This is going to be a short post because there is honestly not much to say.
This Concept Week was pretty easy. The point of it was to do some fun Yule/Christmas/winter activities and to learn how other countries celebrate their December (sometimes January) holiday. It was neat to learn about other versions of Christmas (in the Netherlands it's called Sinterklaas after Santa), what they believe in those countries and how they celebrate. For instance, in some countries Jesus or the Wise Men leave the presents, in others elves or Santa do. Then other countries have their own mythical person - like Russia where Grandfather Frost & the Snow Maiden leave the gifts and sometimes have to fight Baba Yaga as she tries to steal them! As far as bad kids go they don't all get coal - in some countries (like Germany) they get sticks! Some countries the holiday will last for one day, in others it will last for weeks. Some countries the holiday is religious, others secular, others a combination.
After we read all about these countries we compared them to how we celebrate. We talked about how every culture has their own traditions and beliefs and how different families within the same culture will even believe or practice different things.
For our book we read The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain (of course it was a Berenstain Bears book!) and for our activity we wrote our letters to Santa.
In the end we picked up some new traditions that my kids want to try out this year. One they really want to do is a Russian tradition where they make 12 dishes for Christmas Eve dinner to represent the 12 Apostles. I told them that we will have to figure out something similar for us to do.
If you are interested in the country worksheets they came from education.com (of course!). Just look up First Grade Christmas worksheets and you'll find them no problem. Hopefully it will give you some idea to add to your own tradition. After Yule I'll post about all the new traditions we tried out this year and how they worked out.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Two Week Review: October 25 - November 7
Sorry this post is so late. My grandmother came & visited while this post was going on. I like it when she visits, I know my kids get excited when great-grandma comes, but for some reason everything goes sideways when she is here. Some how, no matter how much I try, every plan I make seems to fly right out the window. I don't know what it is, we just cannot stay on schedule when she is here. We'll even get ahead of schedule before she comes and by the time she leaves we are either barely staying on schedule or have fallen ridiculously far behind. I just do not understand.
Enough about that (for now).
Remember how last post I mentioned that Scooby-Doo can not only count to 11 but also point to the correct numbers while doing it? And remember how I said I wasn't sure if that was just a coincidence or if he really recognized his numbers? Well, I have my answer, he actually recognizes his numbers!
First, my aunt mailed a foam clock to my kids to help Optimus Prime and Bumblebee learn to tell time. Scooby-Doo saw it, stole it, and walked around the house for two days straight pointing to all of the correct numbers and reading them off. Then, we went to the book store, hit up the kids section, and were wandering through the aisles when he saw the spine of a random chapter book that had a tiny #2 on it (because it was book 2 in a series). He pointed to the book and started saying "Two! Two! Two!" over and over again until I walked over to see what he was talking about. Once he saw that I was paying attention he said "Two!" one last time, gave me a big grin, and ran off in another direction.
I'm almost sad we're doing letters instead of numbers.
With Optimus Prime & Bumblebee nothing new is going on. Like I said up above, there was chaos but other than that nothing new. Despite the chaos we finished up their 1st quarter schedule in record time! They wanted it over badly, especially when I told them next quarter the work load was lighter. I'm not going to bother you with the details... okay, I threw out the old schedule with all my notes scribbled on it before I thought to copy them onto this post.
We started 2nd quarter the first week of November. It was our Concept Week as well, so we only had Math, English, Spelling & Logic.
They loved Logic (of course). For once they loved Spelling! They were glad to just do some nice, easy colors sheets. They are also seriously rejoicing the lack of Spelling quizzes (still).
Math we have FINALLY moved onto some easier stuff. We're done with adding and subtracting up to 18. They weren't ready for that yet. We are now onto greater than/less than, rulers, above/below, number patterns, etc. Their book is almost finished, middle of next week we'll be starting a new one. English is the same as always. Right now it's focusing on sentence structure - capital letters, periods, question marks, exclamation points, etc.
Our Concept Week was Winter Holidays/Christmas. I'll try to get that post up in the next few days. They loved it, so I'm glad we did it. No one-on-one time, I'll save that for a regular schoolwork week.
That's pretty much all I can think of right now. New update in two weeks.
Enough about that (for now).
Remember how last post I mentioned that Scooby-Doo can not only count to 11 but also point to the correct numbers while doing it? And remember how I said I wasn't sure if that was just a coincidence or if he really recognized his numbers? Well, I have my answer, he actually recognizes his numbers!
First, my aunt mailed a foam clock to my kids to help Optimus Prime and Bumblebee learn to tell time. Scooby-Doo saw it, stole it, and walked around the house for two days straight pointing to all of the correct numbers and reading them off. Then, we went to the book store, hit up the kids section, and were wandering through the aisles when he saw the spine of a random chapter book that had a tiny #2 on it (because it was book 2 in a series). He pointed to the book and started saying "Two! Two! Two!" over and over again until I walked over to see what he was talking about. Once he saw that I was paying attention he said "Two!" one last time, gave me a big grin, and ran off in another direction.
I'm almost sad we're doing letters instead of numbers.
With Optimus Prime & Bumblebee nothing new is going on. Like I said up above, there was chaos but other than that nothing new. Despite the chaos we finished up their 1st quarter schedule in record time! They wanted it over badly, especially when I told them next quarter the work load was lighter. I'm not going to bother you with the details... okay, I threw out the old schedule with all my notes scribbled on it before I thought to copy them onto this post.
We started 2nd quarter the first week of November. It was our Concept Week as well, so we only had Math, English, Spelling & Logic.
They loved Logic (of course). For once they loved Spelling! They were glad to just do some nice, easy colors sheets. They are also seriously rejoicing the lack of Spelling quizzes (still).
Math we have FINALLY moved onto some easier stuff. We're done with adding and subtracting up to 18. They weren't ready for that yet. We are now onto greater than/less than, rulers, above/below, number patterns, etc. Their book is almost finished, middle of next week we'll be starting a new one. English is the same as always. Right now it's focusing on sentence structure - capital letters, periods, question marks, exclamation points, etc.
Our Concept Week was Winter Holidays/Christmas. I'll try to get that post up in the next few days. They loved it, so I'm glad we did it. No one-on-one time, I'll save that for a regular schoolwork week.
That's pretty much all I can think of right now. New update in two weeks.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Concept Week #6: Ancient Egypt
Prepare yourself for lots of pictures!
We were supposed to do Outer Space, but Optimus Prime begged, begged, begged, and BEGGED to do Ancient Egypt instead. We have (well, had now) a neat kit to make your own pyramids and he's been itching to do it for months. So, I took pity on him and we did Ancient Egypt.
The kit (pictured above, titled "Amazing Pyramids Art & History Kit" said aged 10 & up, but honestly so long as you are willing to mix the plaster there is no reason for it to be that age range) my mom got for me and my husband YEARS ago, long before our boys were born, on clearance at some store and for some reason we never got around to doing it. It lived in two previous states with us, collecting dust, so I was more than happy to bust it out and make some pyramids. That solved the project part of our unit, and for worksheets I went to education.com (would I go anywhere else?) and printed some up about the Ancient Egyptian gods, the pyramids, the lighthouses, the mummies, the Pharaohs... I think you see where this is going. I was left worrying about the book, but luck was with me, there was a book inside of the kit that had the instructions in it as well as some short stories (seven, to be exact) about how they believed the pyramids were built told from the point of views of the Pharaohs, the chief builders, the priests, and the princes. So we had a story book in the end.
There was a neat set up with a map and a bunch of plastic pyramids to set up on the map to see where everything was and what size things were in relation to each other. The plaster was for three of the pyramids, but there was so much extra that we made quite a few more with the plastic pyramids for the map. After everything dried we painted the plaster pyramids and the plastic ones and set them all up on the map.
Scooby-Doo even got in on this project and happily helped paint some of the pyramids.
It was definitely a very fun project.
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We were supposed to do Outer Space, but Optimus Prime begged, begged, begged, and BEGGED to do Ancient Egypt instead. We have (well, had now) a neat kit to make your own pyramids and he's been itching to do it for months. So, I took pity on him and we did Ancient Egypt.
The kit (pictured above, titled "Amazing Pyramids Art & History Kit" said aged 10 & up, but honestly so long as you are willing to mix the plaster there is no reason for it to be that age range) my mom got for me and my husband YEARS ago, long before our boys were born, on clearance at some store and for some reason we never got around to doing it. It lived in two previous states with us, collecting dust, so I was more than happy to bust it out and make some pyramids. That solved the project part of our unit, and for worksheets I went to education.com (would I go anywhere else?) and printed some up about the Ancient Egyptian gods, the pyramids, the lighthouses, the mummies, the Pharaohs... I think you see where this is going. I was left worrying about the book, but luck was with me, there was a book inside of the kit that had the instructions in it as well as some short stories (seven, to be exact) about how they believed the pyramids were built told from the point of views of the Pharaohs, the chief builders, the priests, and the princes. So we had a story book in the end.
There was a neat set up with a map and a bunch of plastic pyramids to set up on the map to see where everything was and what size things were in relation to each other. The plaster was for three of the pyramids, but there was so much extra that we made quite a few more with the plastic pyramids for the map. After everything dried we painted the plaster pyramids and the plastic ones and set them all up on the map.
Scooby-Doo even got in on this project and happily helped paint some of the pyramids.
It was definitely a very fun project.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
1st Grade Spelling Units #14-26
This time around for Spelling I decided to do something different. They have two workbooks that have pages in them specifically geared towards spelling and vocabulary so I decided that we would do those this quarter - and take a break from spelling quizzes - and then next quarter we'll see about upping their vocab list. I also decided to do some Sight Words with them, so we now have a "class" dedicated to that. Some of the sight words we already did but I figure that is no big deal, it'll be review.
So we will work on their spelling words five days a week and their sight words two days a week (a new sight word each day). Here are the lists for those two subjects.
Spelling (words in parentheses are ones that we have already done):
Unit #14 - Colors & Food
orange
yellow
brown
(green)
(red)
(blue)
bread
cookie
apple
(cake)
(milk)
(egg)
Unit #15 - Vehicles
car
truck
train
bike
plane
Unit #16 - Clothes
shirt
pants
jacket
socks
shoes
dress
hat
Unit #17 - Numbers
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
Unit #18 - Verbs
sleep
run
make
ride
play
stop
Unit #19 - 5 Senses
taste
touch
small
hear
(see)
Unit #20 - Weather Words
sun
rain
water
wet
hot
snow
Unit #21 - Nature
tree
grass
flower
pond
sand
sky
Unit #22 - Body Parts
head
arms
legs
feet
hands
Unit #23 - Opposites
old
new
big
little
lost
found
Unit #24 - Verbs Part 2
paint
catch
color
eat
grow
fly
Unit #25 - People Words
man
woman
people
children
they
(boy)
(girl)
(he)
(she)
Unit #26 - Days of the Week*
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sight Words (broken up by week):
all
and
at
big
can
come
down
fun
go
had
he
her
it
in
like
little
look
make
me
on
play
* Note - This post originally did not contain Spelling Unit #26. I had miscounted the weeks and thought that there were only 12 weeks to this quarter.
So we will work on their spelling words five days a week and their sight words two days a week (a new sight word each day). Here are the lists for those two subjects.
Spelling (words in parentheses are ones that we have already done):
Unit #14 - Colors & Food
orange
yellow
brown
(green)
(red)
(blue)
bread
cookie
apple
(cake)
(milk)
(egg)
Unit #15 - Vehicles
car
truck
train
bike
plane
Unit #16 - Clothes
shirt
pants
jacket
socks
shoes
dress
hat
Unit #17 - Numbers
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
Unit #18 - Verbs
sleep
run
make
ride
play
stop
Unit #19 - 5 Senses
taste
touch
small
hear
(see)
Unit #20 - Weather Words
sun
rain
water
wet
hot
snow
Unit #21 - Nature
tree
grass
flower
pond
sand
sky
Unit #22 - Body Parts
head
arms
legs
feet
hands
Unit #23 - Opposites
old
new
big
little
lost
found
Unit #24 - Verbs Part 2
paint
catch
color
eat
grow
fly
Unit #25 - People Words
man
woman
people
children
they
(boy)
(girl)
(he)
(she)
Unit #26 - Days of the Week*
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sight Words (broken up by week):
all
and
at
big
can
come
down
fun
go
had
he
her
it
in
like
little
look
make
me
on
play
* Note - This post originally did not contain Spelling Unit #26. I had miscounted the weeks and thought that there were only 12 weeks to this quarter.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Two Week Review: October 11 - 24
Big news for Scooby-Doo, but not much for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee.
Scooby-Doo knows how to count to 11. I had no idea that he knew his numbers. He has never said a single number to me ever, then out of nowhere I can hear him counting. I was stunned. Then, I was even more stunned when he pointed to the correct numbers in his brother's schoolwork and counted them out. I'm not sure if he actually recognized his numbers, though, or if was just a coincidence. Anyway, counting out loud was a source of great amusement to him for about three days, and now he refuses to say any number at all. Sigh.
This led to a big debate over what to do with next quarter's schedule. I had already written it up to do Colors & Shapes as well as the Alphabet with him. I debated for a few days about tossing our Alphabet schedule and writing up a numbers one instead, but I decided he knows how to count, it's time to focus on his abc's.
As for his Colors and Shapes schoolwork, it's the same as always. Even if it wasn't the same nothing I have to say could top him counting (in my book, at least).
Meanwhile, I have nothing super exciting to report for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. We did our Ancient Egypt Concept Week (I know Outer Space was on the schedule, but Optimus Prime begged to do Ancient Egypt instead - we'll do Outer Space next quarter) and that post will go up as soon as I have the time to do it.
Handwriting was the same as always. I'm thinking about dropping it soon. Not next quarter, we still have a bunch of pages in their old kindergarten workbooks that we never got around too, but as soon as those workbooks are finished up we're dropping the class.
Spanish we finished up our Shapes and moved on to the Spanish alphabet, which is just pages of practicing letters (in Spanish, honest). More handwriting, sigh.
Science is onto Central and South American animals. Geography is still landforms. Logic and Art are the same as always.
We finished up our English book and are onto another one. I'm loving the new English book because it deals with very simple and basic sentences, which means they usually get to read the sentences out loud to practice their reading and sounding out words.
We got through Math okay. Optimus Prime panicked, just like I said he would. Next week it gets even harder when they have to add to totals greater then 10 and subtract from numbers greater than 10. That means no fingers for help. I don't think either one of them are ready but we'll do them anyway.
Spelling was the same as always and for Reading we did the short story "The Magic Fish" and had some reading comprehension pages to go along with it.
Looking forward to starting our new quarter soon.
Scooby-Doo knows how to count to 11. I had no idea that he knew his numbers. He has never said a single number to me ever, then out of nowhere I can hear him counting. I was stunned. Then, I was even more stunned when he pointed to the correct numbers in his brother's schoolwork and counted them out. I'm not sure if he actually recognized his numbers, though, or if was just a coincidence. Anyway, counting out loud was a source of great amusement to him for about three days, and now he refuses to say any number at all. Sigh.
This led to a big debate over what to do with next quarter's schedule. I had already written it up to do Colors & Shapes as well as the Alphabet with him. I debated for a few days about tossing our Alphabet schedule and writing up a numbers one instead, but I decided he knows how to count, it's time to focus on his abc's.
As for his Colors and Shapes schoolwork, it's the same as always. Even if it wasn't the same nothing I have to say could top him counting (in my book, at least).
Meanwhile, I have nothing super exciting to report for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. We did our Ancient Egypt Concept Week (I know Outer Space was on the schedule, but Optimus Prime begged to do Ancient Egypt instead - we'll do Outer Space next quarter) and that post will go up as soon as I have the time to do it.
Handwriting was the same as always. I'm thinking about dropping it soon. Not next quarter, we still have a bunch of pages in their old kindergarten workbooks that we never got around too, but as soon as those workbooks are finished up we're dropping the class.
Spanish we finished up our Shapes and moved on to the Spanish alphabet, which is just pages of practicing letters (in Spanish, honest). More handwriting, sigh.
Science is onto Central and South American animals. Geography is still landforms. Logic and Art are the same as always.
We finished up our English book and are onto another one. I'm loving the new English book because it deals with very simple and basic sentences, which means they usually get to read the sentences out loud to practice their reading and sounding out words.
We got through Math okay. Optimus Prime panicked, just like I said he would. Next week it gets even harder when they have to add to totals greater then 10 and subtract from numbers greater than 10. That means no fingers for help. I don't think either one of them are ready but we'll do them anyway.
Spelling was the same as always and for Reading we did the short story "The Magic Fish" and had some reading comprehension pages to go along with it.
Looking forward to starting our new quarter soon.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
1st Grade Reading List Part 2 & Book Reports
So my reading plan for last quarter was a bit of a success. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee learned quite a few words and picked up on a ton of sight words that we didn't cover. They do a decent job of reading Level 1 books on their own. They still need help, they aren't quite there yet, but I feel like we are making real progress so I'm happy. Hopefully they will have Level 1 books down on their own by the end of this next quarter, but I'm not going to push. I want them to enjoy reading, not find it stressful.
Since we're making progress, and to avoid boredom, I decided to make some changes in our Reading/Reading Comprehension schedule and to our book goals.
First, for the next quarter we will just be doing Reading Comprehension. I have a bunch of one page worksheets with simple sentences in a paragraph that you read and answer questions about. We'll be doing those, where they can practice their reading with help from me and each other. We'll also work on our large Reading Comprehension workbook.
For our individual book goal we won't have one. I'll work on the Level 1 books with them in our one-on-one time, but it won't be strictly limited to that. I'm trying to make this upcoming quarter easier than our last one. There are a bunch of holidays - Halloween (the day before the quarter starts), Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's - a bunch of sugar, relatives, traveling, big meals, baking, excitement, decorating, and shopping. We'll work on reading in our one-on-one time (as well as whenever they want to of course!), and we'll keep working on Level 1 books together, but I'm not going to force a goal on them, not with everything else going on.
We're also going to drop the Book Reports for this quarter. I'd like to bring them back next quarter, but we'll see. They did like doing them, but it was too much writing for them - especially when I had to spell most of the stuff out.
One thing that is not changing, however, is our family book goal. And here it is:
Since we're making progress, and to avoid boredom, I decided to make some changes in our Reading/Reading Comprehension schedule and to our book goals.
First, for the next quarter we will just be doing Reading Comprehension. I have a bunch of one page worksheets with simple sentences in a paragraph that you read and answer questions about. We'll be doing those, where they can practice their reading with help from me and each other. We'll also work on our large Reading Comprehension workbook.
For our individual book goal we won't have one. I'll work on the Level 1 books with them in our one-on-one time, but it won't be strictly limited to that. I'm trying to make this upcoming quarter easier than our last one. There are a bunch of holidays - Halloween (the day before the quarter starts), Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's - a bunch of sugar, relatives, traveling, big meals, baking, excitement, decorating, and shopping. We'll work on reading in our one-on-one time (as well as whenever they want to of course!), and we'll keep working on Level 1 books together, but I'm not going to force a goal on them, not with everything else going on.
We're also going to drop the Book Reports for this quarter. I'd like to bring them back next quarter, but we'll see. They did like doing them, but it was too much writing for them - especially when I had to spell most of the stuff out.
One thing that is not changing, however, is our family book goal. And here it is:
- Clue Jr: The Case of the Secret Message
- Clue Jr: The Case of the Stolen Jewel
- Clue Jr: The Case of the Chocolate Fingerprints
- The Magic School Bus: The Truth About Bats
- The Magic School Bus: The Search for the Missing Bones
- The Magic School Bus: The Wild Whale Watch
- Pokemon Junior: A Pokemon Snow-Down
- Pokemon Junior: Snorlax Takes a Stand
- Pokemon Junior: Bellossom's Big Battle
- Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Television Monster
- Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Living Doll
- Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Batty Vampire
- Scooby-Doo's Super Case Book 2
We're going to start some new series, which I'm excited about!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
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
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:
*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.
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.
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