We're trying to come up with a name for our little academy...not trying to be too serious we're thinking of Snail and Tales Academy- the all boys school ;) Haha.
I will be updating on projects and thoughts that we have during the year, so if that sort of thing interests you, please come back and visit. Man, we have lots of fun stuff planned.
This may seemm like a lot, but with a special needs son, there are some added things we want to do. Please keep in mind, that even though Jaiden is 8, we will be doing mostly Pre-K work with him. That just helps me since Tibby is in K this year, and Jaiden will do well. PLUS! My husband has a wonderful job that will alow him to be home and help us 1-4 days a week.
Bible/Scripture/Hymns
We have 3 different children's bibles, but we really love The Jesus Storybook Bible. It is filled with beautiful pictures and the stories are written in such a way that captures 3 very energetic little boys attention.
For scripture we will be using Seed Family Worship. We've already listened to a lot online, and I found some printables that go along with the scriptures that we will use.
For hymns we love to listen to Cedarmont Kids Hymns
Writing:
I have decided to try Explode the Code. I have looked it over at the bookstore, and I think this will work great for our boys.
I will also still work with Jaiden on writing completely on his own using ABA techniques from our membership to ReThink Autism. He is now on the last step before mastery!
We will also work doing copywork from our History, Poems, and Scripture.
History:
Now, you may think I'm a big nerd, but I am SO thrilled over our history curriculum I can hardly sleep! I've heard of Story of the World many times, and finally got my hands on a copy at the bookstore. I loved it immediately. It's exactly what I was going for. I've looked through the whole thing and boy o boy, am I excited! And don't forget the activity guide! It covers ancient times from the Nomads to the last Roman Emporer.
Geography:
I have no curriculum here really. I'm going to start with the continents and visit the countries in them. Homeschool Creations has a wonderful guide that I'm going to use. We will gather books, do crafts, cook food, learn music, and much more on our trip around the world! We'll be making and stamping passports, and packing our OLD suitcase full of fun activities for our journey.
Science:
For science, we are going to try out Chritian Kids Explore Biology (Biology this year, and others next) Our little introduction to biology will be the information in this book, other books on the current topic, videos, computer games like Sid the Science Kid and science experiments. Along with those, we will have our hands on nature table and science table. (More on those soon) We will not be spending just a whole lot of time on science, but I wanted a nice gradual introduction to it. Plus we do a lot of nature studies.
Math:
Math this year is not curriculum based. I have found that for K math, the easiest ways to teach it is really hands on counting, cooking (measuring and cutting things in 1/2, 1/4 etc), computer games, and board games. Along with a few worksheets to practice writing numbers and such. Our favorite game for math so far is Sum Swamp. Tibby caught on to this game a few months ago and can now add and subtract numbers 1-10 in his head. We will also try Money Bags to learn about money and a few other little hands on activities that I will post soon. The computer games that we like for math skills are: learning planet, chateau meddybemps (some good for math skills and some just for fun), and I like prekinders and other blogs for hands on activities.
Art/Music/Poetry
This will also be informal. I have ordered a great collection of books, I will share as we get to them. I'm planning on doing ONE of these daily. Reading from books, getting to know artisis, composers, listening to music, and reading poetry. I will also try to have an art project planned that has something to do with the topic. We have a great supply of watercolors, paintbrushes, markers, oil pastels, sketch paper, pencils, and more. I find it nice to have them on hand, because they will always get used.
*I also want to start Spanish, but have yet to decide on what to use. I'm leaning toward Rosetta Stone but as you can see, it's quite expensive, so I want to make sure it's what I want. If you have any programs you love, please let me know. If I decide to go with RS then I will purchase after this semester.
Literature (Learning to Read and Level 1)
Good Night, Good Knight
Bob Books
Wind and other Easy to Read in the series
Five in a Row, I chose this mainly for Jaiden and the repetative nature of this curriculum. It won't hurt Tibby to read along! I know it has math, science, and other activities to do with each book selection, but the books that are on the list are wonderful! There are about 18 or so that we will be reading, and I will post on those soon also.
Family Read alouds include:
Billy and Blaze series
The Boxcar Children
The Complete Tales Beatrix Potter
Winnie the Pooh
Many more that I haven't decided on yet.
Therapy:
Well, you thought I was done. I'm sorry for that. If you don't have a special needs child, then yes, the post is done. OR you can hang around for fun and see what we're doing these days to help Jaiden along. =]
ABA Rethink Autism, I mentioned it above, but what it is, is you pick what your child needs to work on. In our case a big one is writing. They offer three steps to teach him writing. 1st: you hold his hand while he writes. He has mastered that, so we move to #2 hold his wrist ,which he has mastered so on to #3 which is holding his elbow. He has almost mastered that one, so the next step will be to let go. He gets small jelly bean rewards for working hard.
RDI, this one is pretty new to me, but I am enjoying learning about it, and am already seeing little accomplishments.
Teaching Jeremiah is geared towards children with special needs. A great list of ideas to strengthen speech, fine motor, gross motor, and social skills.
b-calm is a listening therapy type system that we will let Jaiden do while I work with Tibby on some of his lessons.
We are also enjoying whizkidgames
I will post another post when I figure out what in the world I will do with Brighton for his little tot school. He of course has to be involved!
And that's a wrap! I'll share our schedule very soon. I'm ready for school! =]
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3 comments:
Good Job!
I will do this next week...I think! ;o)
wow, this just amazes me. I would love a day in your home during the school year to just watch how in the world you do it all! What a great plan, I know you will be blessed for your efforts. Thanks for linking up to "AP Tuesdays!"
Sounds like a great plan! I loved SOTW when the children were younger and Logan still listens to the audio cds in his free time. Only a fellow history geek would understand how happy you were to find it.
I need to do a post like this soon too and you will love RDI. I am posting a video this week of me doing RDI with Logan.
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