Disney for school? 2011-12 Curriculum

I learned a lot of things about myself during this last year of homeschooling.  We tried to do Sonlight, but really early on, I had trouble keeping to the instructor's guide.  Then I bought the Well Planned Day Organizer, thinking I could make my own instructor's guide, and I couldn't stick with that either.  In both cases, we would be ahead in some things and behind in others and the guides only made me feel anxious about not getting it all done.

Instead, we worked on developing a routine and setting small goals for each day.  My goals for each day were to get our "core" subjects done...Bible, reading, writing, and math.  Anything beyond that, I considered bonus. We're pretty solid on our core now, so this year I'm focusing on the "bonus."

NATHAN'S CORE (1st Grade--6 years old): Nathan's been doing well this year with school...loves math, hates anything that he has to write.  He really struggles with handwriting and getting him to do any is like pulling teeth.  He loves anything hands-on, especially science.





Reading:  We're working through a lot of We Both Read books from the library, and assorted readers that I've accumulated during the past year.  He can do level 1-2 (between 1st and 2nd grade) in the We Both Read books.  (We LOVE LOVE LOVE this series!!!)





He's also working through the Explode the Code series.  He has struggled with book 3, so we're moving to 3.5 and going on to 4 and 5 this year.  The good part is that his reading has surpassed his phonics level, so we're going to use it more like a spelling book.  The bad part is that after I purchased books 4-6, Nathan decided he hated phonics.



We're doing Horizon's 1st grade math this year.  He's worked on it through the summer, so he's on lesson 20 already.  He likes math the most of all his core subjects.  We use Math-U-See blocks for manipulatives.




Don't laugh.  I'm going to start introducing grammar this year, and I'm going to use this Disney series.  I think it's a really good introduction to Grammar, and between this and assorted printoffs from the internet, we'll cover all of what we need for grammar for the first grade. I also like that this series has books for girls and boys separately....the girl grammar book has a Tinkerbell theme.




BECCA'S CORE (4 year old, doing some Kindergarten, will do SOME of these every day)  Becca's in that fuzzy area....she's way too advanced for preschool, but not ready to do full-fledged kindergarten.  She loves workbooks, but book-learning isn't her style...(just the opposite of Nathan).

She's finishing up HWT level K quickly, and will begin on the 1st grade level.






She's also going to start Explode the Code book 1.  I will probably alternate between doing the Handwriting and the Phonics unless she enjoys doing both.




I found a princessy math book and a vocab book for her to do too!  I bought quite a few of the books in this series for her.  She really loves her Disney and if these make her excited about learning, I'm all for it!  (and I love Disney too)










We've been stalled on her reading lessons for awhile.  She can sound words out, but she doesn't really know them by sight just yet.  Maybe the above Disney stuff will help.










OTHER DAILY SUBJECTS:

• Bible --last year we read a some of Egermeier's Bible Story Book during dinner.  Then we had Nicholas and chaos ensued.  I want to get back on track with this., and now that he eats table food, it will be should be easier.  We also have Kid Concoctions of Biblical Proportions, that I would like to do family devos with.  We haven't really gotten it into our routine yet....so that's a goal for this upcoming school year.  They also do AWANAs.

• AUDIO BOOKS:  Books on tape, CD, Online Storytimes, Leapfrog Tag books  They each do one of these while I'm working 1 on 1 with the other.
• READ ALOUDS:  We're going to read Ramona books, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Winnie the Pooh (again, I love it!), among other books we decide to read.  I haven't exactly decided on the whole year of read a-louds yet.  
• PIANO:  I started Piano with them, and but we weren't regular about it.  This year I hope to make it in our routine.

WEEKLY SUBJECTS:  I want to cover each of these once a week (so 1 day of science, art, etc.)  We will do these subjects together.

• Science: We are more "unschooled" for science.  I try to follow the kids' interests and provide lots of resources for them to discover.  Some activities I plan to do are from Science Chef,  and 50 Science things to make and do. I'm trying to focus on the "fun" of science at this age...no worksheets or set curriculum.  Nathan loves to read science books and we have quite a few of the Usborne Internet Linked ones, so we'll probably read those and check out the websites.  

Art:  I'm not an artist...the last time I took art was in 6th grade, and the only reason I got an A is because I was nice to the teacher.  This book makes art look easy and I want to work through some of it.  It has a famous work of art, some description of the artist, and then a project based upon the artist's technique.  It says ages 6 +...Can't be too difficult right??

• Creative writing/journaling:  Once a week, I'll provide a prompt and then copy what they say.  I want to make them cute little keepsake journals or something, I need some ideas for this.  I also bought a How to Write book for each of them.  (Nathan's is Cars themed) These focus on the elements of stories and how to write them.  

• Board/Card games:  games are a great way to teach kids about taking turns, playing fair, being good sports, developing strategy, etc.  I want to be more deliberate about playing games with the kids this year.  

• Computer time:  starfall.com, pbskids, etc.
• Stuff I discover on Pinterest

We started workboxes toward the end of last school year.  I hope to do a "Workbox Wednesday" post weekly.   I can't wait to read what everyone else is doing!