read.  He is on lesson 33 at the moment.  We have been happy with the site so far.  It is teaching quite a few skills that I didn't even think about teaching him.  I have seen quite a bit of improvement in his reading ability.  The site is challenging and progresses pretty quickly.  He gets frustrated by a few of the activities, and needs help now and then, but he is able to do most of it independently. 

My 2 year old has been playing around with the V-tech writing tablet that I bought my 4 year old to help with his handwriting.  The tablet allows you to choose a letter, and it shows you how to write it.  I assumed he was just scribbling on it.  One day he held it up and showed me a letter he had written.  He also began naming letters that he sees in the world and telling me an animal that begins with that letter.  For example he will point to an M and tell me that M is for monkey.  I realized recently that he knows about 19 capital letters, and a handful of lowercase as well.  I don't have a formal curriculum for him but I have begun working more on letter sounds with him.  I have continued to let him play with the writing tablet as he wants to.  I have also started him on Starfall.com which he loves.  For awhile I was working the mouse for him thinking he wouldn't be able to do it yet.  One day when I was helping him I had to leave the computer to do something else.  He picked up the mouse and continued playing.  I was shocked that he was able to do it on his own.  So now when R works on Reading Eggs, T works on Starfall which is a good arrangement (we have two computers)

Presentation Night: ( 1 time a week)
Recently my husband started up what we are calling presentation night.  Everyone in the family comes up with something they want to present to the family.  My husband and I each take one of the boys to help them prepare.  Wednesday night we have a nice dinner that the boys choose.  We do our presentations, and then we have desert.  Soon we will be getting some of the extended family involved as well.  Presentation night has a few purposes.  First, our hope is that it will teach them to be good speakers and it will motivate them to learn new material.  Right now since they are so little it isn't anything fancy, though my 2 year old has once again blown us away with his ability.  We keep underestimating that poor kid. 

Week 1: R, the 4 year old recited Humpty Dumpty and created a PowerPoint presentation (wtih the help of his dad) with pictures illustrating the rhyme. T, the 2 year old, recited the alphabet, I helped him make a PowerPoint with pictures for each of the letters of the alphabet.  My husband also recited a poem, and I talked about how I learned how to sew.

Week 2: R did the alphabet, and T did a PowerPoint on trucks.  I talked about how I sewed their Easter Outfits, and my husband showed pictures from his childhood.

Week 3 (which took place yesterday): R did a presentation on the planets.  He refused to practice so his didn't go so well.  T. recited the book "Dear Zoo".  I talked about the Greek Gods, and my Husband showed off one of his hobbies. 

Science and all other subjects:

We don't have anything formal for any subjects beyond Reading and Math.  We are in the process of planting a butterfly garden.  We talk about science and history whenever they come up in our daily lives.  I try to read books about other cultures to my kids to get a bit of social studies in, but there are surprisingly few history books that I have found at an appropriate level.  We also just read constantly, and do tons of crafts.  Whenever either of them tries to write, I encourage them to continue.  I may have to get some more formal handwriting started soon because my 4 year old struggles to make and reverses a lot of letters and my 2 year old is very interested in letters and writing.

Time4Learning Review

We had a one month free trial of Time4Learning.  To get that one month free trial, I promised to post a review of the program when I was done.  Anyway, I admit that we barely used it over the past month.  We have a few other computer programs we use that are meeting our needs better at this time, and I try to limit the kids computer time.  It looks like a good program with a lot to offer but it did not meet our current needs.  My children are just turned 4, and 2.5 years.  My younger son really was too young for Time4Learning, he didn't use it at all.  My 4 year old played around with the site a bit.  One thing I found frustrating was that there was not a science or social studies section for preschool aged kids.  We use Reading Eggs and Starfall for his reading education, and I use Math U See to teach him math, so I really didn't have a need for him to work on reading or math through Time4Learning.  We do not do much with science or social studies at this point.  I was excited when I initially saw that Time4Learning covered those topics until I realized that they were geared toward 1st-2nd graders.  I allowed him to do the 1st,2nd grade science/ social studies sections a bit.  They were nice but both sections assumed the kid could read.  It would have been great if it had read it to him. 

Anyway, we really only played around with the site 2 or 3 times and I don't feel that I used it enough to give a very valid review. 

R was sick all weekend so we didn’t get much done this past weekend.  Today was a very productive day.  We received most of the materials for our new math curriculum.  We will be starting Math U See Alpha level.  R spent quite a lot of time playing with the manipulative blocks today.  T joined in with the block play after he woke up from his nap.  I have been having some trouble teaching R place value.  Today I broke the concept up into about 8 steps and plan on going through one lesson a day.  Hopefully in a week or two he will have it.

After our place value work we finished reading “All About Sam”  R immediately asked me to read it again.  T was working on our body puzzle.  I helped him a bit.  He did it two times in a row then R took over and did it unassisted. 

After Body Puzzle time the boys both did some computer reading lessons.  R worked on Reading Eggs.  T worked on Starfall.

2/26/2012 Sunday

Today we went to church.  Before church I read the boys 2 short books, both were “ I can Read books” one was a Little Critter book about the aquarium, the other was a Bernstein Bears book about spring cleaning.  I attempted to introduce place value using golden beads to R but he wasn’t interested.

After Church we took naps.  After naps I tried the place value lesson again.  It was a bit more successful.  I showed R a number card, such as 4 and he had to count out 4 one beads.  Once he  understood what I was asking him, I showed him the ten bars, and the ten’s cards.  I showed him a ten’s card, such as 50 and he had to count out 5 ten bars.  Once he got good at that I gave him a 10 card and a unit card together and showed how you could combine them.  I don’t think he has the concept quite yet but he is getting it. 

After that we went to the South Side.  R learned how to start his bike by himself.  They also found a couple of old masonry blades that G was telling them about.

On the way home G gave everyone a Monkey Mint.  R poled us to find out who had chewed them and who was sucking on them.  He declared that two people had mints left, and two did not, and that 2+2=4 since there were 4 mints total.  G gave us each another mint.  I asked R how many mints had now been eaten.  He did not know.  G held up eight finger to count, and I showed him that he could get the same answer by counting by 2’s.    After counting by two’s T pipes in with “Good counting Mommy, good counting.”

At home we read a few more books.  Including 2 chapters of “All About Sam”.  T chose an eye spy book and another picture number counting book.  I gave T pictures to look for in the Eye Spy book, and we discussed the colors in the other book, counted objects, and talked about the letters in each of the color words. 

Again for a day that didn’t seem to be overly educational, we did a surprising amount.

2/25/2012 Saturday

Went to “My Little Outback” with both boys from 9:30-12:00.  While there R sounded out a word or two and wrote it on the chalk board.  T scribbled, told me he was writing letters, while I tried to identify what letters they may be.  We read the book “Heggity Peggity”.  Once home we read the book “The Three Little Pigs” 

After that R and I went over to Aunt Grace’s house to help her move.  He was very well behaved and helpful.  He helped carry boxes to the new apartment, and vacuumed the bed room.  He found a yard stick and tried to measure several items.  I showed him how he didn’t have to count every line, but just had to read the final number.  Aunt Grace gave him some new books, and we read a “Little Critter”  book that taught kids about calling 911.  We discussed 911 a bit and why you would have to call.  Aunt Grace also gave him some “Puzzle Buzz” magazines which are made by the “Highlights” company.  He did a couple of matching puzzles in the book, both involved matching.  I plan on having him write a thank you letter to Aunt Grade later but he was too tired tonight. 

When we got home he watched Curious George with T for awhile while G and I made dinner.  After dinner he did a “Reading Eggs” lesson while T practiced cutting with scissors.  He was pretty tired after such a busy day and even though he asked me to do Reading Eggs, he was a bit reluctant to work on it today.

For a day that I thought was not overly educational, I see that R at least did quite a lot. 

Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning's online education program for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience! Find out how to write your own curriculum review.

Stressful Week

R has not been focusing on school work very well lately.  I have temporarily given up on most of the Montessori type activities.  He is no longer all that interested in the pre-Montessori activates such as poring, spooning, stringing bead… He is pretty good at all of that stuff.  He has not yet progressed to the true pre-school Montessori activities, most are still beyond him.  The only Montessori like activity he is currently wants to work on is cutting.  I consider cutting a Montessori activity because it is one that he chooses, and it is a life skill that he will need later.  He is getting quite good with scissors.  He will happily cut paper up for a long time.  He will even begin cutting on lines that I draw for him. 

My Grandmother got R a subscription to “My Big Backyard”  We learned about a lot of different animals.  The magazine had a little book inside to cut out and staple together.  You can see the little book in the picture below.  R cut it out, I was totally shocked at how well he did.  

Even though I am having trouble doing Montessori activities with R, T has recently gotten into them.  Here he is a picture of him after he poured the tiny acorns from our sensory bin, doesn’t he look proud of himself?

Their dad bought these tongs.  R picked the counting bears up off the floor and put them into the egg carton.

R can now name a word that begins with most letters of the alphabet, but it is pure memorization.  He has not really made the connection between the sound and the letter.  For example he will tell you that e is for elephant, but if he sees a picture of a rabbit next to an “R” he will point to the “R” and say that it stands for “bunny”.  I tried having him sort words by their first sound.  This activity was a complete failure.  I will have to try it again in a few months.

R can count to 14 and is beginning to have one to one correspondence, but has not yet made the connection between the quantity and the number symbol.  I pulled out his hammering board that I made him last summer, and printed out numbers and put the correct number of start stickers on each number.  His job is to hammer a nail into each star, and then count the number of nails he used.  He did a couple of numbers and then lost interest.  He was more into figuring out how to use the claw end of the hammer to pull the nails back out. 

While R was hammering, T practiced spooning glass gems and acorns from one bowl to another. 

I love this picture, it is so rare that both boys are working on something and focused at the same time.

T began learning how to thread beads onto pipe cleaners.  This is still a little beyond him, but he had fun putting a single bead on and taking it right back off for a few min.

I briefly thought about doing a letter of the week study, but I admit that it has never made much sense to me.  For me it seems to work better to work on several letters at once.  Below is one of  the “A” activities we tried before I gave up on letter of the week.  We did several others, but it seemed more like I was doing them while R was watching.  

R is using an apple stamp to stamp the a’s while eating an apple.   He did a great job on this.  

R has also gotten into "writing" his name, to me it just looks like scribble but he has assured me that he really is "writing" his name.  Using word art in Microsoft word, I wrote his name in huge bubble letters.  I then had him trace the inside of the letters so that he really did "write" his name.  He did a pretty good job on this, but it still needs a lot more work.  

R learned to draw circles this week.  He drew one that was nearly perfect, I wish I had gotten a picture of it before he attacked it with his scissors (as I said he likes to cut, no paper is safe from him).  

 

One day when I came down to eat lunch with the boys, I work from home while their grandmother watches them, R runs over and hands me this.

 

He told me it was a book that he made for me.  He has made pictures for others, but this is the very first one that he made for me.

Toddlers reading are always cute.

Here is the second picture in two weeks that I got of the boys working together without fighting (at least for this one moment).  

Since I never got a post up last week, here are some Halloween pictures.  I made both costumes.  R unfortunately was terrified by people in costume, especially those wearing scary masks, and adults wearing full body costumes in which you couldn't see their face at all.  There were several times in which he completely fell apart. 

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R wasn't a big fan of the hat as you can see.  

Go to 1+1+1=1 to see what other toddlers did this week.