Upcoming School Year

I have done some major soul searching on how to proceed with this coming school year with my daughter. DQ is technically going to be in first grade and AM is going to be preschool age. I am not really worried about AM since he's coming along for the ride and I have plenty of preschool ideas in my head. I haven't been successful in the past with any formal learning so this year is going to be interesting. I have made some decisions on curriculum for the upcoming year and I'm hoping that it will work out for the most part.

I am still working out a general weekly schedule. I know we wouldn't be able to follow a daily schedule so I'm going to come up with activities/topics that I hope to accomplish each week and we can see where they fit in to the week as we go along. That way I hope to stay on top of most if not all subjects. I know I have a lot planned, and I know we haven't been successful with plans in the past. I'd love to just say screw it and unschool, but right now my kids aren't very self directed. I'm hoping to unschool at some point so I can be the facilitator and help them find the tools they need.

So here is what I envision. At least to start with.

First grade will start out with:

-Handwriting - working on it while writing out stories she wants to write, letters to friends and family, etc. Nothing formal since she didn't like Handwriting Without Tears.

-Reading - we'll possibly give Phonics Pathways a try, but I have lots of other things in mind. I have bought Systematic Sequential Phonics They Use and with laminated letters I'm hoping to make this hands on to help phonics and whole words stick. It seems she is more a whole word learner so I'm going to be working both angles; phonics and whole word.

-Math - I have both Family Math books to help with fun games. We're also going to give Miquon math a try. I like the look of it but if it doesn't go over well I can always switch to MEP. Plus I like using living books to get the point across.

-History/Geography - Here's what I'm hoping will go over reasonably well. I've picked up Story of the World 1 (the Ancients) along with the workbook. I'm hoping that if I lean heavily on activities and find other interesting books on the topics that this will work. Chose not to join a co-op for this since I'm sure certain periods we will take more time than just a chapter a week. I didn't want to feel the push to keep plugging along if a break is needed or more time.

-Science - I picked up a book called Ancient Science that looks like it will dovetail nicely with SOTW. We'll also hop around to 'modern' topics that the kids want to add on. Both my kids love science experiments so this should be a breeze to present.

-Nature Study - most likely this will be on weekends since dad wants to be involved and go on hikes with us anyway. The Handbook of Nature Study is already in our house and I want to follow (not necessarily in order) the activities I've found online that go with the book.

-Physical exercise - DQ is going to try gymnastics this fall. She tried ballet last year for a half the year and had a falling out with teacher. She's decided to try something new instead of find a new teacher for ballet. Between that and park days and playing with friends and family she'll get adequate exercise. :)

-Cooking/baking/art/etc - we've got lots of things planned that fits this catch all category including learning how to clean parts of the house. The kids love to bake so I'm going to work on getting them baking at least once a week where they do most of the work and get them to fix lunch/dinner with me as well. This has already been approved by the kids. I'm going to institute a 15 minute clean in the morning and afternoon/evening of either the main room or their bedrooms so that the house stays neater. Kitchen duty will also happen more often, hey DQ likes to do dishes.

I'm not worried about AM and preschool. I never did anything formal with DQ for preschool. But knowing AM he's going to want to get in on the action so I'll come up with activities that will be fun and DQ will get reinforcement. Who knows? DQ might help teach some things and get better at them herself.

In other news I'm going to work on learning some new things myself. I'm going to sign up for a knitting class and work on belly dancing with some videos a friend is going to send me. I'm hoping that after the knitting class I will be able to get into a local belly dancing class. I might be able to continue my Saturday yoga classes as well.