Sunday, June 19, 2011

School

I have been pouring through curriculum catalogs and online resources since I came home from the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention. I guess you could say, that I am more than a little obsessed with it and have resolved to the fact that it is why I became a teacher in the first place. I love school, I love school supplies, I love organizing it, and being creative...I just plain love it!  We do school a few times a week now, but we are mostly doing Tot School and are using mostly Montessori Methods.  For Pre School this year, I am doing a combination of Montessori and Classical Education and have fallen in love with 2 classical curriculums.  I really like Classical Conversations and Veritas Press.  After scouring, going through what I do and don't have--and what I want, I have come up with this rough list...what do you think?

Veritas Press
Big Picture Bible Timeline         
Child’s Story Bible                         
(already have wee sing bible songs)
Addition Math Songs                    
Subtraction Songs                          
Saxon Math  meeting book                            
Literature unit--Phonics Museum                            

My Father’s World
Number Puzzle Boards and Pegs              
Textured Letters                           
Already have pegboard and lacing shapes, and other misc stations. 
Pre School Cards, and Hide ‘em in your Heart

Hooked on Phonics
Super workbook Pre-K and other misc. resources (already have)

I will probably use these resources for the next 2 years depending on how quickly we go through them.  I am super excited that I have a plan!  I have some great units saved from 1+1+1=1 and Homeschool Creations, too!  What are you planning on using this year?

Much Love, 

Amanda
Linking up here at Educating Layton
and at:  

Not Back to School Blog Hop

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amanda, I love that your schooling involves so much Bible. That is one thing I have had a hard time with is getting enough Bible lessons that are not the same as the Bible lessons they learn on Sunday Morning. Our Church has a great Wednesday program and I love the things Trevor learns in there for preschool, such as I thank God for... the plants, my hands, my teachers and so on. I love that they teach how God made each thing special and them special and then they make an original craft to go with it, not a copied page.
Anyways I have been looking for and inventing- or trying to- things of that nature for Trevor's homeschool. They also love Wee Sing so I know your boys will!
Also I know you just bought some curriculum but what I have been doing with Trevor is working through the alphabet. We started last school year when he was 3 and worked somewhat phonetically through. Each week was a different letter and I would find activities, crafts, games, snacks, math and letter activities to go with the letter. For example we started with the letter T since it starts his name. We learned about Turtles, and touch. I rented a lot of fiction and nonfiction books from the library - a week in advance so we would have them for the lesson. We would read about Turtles and do a craft and other activities. We would talk about the Tt sound and what it looks like (and sometimes make the letter with straws or beans). At that time he was too young to practice writing - or was not interested- so we are working on that now.
Anyways I really like what we did and will use it all for Leah when she is ready. I mostly looked stuff up on the internet or bought books from used bookstores that had ideas, and used my teacher brain! It is so addicting like you said and I would love to share with you if you would like to have ideas or names of books or whatever. Trev really enjoyed it. I am now working on next years curriculum and we still do school everyday. I just have to get more Bible in the day.
Happy Schooling
Jen

Stef said...

Hi Amanda - thanks for linking up! Much appreciated - sounds like you are enjoying the curriculum hunt and found some GREAT resources !!

best of luck this year!
Stef

Kelly said...

Right there with ya. Looks like you are going to have a busy year too.
I have a 10month old, 3 yr old, 5 yr old and 7 year old.
Kelly