Some Curriculum Changes

As always there comes a time for some curriculum tweaks or changes. We are into week 4 of the new school year and most everything is going great however I am going to make some changes.

Triple H has retained more of us letter recognition and sounds than I anticipated. We are going to continue with the three books from the Get Ready for the Code series from Explode the Code. I have taken out the SSRW handwriting pages because he is getting enough handwriting in the previously mentioned book. I have ordered the second workbook from the Kindergarten level of Sing Spell Read and Write. He is starting to roughly blend three letter words. So I anticipate adding this into our week sometime mid-year and going as slowly as necessary. He will have another whole year of PreK after this year so I don't feel a need to rush him but I feel he might get bored with the other curriculum sometime this year.

As for Princess Poodle's curriculum most everything is going well. Writing with Ease seems to be a good fit for her. She enjoys the narration days the most. Perhaps I should have started her in workbook 2 but I wanted to start at the foundation and build up. We are working on doing narrations in three to four sentences. Most days this comes easily to her, other days we work together to combine two sentences if necessary etc. Once we get to the part of the workbook where she copies down the narration I will only have her do "one thing you remember from the story" for awhile. She loves the picture study and story writing that I have pulled from Language Lessons for the Very Young. I do not do the copywork from that book however. I am also having her independently finish Spelling Workout A which we started last year. I don't know where spelling will go from there. I may buy a few of the Explode the Code books that I feel might solidify her phonics and have her work in those and perhaps readdress spelling in second grade. Poetry memorization is going well. So far she has three, The Swing, The Caterpillar, and Spring Magic. She likes this part of our day.

Saxon is going well except for the timed math facts. She does excellent with the flashcards but when she is timed she basically falls to pieces. There are two options here; one take away the timed factor or two ;keep it. Right now I am voting to keep it because I feel it is a skill which she must learn (meaning being timed) and learn how to manage the stress factor involved. Once in third grade she will take basic skills tests which will be somewhat timed and in life in general sometimes a timeframe is given. So I am increasing her drill practice, have lessened the number of problems I want her to complete and hopefully this will lead to success. I want her to know that she can do this.

History: a self put together curriculum for American History is going well. I feel a need for more hands on projects and know that will come with colonial days etc. Princess Poodle is loving the lapbook concept so I need to educate myself on this so we can make "cooler" ones.

Oh, I am finding that DVR on satelite is a tremendous help with school. I tape all the Magic School Bus cartoons, Animal Atlas and Liberty Kids. We are already using those that tie into our studies and I don't even have to go to the library to check them out. This is nice. Also having purchased more of our history/science living books this year is keeping our library trips down to once a week or every other week and this is wonderful because it is 20 minutes or more away and gas is crazy high!

I have rambled. Soon I will post pictures of some schoolwork the kids have been doing.

Thanks for stopping by.
Sheryl