We have a first grader and we are so happy about it! This new school year 2019/2020 is full of beauty, adventures, new friends, nature studies, our first co-op ever with Classical Conversations, poetry time, Spanish, field trips, sports and more!
As I have been getting everything in order from cleaning the house to putting all the books and learning tools aside, I have been so excited and thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to educate our children at home.
This is definitely a great opportunity for our family, being in the military and moving so much and having Daddy away in training often. It really does feel like a blessing to have our kids home, explore together, learn together, snuggle, and spend lots of time juntos.
This school year will be different from last year, we have so much that we want to do and learn, but at the same time there is a big part of me that wants our children to have LOTS of time exploring and playing. Especially because we have a little man who is two and loves being outside playing with his sister.
Because of this I'm also creating a Nature Wander/Mud Kitchen in our backyard for them to play and explore throughout this school year! (Another topic for another blog post).
This is how Monday, Wednesday and Thursday will look like:
5:00 7:00 Mommy time (workout, shower, personal book I'm currently listening to Hold on to your kids from Daniel Mate)
7:00 7:30 Piano Practice
7:30 8:00 Breakfast - Family walk
8:00 9:00 Scriptures Study - Chores - Morning Time (The Kind Kingdom Read Aloud, Picture Study and composers)
9:00 9:30 Play Time Outside
9:30 10:00 Language Arts - Phonics/Spelling - Handwriting
10:00 10:30 Play Time Outside
10:30 11:00 Math
11:00 11:30 Snacks/Break
11:30 12:00 Classical Conversations memorization (Timeline)
12:00 13:00 LUNCH
13:00 14:00 Snuggles, Read Aloud with mommy
14:00 16:00 Quiet Time - Nap - Read Aloud to Mommy (20 mins) Spanish - Projects - Crafts
16:00 16:30 Poetry Time (once a week), Play Time, pool, or Podcast for kids
16:30 17:00 Start Preparing Dinner
17:00 18:00 Blessing hour (cleaning time together), Daddy is HOME!
18:00 19:00 Family Dinner
19:00 Bedtime (Daddy does the bedtime routine when he is home)
Tuesday mornings will be for co-ops and Fridays mornings for Nature/Field Trips. I'm not sure about you but I'm the kind of person who needs a break after being social all morning. We will just be doing morning time on Tuesdays and Fridays and Library during the afternoon. I'm sure some days we will just have to follow our children's schedules if you know what I mean, and that is ok! This is the beauty of homeschooling. This new school year I want to do my best to be there for my children, to be present, not get cut up on curriculums, schedules or routines. With home education I'm learning that every day you learn something new, without the pressure of following a strict curriculum.
This is an example of what I want to follow, but it won't be my priority. My children are! And YES they will be 100% this school year.
Here are the names of the curriculums we will be using for first grade:
Piano lessons with Mr. Hoffman from Hoffman Academy
Scriptures we are LDS if you want to know more you can visit this website and get to know our religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Our main curriculum is The Kind Kingdom from The Peaceful Press it goes perfectly with our Classical Conversations Co-op.
Language Arts from The Good and The Beautiful Level 1
Phonics Level 3 from All About Reading
Math, we still love Right Start math, so far the teaching is great and our little girl loves it, she is on level B now.
Nature Study, exploring nature with children, from Raising Little Shoots. We LOVE it!
Handwriting, I'm exploring something new this year, our little girl's handwriting is wonderful but I think I messed up with starting printing first and then cursive. This year we will be using Italics, Beautiful Handwriting for Children from Penny Gardner (Charlotte Mason).
SPANISH! I will be using some curriculum that I brought with me on our last trip to South America and also a few others that I have been putting together from different sources. If you want to find great Spanish resources you can go to Vista Higher Learning this is GREAT place to find educational, high standard materials to teach Spanish to your kids.
I will be writing in a different blog post about what we will be using with our little two years old. Hope this was helpful for you to start your own routines. And remember there isn't a perfect curriculum, they are too many great ones out there. This is what is working for our family right now and we love them. BUT! Remember, you know your children BEST! So please don't you feel like you have to change something. I'm sure you picked the right ones as well. Can't wait to hear from you and your plans for this new school year! Leave me a comment, can't wait to connect!
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” -Frank Smith