Two years of homeschooling under my belt, and I feel like I’ve really found my groove. It wasn’t hard to pick curriculum for this coming year. I knew that we wanted to be literature heavy so Build Your Library and Blossom and Root were obviously choices for us overall. Once I started looking into things, I went on a shopping spree and got my ducks in order. The hard part this coming year will be to balance each child’s individual needs and levels. Arthur will be in 3rd grade and Quentin will be in Kindergarten. I am working on creating a schedule that works for everyone while allowing for flexibility.
As a reminder, we are a pretty eclectic household with a strong literature base. My criteria when looking for curriculum:
secular
rigorous
wide world perspective
not necessarily all-in-one
at least some physical items, not all online
cheap (not necessarily the cheapest, but not expensive)
Let’s take a look at what I have for curriculum for next year!
Quentin - Kindergarten
Primarily Quentin will be using Blossom & Root’s Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum and Build Your Library Level 0. B&R is focused on expanding literacy through lots of picture book studies and literature activities. I ultimately decided against using the entire B&R Kindergarten curriculum and just focus on the Language Arts. BYL 0 is a tour of the world including lots of literature, animal science, art, and poetry. Hopefully by combining these two curriculums, we will get to the amount of reading the we accomplish normally.
Language Arts
Blossom and Root and Build Your Library has some basic language lessons and activities, but my kids both seem to love workbook style for grammar lessons and such. We will be starting with the Kindergarten tagged workbooks and then move into the G1 books eventually. We use these as supplemental material. I create little weekly packets that I help the kids work through. Quentin is not good at working independently yet, but we will get there.
Super Smart Kindergarten (we also have Super Smart First Grade if we need to crack it open)
Phonics G1-2
Tinkeractive English PreK (we didn’t get to this last year mostly because of the handwriting components; we will be starting with this book in August)
Literature
This will be Quentin’s first year where we are going to try to read longer chapter books. I curated this collection from the Build Your Library and Blossom & Root curriculums and our own bookshelves.
One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest by Jean Craighead George
The Witches by Roald Dahl (accidentally included this one in Q’s picture; this is actually for Arthur)
This picture includes more of our literature this year. BYL includes a great collection of animal tales from around the world to go with our country study. It also has a giant list of picture books to read with specific countries. Most of those picture books will be checked out from the library, but I did end up buying a few the library doesn’t have and a few that were included in a big curriculum box.
Social Studies
Social studies is coming straight from the Build Your Library Level 0 curriculum. I love the idea of doing a tour of the world. We are going to focus on the larger picture while zooming in to specific countries.
Atlas of the World Sticker Book
Around the World Sticker Book
Maps Activity Book
The Build Your Library science for Kindergarten is all about animals! We’re pairing animal studies with our tour of the world. The main bulk of the curriculum is animals.
The curriculum also has some selected topics in Earth Science sprinkled throughout the year. And we will be doing nature science when the weather is nice. The coop topics will also be in the mix.
Math
Math is definitely an issue in this house as both boys are at least one grade advanced in math. I am always trying to scramble to find the best choices for them. Quentin is going to be starting out with actual Kindergarten leveled books and quickly moving to G1 books. We will also be adding in some math board games and Khan academy. Looks like a lot, but Quentin loves math, so this looks just about right to me.
Sylvan Page a Day Math G1 (this is basically the same as a portion of the other Sylvan book, so we are going to pass it along to a friend)
Random Target workbook finds
Time, Money and Fractions G1-2
Money Play Set (Target Dollar Spot find)
Art
This is actually all the art books for Quentin and Arthur. I took just one picture. Each one of their Build Your Library levels has a related art book to dip in and out of. Q’s is the Global Art book to go along with the tour of the world. Beyond that book, I imagine that we will occasionally do a art lesson on other people and styles. Plus, coop is supposed to be starting an art class. Very excited about this possibility.
Misc.
Back issues of High Five magazine - We read through a ton of these last year, but still have a few to go.
Highlights Magazine
Sunnie Press Maps - I’ve been collecting these for awhile now. Each one details a location that will pair perfectly with our Around the World tour for social studies.
