Current Curriculum May 2014

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We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Olivia officially started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. We don't follow specific grades but Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-8 and Olivia is generally Kindergarten, some Gr 1. 

So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We use a mishmash of traditional homeschool curriculum, workbooks bought at teacher supply stores, stuff made up completely in my head and most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books. In a nut shell, we're eclectic homeschoolers.

Olivia:

We've just bought a subscription to ABCMouse.com and Olivia's loving it so far! It has all the way from Toddlers to the end of Kindergarten. We're starting from the pre-school path, only because Olivia has had very little use of the computer mouse before. She knows most of the activities they show her, but she's also learning how to control the mouse, so it's a win-win. 

For printables we mostly use 1+1+1=1 (there's also great tot school and preschool printables here!). Confessions of a Homeschooler also has great printables.

We have a stack of assorted workbooks but those are totally on a "if Olivia feels like it" basis. Some weeks she'll do 20+ pages, other weeks she'll do zero. As she's only "supposed to be" (by her age in public school) in Junior (or 4 yr old) Kindergarten, I don't feel the need to focus on seat work. I do, however, encourage her any time she's in the mood for it!

Olivia will also be running in the kids fun run again this year. She loved doing it last year and was soooo happy to hear that I would "let" her do it again! She keeps wanting to do Brianna's training runs with her, so I've made a *much* smaller route for her that Brianna runs with her. She thinks it's just great!

Olivia loves to help take care of Joshua, cooking and household chores (unless it involves cleaning up her toys lol). We, of course, encourage her as much as possible!

We're going to be reading through the Little House series (and probably again in a few years) along with repetitively reading through her first readers.


Brianna: 

Math: 
We're really liking Math Mammoth. It's almost self-teaching once a kid can read. I like it so much I've actually bought every grade from 1 through 6 of it! Hopefully it works well for Olivia and Joshua! We're also working our way through Khan Academy. Brianna really likes the videos explaining new concepts. And of course, the math review in her daily binder. She is currently doing Gr. 5 math, again, as she had a long period of shoddy work ethic going on. I've heard a few people sarcastically state that the reason why homeschoolers score higher than public schoolers is because mom would of course give top grades. Not here! Brianna'll tell you how mean I am lol

English: 
We're using Scott Foresman English for Gr. 6, but it ends there so we're in search of a new English curriculum. We're running through McGraw-Hill's spelling just to get back into it, but otherwise, for spelling I just follow her work. I keep track of words she has spelled wrong in her general school work and base spelling practise off of that.

Daily Binders: 
Each day she has a math review (10 questions of varying math problems/vocabulary), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that she has misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), and journal (with various writing prompts).

History/Geography: 
We're going to do a quick review on Canada and general mapping then move on to Country Weeks! We're going to pick a new country each week and learn all about them. Some of what we're using are History of the World, Geography of the World and Animals of the World. We'll also be using a print out from Scholastic called Cool Country Report. 

Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We'll be doing a lot of interest based topics. Human biology and natural disasters being two of them. She will also be doing a week long science camp in July, which is is over the moon excited for!

French: 
We will be doing Rosetta Stone and using Living Languages for extra activities. Rosetta Stone is a new one for us, but I've heard rave reviews from many people on it. She's done Living Languages with my sister before, but due to extenuating circumstances has not been for the last year. Now, we'll be getting back into it.

Art/Music: 
Brianna wants to learn guitar and we have a child's guitar and a great book - The Complete Guitar Manual so we'll give it a shot. I also need to fix my flute as Brianna was learning to play that. Later this month, she'll be taking an all day class (or two) on stained glass making.

Phys Ed/Health: 
Brianna runs with a local MultiSport club. I posted about her running season for the year. We'll be hitting the public pool during off hours to work on her laps as that is her sore spot for her triathlon. Grandma is also doing a Nutrition class.

Computer: 
Brianna loves Garfield's Typing Pals which focuses on speed and accuracy, so we'll be continuing with that. She's also be champing at the bit for a Minecraft account, which is currently up for discussion.

Life Skills: 
The garden is going in in the next couple weeks, so Brianna will be doing a large part of that. She's also cooking more and more, learning new recipes and techniques. It helps that Grandma recently graduated culinary school (with honours!), so she is the main teacher there. Brianna is still working on her cross stitching and knitting, but is also starting to learn to crochet and sew. We'll be replacing the walkway this year, so she'll help and learn how to do that properly. It is hopefully in our plans as well, to wall off her play room in the basement to turn it into a bedroom for her. She'll help with the drywalling and such there.

Adding this to Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap Up and planning is what I've been doing all week!