Eeeeek!
I've had quite a bit of emotions with actually purchasing Mary's first 'real' curriculum for her upcoming kindergarten year. Wow! I just can't believe she's five-years-old!
My adorable big girl before her recent piano recital.
Here's what we decided on for her first year of home-centered learning:
Language Arts
Helpful LA Books:
Math
Math-U-See Primer and Alpha
(We're hoping to do math everyday - as Classical Conversations founder Leigh Bortins suggests, so I went ahead and got Primer and the next level up. She said that her boys went through two or three math books each year.)
Latin
Bible Study
Extras
(available at my Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon!)
more Jim Weiss audios (King Arthur, Shakespeare)
and some other random books that I think we'll enjoy together.
Quick side note: When you're looking for curriculum, don't forget to visit Homeschool Classifieds. Wow, is that site a money-saver! We purchased a lot of our curriculum used (and new!) from that site this week.
Looks like a pretty productive year ahead! I'm not sure when we'll officially begin kindergarten; Mary has a bunch of camps this summer (including a little trip to Broadway - sort of, compliments of Grandpa! Thanks again, Dad!). . . Hmmm. . . I'll have to ponder our starting date for a bit.
In the meantime, we've been trying to keep up our CC memory work at home. I bought a magnetic white board to go along with All About Spelling, and we've found fun ways to incorporate it into our review time. Mary and I recently attached little magnets to the back of our mini Timeline cards. I mix them up a few at a time, and she arranges them in the proper order on the board. Then we sing the song together and point to the cards. I told her that if she can say them correctly from Creation to the Middle Ages without looking that she'll earn herself a trip to our pink glittery treasure chest. She's almost got it down!
Review has also been a little easier for me now that I've done some organizing:
Everything is neatly divided in one box! Even though we can now review anywhere easily, we still do most of our drilling at the kitchen table during snack and lunch. I also made separate file boxes for Math and Fine Arts, which I think will come in handy down the road. Click here to see how I organize my CC material.
Did I mention that our Parent Practicum is coming up? Pretty sure I did, because I'm super-excited! The fun starts Monday, so be sure to come back on Tuesday to see my first post about all the CC goodness! Don't know what a Practicum is? Check out this video:
Ooooh! That video just makes me all giddy! It's okay, you can call me a nerd, I don't mind. ;)
And before I leave, let me share with you some great insights from Leigh Bortins's book The Core:
Our job as parents is to restore our own education as we translate our vision of quality academics into small, daily deeds that transform education from an endeavor that prepares humans to earn wages to the gift of a lifestyle of learning. (p. 62, emphasis mine)
The most important place to begin restoring a classical education is at the Grammar stage. . . If we build a strong foundation, the rest will naturally fall into place. (p. 67, emphasis mine)
Wow! Doesn't that just inspire you?! Practicum, here I come!
See you on the flip side, friends!
Oh, my. You give me such inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Teri; I need LOTS of inspiration to keep myself going most days - Ha! :)Good to hear from you, friend!
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