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.

Quarterly Curriculum: August-October 2014

This past quarter was very crazy. My doctor put me on a new medication which made me incredibly sleepy. Think sleeping 12+ hours a day sleepy. It also killed my appetite leading me to lose over 12 lbs. So this past quarter was very hectic. Because of this, next quarter is going to be VERY basic. VERY, VERY, VERY basic. Trying to do a full schedule was too much for me while adapting to this medicine, so I need a nice break.

Anyway, here's last quarter's schedule.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday. Wednesday & Saturday off.

Subjects:

Handwriting - Practicing letters and some letter sounds.
Days - Three days a week.
Textbooks - Brain Quest Workbook: Kindergarten (Workman Publishing Company).
Number of Pages - 5-6

Science - Our final unit on animals, covering farm animals, pets, science and animals, and animal fun facts.
Days - Three days a week.
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Animals Grades 1-3 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-3

History/Geography - A geography unit that covers the world, laces and regions, physical characteristics, and an introduction to humans.
Days - Three days a week.
Textbooks - Down to Earth Geography (Teacher Created Resources).
Number of Pages - 2-3

Logic - Same/different, patterns, opposites, mazes, dot-to-dots, word searches, crosswords, etc.
Days - Three days a week.
Textbooks - Big Puzzle Play (School Zone), Fisher Price: First Grade Workbook 1, Fisher Price: First Grade Workbook 2.
Number of Pages - 5-6

Math - A serious review of basic addition and subtraction, with a small introduction to second grade math. 
Days - Five days a week.
Textbooks - Summer Link Math Plus Reading Summer Before Grade 2 (Brighter Child Publishing), Bendon: Disney Addition and Subtraction, Let's Grow Smart: Addition Grade 1/Bendon: Disney Princess Addition and Subtraction*, Bendon: Disney Addition and Subtraction.
Number of Pages - 2-3

English - A unit based on reading, reading comprehension, and language arts.
Days - Five days a week.
Textbooks - Scholastic Success With 1st Grade Workbook (Scholastic Teaching Resources), Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 2 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 4-5

Spelling - Spelling words & units
Days - Five days a week.
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 2-3

Other "Subjects":

Reading - Reading simple storybooks on their own. Levels 1 & 2 for Optimus Prime, Level 1 for Bumblebee.

Sign Language - Learning basic sign language to help Scooby-Doo communicate better, and to help us communicate better with him.

Religion - A weekly class where we take a closer look at current religions, mythologies, and holidays.

Art - This quarter we are making a book!

Final Notes:

• Since Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are at different levels for Math & Reading, their schedules were slightly different.

Scooby-Doo:

This schedule is a hold over from last quarter. Scooby-Doo only did half of his schoolwork in the end (which is fine) so this quarter we did the other half.

Schoolwork 2-3 days a week, on any day.

Subjects:

Numbers - Reviewing the numbers 1-10, reviewing counting, each day will have it's own number that we focus on.
Days - Everyday.
Textbooks - Various.
Number of Pages - 2

Letters - Reviewing the alphabet, each day will have it's own letter that we focus on.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Various.
Number of Pages - 2

Logic - Reviewing Colors & Shapes, learning Same or Different and other similar concepts.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Various.
Number of Pages - 2

Art - Coloring and painting.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Coloring books.
Number of Pages - 2

Other "Subjects":

Story Time - Reading a book every afternoon, even on days off.

Words Review - Going over simple words with him to help his speech.  This will be everyday, even on days off.

Sign Language - Learning basic sign language everyday, even days off.

Final Notes:

• Scooby-Doo's speech therapy will resume sometime in August/September.  We will work on his speech at home. Obviously.
• We are all working on sign language to help Scooby-Doo's communication.

* Let's Grow Smart: Addition Grade 1 was completed by Optimus Prime, Bendon: Disney Princess Addition and Subtraction was completed by Bumblebee.

Quarterly Curriculum August-October 2013

I completely forgot to post this after I was finally done updating (back in September) so now I'm stuck posting it today since I want to start updating the Optimus Prime & Bumblebee and Scooby-Doo pages.

First, Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's curriculum for the past thee months:

School on Friday & Saturday, off on Sunday, school on Monday & Tuesday, weekly quizzes and review on Wednesday, off on Thursday.

Letter Practice - Practicing handwriting, reviewing the alphabet, etc.
Days - Friday & Monday
Quizzes - None
Textbooks - Total Reading Kindergarten (American Education Publishing), character and generic letters and/or words workbooks from the dollar section of Target and/or the dollar store.
Number of Pages - 2 1/2

Number Practice - Practicing handwriting, working on counting to 100, etc.
Days - Saturday & Tuesday
Quizzes - None
Textbooks - Total Math Kindergarten (American Education Publishing), character and generic numbers workbooks from the dollar section of Target and/or the dollar store.
Number of Pages - 2 1/2

Spanish - Practicing Spanish vocabulary (broken into different units) and comprehension.
Days - Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - None
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Starter Spanish Grades PK-1 (American Education Publishing)
Number of Pages - 2

Science - Learning about different animals (broken into units) with some reading comprehension thrown into the mix.
Days - Friday, Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - None
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Animals Grades 1-3 (American Education Publishing)
Number of Pages - 1

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, etc.
Days - Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - Every Wednesday
Textbooks - English Grade 1 (American Education Publishing), Total Basic Skills Grade 1 (American Education Publishing), Scholastic Success With 1st Grade Workbook (Scholastic Teaching Resources)
Number of Pages - 2

Math - Addition, subtraction, time, measuring, fractions, etc.
Days - Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - Every Wednesday
Textbooks - Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 1 (American Education Publishing), Spectrum Math Grade 1 (Spectrum)
Number of Pages - 2

History/Geography - Map reading, directions, land-forms, continents, etc.
Days - Saturday & Monday
Quizzes - The Wednesday after the unit ends
Textbooks - Beginning Geography Grades K-2 (Evan-Moor)
Number of Pages - 1

Reading & Reading Comprehension - Learning to read level 1 books, as well as some reading comprehension & activities with some short stories.
Days - Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - A book report due every Wednesday
Textbooks - Listen, Read, & Learn Grade 1 (American Education Publishing) for the reading comprehension stories and activities, Step Into Reading Level 1 books for learning how to read.
Number of Pages - Will vary from day to day.

Spelling - Spelling words & units
Days - Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - Every Wednesday
Textbooks - No set textbook, however Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 1 (American Education Publishing) has a spelling unit section that I will be pulling pages from and Brain Quest Workbook: Kindergarten (Brain Quest) has a spelling section that I plan on using.  I have also printed up sheets from education.com and schoolexpress.com to go along with the spelling units.
Number of Pages - 2 1/2

Logic - Same/different, patterns, opposites, mazes, dot-to-dots, etc.
Days - Friday, Saturday (twice), Monday & Tuesday
Quizzes - None
Textbooks - Total Reading Kindergarten (American Education Publishing), generic 1st grade logic workbooks
Number of Pages - 2 1/2

Art - Coloring, painting, activities in coloring books, etc.
Days - Saturday & Monday
Quizzes - None
Textbooks - Cheap coloring books from the dollar store of their favorite cartoon characters, as well as cheap paint with water books
Number of Pages - 2

Why are all subjects not covered everyday?  Why are some subjects skipped?

• I don't want to overload them their first quarter.  They're going to have enough on their plate as it is.
• Also, do we really need to cover some of these subjects everyday?  And I'm not just talking about Logic and Art.  Our Science book is neat, and it talks about a different animal on every page, but do we really need to learn about a new animal everyday?  Or should we take some time to make sure they have some other concepts down?  Their Geography book is neat, and doing more would of been nice, however it's a short book and I'm not sure how well they will understand it at first.  To even things out and because of the lack of pages in the book it just made sense to only cover this subject twice a week.
• Why is there no gym?  Someone asked me this the other day so here's my response: they already get plenty of exercise!  They play sports, they do yoga, we go to the pool, we take walks, we are signing them up for football soon - why on earth do we need a gym class?!?
• No mythology still?  Too true.  I'm working on this problem.  I'm having a hard time finding stuff for 1st graders.  I might just have to make something myself.
• Where did Arts & Crafts Day go?  Well, this isn't kindergarten anymore!  I'm not saying we will never do arts & crafts again, but we won't have a whole day dedicated to it anymore.  We needed to make room for all of the quizzes that they will be doing, and a day to write up and review their book reports.  I'm hoping that their book reports will help them learn how to read and right now reading is my biggest priority, more than anything else.  
• Where did Magazine Day go?  It also got tossed.  Like I said, this isn't kindergarten anymore.  We'll still read the magazines and do the activities in them, it just won't be for school anymore.

Scooby-Doo's original post about our goals for the past three months:

Scooby Doo isn't preschool age yet, but he loves watching his older brothers do their schoolwork, and he likes to feel involved so I decided to start doing schoolwork fairly regularly with him.  When Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were three we did one page (front and back) of schoolwork everyday.  Since Scooby Doo isn't three yet I'm not going to go with such a set schedule but I do have some "Colors & Shapes" workbooks that I picked up for him at the dollar store.  I figure we'll tackle however many pages he wants each day, whether it is zero pages or ten pages.

I also set a book goal for us.  We read everyday as a family (see our Reading List page) and I'll read any book to them that they bring me, but I decided that Scooby Doo needs some more "us time" to read more board books together so that is one of our goals for the next three months.  We'll set aside time everyday to read three books together, without his brothers.

Average for everyday of the past three months:

• 1 page from a "Colors & Shapes" workbook (Dora, Care Bears, Minnie Mouse, and generic).
• 3 pages (front and back) coloring books.
• 3 board books a day

*all page number refer to the front and back of one page.  Example, 1 page means the front and back of one page, 1/2 page means just the front (or just the back) of a page, etc.