Quarterly Curriculum: August - October 2015

I was eager to move on to a fuller curriculum after taking the summer off. Oddly enough, though, we did struggle with this curriculum a bit. I don't know if the issue was we were still in Summer/moving mode or if was the addition of Scooby-Doo's full day schedule or the beginning divergence of Optimus Prime's and Bumblebee's schedules. Or maybe it was a mixture of all of that. Certainly the stress of the school district pressuring us to enroll Scooby-Doo in pre-k added to our problems.

They wanted us to enroll him in pre-k and we refused, stating that we were homeschooling him, had been homeschooling him all of this time, and reminded them that they KNEW we were homeschooling him. They responded by refusing all services (except for speech therapy) to him. Whatever their plan was I think it backfired because my husband responded that that was fine. Next thing we knew, about a month later, they wanted to have another meeting with us to set up all the therapy they had just denied our son - while also suggesting that we enroll him in pre-k. We went to the meeting but turned down the offer of therapy AND the offer of pre-k. The whole thing was highly unsettling, very disturbing, and COMPLETELY unprofessional.

Whatever the reason was we seriously struggled this whole quarter and didn't wind up finishing on time - we ran over into our week off. But, since we homeschool for almost twice the number of hours the state requires that was no big deal.

Anyway, our curriculum:

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday.

Subjects:

Math - Addition, subtraction, time, money, etc. 
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 2 (American Education Publishing), Brain Quest Grade 2 (Workman Publishing Company Inc), Let's Grow Smart: Addition (Dalmatian Press), Disney Cars: Math (Bendon)
Number of Pages - 3

Spelling & Reading - Spelling words & units practiced in print and cursive that tie into the books they are reading.
Days - Five days a week for Spelling, Seven days a week for Reading
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets and story books.
Number of Pages - 2

English - Phonics and reading comprehension.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Let's Grow Smart Phonics 1 (Dalmatian Press), Let's Grow Smart: Phonics (Dalmatian Press), Dora the Explorer First Words (Bendon Publishing), Let's Grow Smart: Rhyme Time (Dalmatian Press), Let's Grow Smart: Reading Readiness (Dalmatian Press), Listen, Read, and Learn Grade 2 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-4

History/Geography/Religion - Three units on Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Egypt and the Middle East (Carson-Dellosa Publishing LLC), Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs (by Marcia Williams), Who Was King Tut? (by Roberta Edwards), Greek and Roman Civilizations (Carson-Dellosa Publishing LLC), Tools of the Ancient Greeks (Nomad Press), Greek Myths (by Marcia Williams), Tools of the Ancient Romans (Nomad Press), The Romans: Gods, Emperors, and Dormice (by Marcia Williams), What Was Pompeii? (by Jim O'Conner), Who Was Julius Caesar? (by Nico Medina)
Number of Pages - N/A

Science - Learning about animals, the earth, the solar system, and insects.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Random story books, Big Workbook 2nd Grade (School Zone Publishing Company), Brain Quest Grade 2 (Workman Publishing Company Inc), Planet Earth: Animals of the Water (Modern Publishing), Planet Earth: Animals of the Air (Modern Publishing), Planet Earth: Geography (Modern Publishing)
Number of Pages - 2-4

Logic - Same/different, mazes, dot-to-dots, etc.
Days - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
Textbooks - Random books.
Number of Pages - 3-4

Art - Painting, etc.
Days - Sunday
Textbooks - None, just projects.
Number of Pages - N/A

Some final notes:

• For the first time ever, spelling units are directly tied to what we are reading.
• For this quarter our Concept Weeks were Concept Months and they were tied into our History/Geography/Religion class. In the end I decided I did not like this system and we will not be using it again in the future any time soon.
• Starting this quarter Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's schoolwork is diverged to better suit their needs. Optimus Prime did easier Math and harder Spelling, English, and Reading. Bumblebee did harder Math and easier Spelling, English, and Reading. I will no longer be holding back one child in the hopes that the other will "catch up" soon. We did that all last year and it made everyone miserable. 
• Under "Textbooks," the textbooks in red were done by Optimus Prime, the text books in green were done by Bumblebee, and the textbooks in black were done by both.

Scooby-Doo:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Subjects:

Handwriting - Practicing handwriting, letters, sounding out letters and words, numbers, and counting. 
Days - Four days a week
Textbooks - Complete Book of Preschool (school Specialty Publishing), Comprehensive Curriculum Pre-K (American Education Publishing)
Number of Pages - 4

Spelling - Spelling words & units.
Days - Four days a week
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 1

Science - Learning about animals and insects.
Days - Four days a week
Textbooks - Random story books and worksheets.
Number of Pages - N/A

Logic - Same/different, mazes, dot-to-dots, etc.
Days - Four days a week
Textbooks - NEED Fisher-Price Little People Kindergarten Workbook Volumes 1 &2 (Modern Publishing), Comprehensive Curriculum Pre-K (American Education Publishing), Disney Junior Deluxe Sticker Book (Phidal Publishing Inc)
Number of Pages - 4-5

Art - Painting, coloring, etc.
Days - Five days a week
Textbooks - None, just projects.
Number of Pages - N/A

Reading - Reading poems and short stories together.
Days - Seven days a week
Textbooks - Various.
Number of Pages - N/A

Magazines - Scooby-Doo is subscribed to a pre-k character magazine that covers letters, numbers, mazes, picture finds, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Once a week
Textbooks - Character Magazines
Number of Pages - N/A

Final Notes:

• The local elementary school denied Scooby-Doo all of his therapy since we would not enroll him there in pre-k. A month later they re-offered that same therapy. We turned them down. He is, however, still doing speech therapy twice a week.
• This is Scooby-Doo's first full quarter of schoolwork.
• Even though Scooby-Doo is only at pre-k age he will be doing kindergarten work this quarter as well as some pre-k.
• One day a week we focused on Magazines, doing an entire magazine that day. The other four days we did regular schoolwork.
• Scooby-Doo started Concept Weeks this quarter. They were tied into his Science schoolwork.