Preschool Curriculum

Hunter loves to do school- and when Hailey is doing her schoolwork, he is looking for something to do too.  So, I am preparing to start preschool this fall with Hunter.  I need to be organized and have things planned out as much as possible since this will be a very busy fall for us!  Here are the plans I have so far for Hunter for preschool:

I am going to use Little Hands to Heaven with Hunter which includes A Child’s First Bible, Big Thoughts for Little People, and some music.  Each unit focuses on a new letter.  Since Hunter is still young I am planing to stretch LHTH out for 2 years.  We will do a new unit every other week.  The off weeks we will focus on the same letter we learned the week before using LHTH.  Those weeks we will use Alpha Tales, Montessori Letter Work and Number Work, Farmland Math as well as some printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

In addition we have lots of manipulatives that Hunter will enjoy using.  This is just a small portion of what I have for him to use.  I will rotate these every week to keep him interested.

This is the plan for now… of course that can and probably will change.  We’ll have a newborn in the house and I’m sure my plans will need to be relaxed and flexible.  Of course, these plans will also depend on Hunter’s interest.  If he isn’t ready for something or isn’t enjoying something I will put it away until he’s older.  But for now, this is the plan.

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Third Grade Curriculum 2014-2105

Here is a look at our plans for third grade:

Language Arts:

We are using Rod and Staff Building English 3- we used level 2 last year and Hailey really liked it. (4x per week)
All About Spelling (4x per week)
A Reason for Handwriting (4x per week)
Daily 6- Trait Writing (4x per week)
Critical and Creative Thinking Activities (4x per week)

Here are some of the books I will read to Hailey this year, although chances are good she will end up being the one reading some of them.

Here are some of the books Hailey will read aloud to me.  She has actually already read a good portion of them this summer, so I am going to need to find some more for her to read during the school year.

History/Geography:

I had purchased Story of the World to use for History, as well as History Pockets to go with it.  Then we reviewed Veritas Press Old  Testament and Ancient Egypt and Hailey loved it and begged to continue using it this fall.  Since both cover ancient history I am going to use both- it will be nice to use Veritas Press because it is online and won’t require much work on my part- and with a newborn I know that will be very helpful.  But, I will add in some of the reading and activities from Story of the World to go along with it. (4x per week)

For geography we are using Daily Geography Practice and the United States Sticker Book.  Hailey also receives Little Passports USA and Highlights USA, so each week we will focus on one state.  (2x per week)

Bible:

We are going to try out Grapevine this year and see how we like that.  We’re starting with Part 1- Creation to Jacob and will move on to part 2 when we finish that if we are enjoying it. (4x per week)

Science:

We are going to use Science in the Beginning this year and add in some fun unit studies along the way.  (2x per week)

Math:

Teaching Textbooks 4 is my plan for math.  (4x per week)

Health:

We are using Health, Safety, and Manners from A Beka for Health. (2x per week)

So, that is my plan for third grade.  I am sure things will change along the way, but this is the plan for now.

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Homeschool Classroom 2014-2015

Here is a little peek into our homeschool classroom, which will be used for preschool and 3rd grade this year:

This is the view as you stand in the doorway of what our classroom looks like.  On the wall with the window is our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree that Hunter will be adding letters to throughout the year.  Next is our calendar board, calendar and alphabet.  The wall on the right has Hunter’s desk and bulletin board where his weekly projects will be hung up.  Next are some shelves which will mainly be used for preschool.  Above his desk in all those magazine holders are books- each box is labeled with what kind of books are inside.  Above that is a shelf with some of Hailey’s Lego creations.

Here is some more of the wall where Hunter’s desk is.  Up at the very top of the wall are our art clips, where we hang up our art work.  (You can see the post from last year of our Art Clips where I showed how we made them.)

This is Hailey’s side of the classroom.  We are using All About Spelling- so the white board on the left is for that.  It drives me crazy when all the little letters aren’t perfectly lined up… which they rarely are.  Anyway- next is Hailey’s desk with some maps above it.  On the floor on the left of her desk is our book basket.  On the right of her desk is the drawers where her textbooks and workbooks are kept.  On top of that is a little caddy that keeps her markers, colored pencils, crayons, pencils, etc.  On the right hand side is our other white board with our daily routine posted above that.

This is my desk and work area.

Here is a close up of our calendar board.  This is much less than I included in last year’s calendar board, but I think this simplified version will work better for us.  At the top, Hailey will write out the date, then underneath she will write the digital date.  We also have What Time is it and Make the Number where Hailey will use the coins to make the number of the day.  I am using real coins this year for our make the number.  Next is where we will keep track of our number of days in school, then What’s the Weather (which is for Hunter).  At the bottom is where Hailey will practice skip counting.
(What Time is it and What’s the Weather are from  Confessions of a Homeschooler.  100 Days of School is from 1+1+1=1.  Skip Counting is from Homeschool Creations.)

This is our little preschool area- the letter, number and shape of the week are at the top, then the alphabet and numbers, and finally our shape chart.

This is our shelves for preschool- the top left has Hunter’s markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc.  In addition to that is his binder to keep his completed preschool work and some books.  The rest of the shelves have trays on them, where Hunter’s manipulatives and other weekly activities will be kept.

So, there you have a little tour of our classroom 🙂

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Week In Review

I’m still trying to catch up on my weekly review posts, and now I’m another week behind. Last week we had a thunderstorm and I heard a huge crash of thunder and suddenly all sorts of things in our house stopped working- the washing machine, the air conditioner, the tv, the blu ray player, the light in our dining room, the internet (ahhhhh!). Anyway, once I figured out how to reset our ground fault circuits everything started working again except a couple things, including the internet.  I was hoping when Rich got home from work he would be able to get the internet working again, but he couldn’t.  First he replaced our wireless connection box, but that didn’t help. Since this happened right before the 4th of July we had to wait to get a new modem, which we now have.  Thankfully everything is now working again, but we were without internet for several days.  Anyway, all that to say- now I am an extra week behind in posting.

This was our last full week of school- so we decided to have a fun backwards day.  Hailey and Hunter wore their clothes backwards and both of them thought it was pretty funny.

Another day they wore their pajamas and both had a blast playing in shaving cream.

Language Arts:

Hailey has really gotten into reading American Girl books lately, so here she is working on the latest book she is reading.

Hailey finished up All About Spelling.  

For most of the year we just did spelling lists to work on spelling words.  Hailey usually did well on her tests at the end of the week, but then didn’t remember how to spell the words later.  So, we switched to All About Spelling this spring.  So far it’s going well and we have both learned a lot of rules for spelling.

Hailey made a really fun memory book about second grade- What’s Your Superpower?  She loved working on this book and it will be great to look back on in the future.

Math:

We played some fun games to work on multiplication- in this game each person drew a card and then multiplied it by whatever the number was that we were practicing.  For example, if you’re working on the 3s tables- and you draw a 9, you would answer 9×3.  If you get the answer right you get to keep the card, if you get it wrong it goes back in to the pile.

This was Hailey’s favorite multiplication game- Each person flips a coin- on one side was written x2 and on the other was written x3.  (You can use any number you want to practice any of your multiplication tables.)  Then you draw a card and multiply it by whatever number you got on the coin.  Then using a colored disc, find the answer to your multiplication problem on the paper and cover it up.  The first person to get 3 in a row (or 4 if you want it to last longer) is the winner.

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