So I was just bumming around the internet...

and came across this article... How to Write Your Own Homeschool Curriculum (Third Grade). I read the entire thing, enraptured. And thought, what if I did that? What if I wrote my own second and fourth grade curriculums for next year, or even first and third for the rest of this year? Using free resources (with the exception of Saxon Math from the charter school, which is free to me at least), could I create a comprehensive plan? So I started by looking at California State Content Standards for first and third grades, and came up with brief lists of goals for each...

First Grade
Language Arts:
Be able to identify letters and their sounds.
Read short words (three to four letters, short vowels) fluently.
Be able to write, and speak, in complete sentences.

Math:
Not worried about this, as Saxon covers everything plus.

History/Social Studies:
Ability to construct a simple map with four directions.
Be familiar with the meaning of holidays.
Contrast and compare living now and in the past, as well as here and other locations.

Science:
Understand what plants and animals need to live.
Understand the three phases of matter.
Use of simple tools to help understand and catalog weather.

Health Education:
Be able to name major parts and organs in body.
Understand basic concepts of safety, healthy behaviors, and cleanliness.

Third Grade
Language Arts:
Be able to read fluently (silently or aloud) at grade level.
Be able to identify various forms of literature, i.e. poetry, plays, prose, etc.
Write a single paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting information.
Read and write cursive.

Math:
Again, not worried about this, as Saxon covers everything plus.

History/Social Studies:
Ability to draw and read maps.
Be familiar with Native American tribes of their area, and how living here affected them (climate, crops, animals, etc.), as well as the influx of settlers.
Understand the basis for laws, rules and regulations.

Science:
Basic understanding of energy and matter.
Animals and plants in different biomes, adaptation.
Basic understanding of what is in the night sky, patterns formed, solar system structure and planet identification.

Health Education:
Understand the cycle of birth, life, and death in living things.
Recognize that people, plants, and animals grow at different rates.
Be able to identify major body parts and organs, as well as their functions.
Understand how recycling, reducing, and reusing help create a healthier planet.

So, after looking at this, and identifying what I felt were the key characteristics of each area (believe me, the state of California uses a lot more words), I think I could come up with something to suit us. Much of this is stuff we already cover - such as the health education. 2nd and 4th don't look that much harder to summarize and condense.

Food for thought (since my stomach is already full of delicious Thanksgiving fare)!

Wishing you all...

Hoping everyone out there has a peaceful and enjoyable Thanksgiving! This year I am thankful for my family, my home, my friends, and everything that comes with it all.

Somewhat off topic...

Today is my FOURTEENTH wedding anniversary. Absolutely crazy.... where has 14 years gone? And off course, this is a 14 year marriage following a three month whirlwind courtship, during which I was proposed to 5 days after we met. I know some people thought we might be "in trouble" since we got married so quickly, but if I was, that was the longest human pregnancy ever since Elf didn't show up until about 6 years later.

So, in honor of all that, we are taking today off from homeschooling. And tomorrow, we'll do just the basics - you know, the three "R's" (???), and then Elf is off to a new 4H project... juggling! And there's Park Day. I requested the day off from work, so I don't have to hurry anywhere, and M and I can go out to dinner then. My mom has generously offered to take the kids overnight, so M and I plan to head out to the coast on Saturday, maybe with some yummy lobster rolls from the fish market down the street... mmmmm....

Next week will be a short week in honor of Thanksgiving. We have a few appropriate books to read, and we'll no doubt be making hand-shaped construction paper turkeys (I have a collection now from years past, a great way to see how much their little hands have grown!). We finally got this book from the library too, so I'll be reading that with Fairy sometime in the next few days.

I was talking with a friend (who used to teach and did a lot of early literacy work) at the park last week about Fairy's reading inabilities, and she suggested a great idea - everytime I manage to get Fairy to read a book, I can add it to a book basket. Then Fairy can read to herself from the basket and its growing collection anytime she wants, plus she can see how much progress she is making. So I found a nice basket that will hold a lot of books without being too heavy, and Fairy is very excited about this idea. She promptly placed the two Bob books she's gotten through into it. We're now working on the Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See book, and I have the other similar books by the same author. Fairy loves rhyming things, and repetitive things (like songs), so I am trying to pick simple books that are along those lines. So I mentioned this to our resource teacher yesterday at our meeting, and she loaned us a whole stack of very simple, mainly rhyming books!

Elf of course is reading like crazy. He is so much like me in that way - I find him awake late at night, just trying to finish "one more chapter". He's reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid right now in addition to Fantastic Mr. Fox (like me, always more than one book going), along with several reference books on various subjects, and of course his beloved Calvin & Hobbes. I think except for math, this kid could totally go with unschooling.

Have a good day!

In a box of books...

We got a GREAT box of books from my mom's neighbor, a former homeschooler whose children have grown up and gone on to college. Among the books on human anatomy, outer space, and so forth, I found two new-to-me resources that we're now enjoying and/or will enjoy in the future. In the "now enjoying" arena, we have the Oxford First Ancient History. Having browsed through it, I can say it is clear and concise, and it makes a great companion to the Famous Men of... series.

The second discovery will be useful in the future. It is an entire set of books, called Girls to the Rescue, in which the girls save the day, rescue someone, slay the dragon, and so forth. I think Fairy will really enjoy these in a couple of years!

Plus we got a whole stack of Zoo Books, some bug books, and more. Yaaay for former homeschoolers!

Changing a few things, and a progress report of sorts...

Changing: When kids groan every time you bring out a certain resource, it is time to change that resource! So, we're going to try Famous Men of Greece for a while (the gorgeously illustrated Memoria Press version), along with great Dover coloring books, and the Classical Kids Activity Guide, along with the activity guide for SOTW. And we've dropped our homemade biomes studies for the meantime, instead focusing on Elementary Life Science. I know we tend to switch things up more than some families might, but I think that is one of the beauties of homeschooling - the ability to adapt to what works and what doesn't.

Since Fairy is struggling with reading, I also got a copy of Phonics Pathways. We sat down yesterday to start working with it, and I am hopeful that it will work. It is designed for remedial readers, people with difficulties reading, so I think it is a good place to start.

Progress Report: Other than changing a few things around, we are doing well. Saxon Math is working really well for both kids, and Writing Tales is a dream come true for me, since it covers writing, grammar, spelling and vocabulary, all in one! And the kids both still love Explode the Code. Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families is great too... yesterday it seemed that Fairy finally got the concept that the end doesn't change, just the first letter does! In another week and a half, I plan to bring back in another phonics/writing book for Fairy, and we'll see how she does with that. The great thing is that all the approaches, from Word Families to Oak Meadow, will be covering the same things, and so will complement each other.

We had a great homeschooling day yesterday. I cleared off the table, brought in some flowers (red and purple sage), lit a candle, brewed a pot of tea, and put on some classical guitar music. We covered phonics, reading, copy work, vocabulary, math, geography, and science, doing a project on burrow temperatures that was simple, and a lot of fun. We even played the grammar version of Red Light, Green Light from Writing Tales, which was a ton of fun (and sneakily educational). We didn't make it to 4H since I am still fighting off a cold or something, but I think a day at home was just what we needed, since the last few weeks have been hectic, hectic, hectic.

I am hoping for more of the same today. The kids want to do their Tae-Bo Kicks video, and then I already have history ready to go - complete with coloring pages scanned and printed from Greek Gods and Goddesses... and we'll finish up the science project, plus reading, writing, math, etc. Elf is reading The Fantastic Mr. Fox right now as his assigned book (since the movie comes out later this month) and he loves it. It was always one of my favorite books as a child! Then Fairy has dance later today, and I have the evening OFF! M is cooking dinner too, so maybe I will actually get to relax a bit. Tomorrow we don't have any out-of-the-house plans until Elf has tap in the late afternoon, so I have plans for yet another day of good, solid education.

Hope all is going well for everyone else out there!