Friday, June 20, 2014

Planning the next beginning.

There.... All that is missing are some PE pics. We enjoy bike riding, swimming, dance, soccer, hiking, tobogganing, skating, running, and climbing.

It will soon be time to just run in the sprinkler and soak up some sun. We had a big year with adding a second child to our homeschool routine and adding a new babe to our family. This Mamma is tired but it is all worth it.

In the coming year I want to let there be more room for creative learning, and I want to grow our knowledge of the Bible. We are passing down quite a bit of curriculum to younger siblings, and learning what works for each child and our family. We are learning to keep planning simple, even though our lives are full. Less leaves room for more....

 



            

Reading.

Aiden has developed a love to read and so we have a few chapter book series for him to try out. We use the library quite a bit too.





And some more.....

This year we would like to be more conscious of taking some weeks in between normal routine and learning at a more child-guided pace. Some fun books to explore: 


 
Science topics. 

 
And some more. 



 
Socials too. I am excited about these books, especially for Aiden who can run with these kind of resources :) 





Fine Arts

Fine Arts:
(Grade 3, 1, and K)
 
Mom picked one Usborne art book for each kid (but I am sure that they will share too) and some air dry clay.

H&C

Health and Career is often covered in everyday experience, but some books help too.

(Grade 3, 1, and K)

Bible

Mom has been looking for some good bible resources for the past while and finally found some for Gemma and Keiran, and Aiden who is able to do so much on his own accord. (We can count this in for Health and Career as well- Grade 3, 1, and K.)


Keiran and Gemma (Grade 1 and K)
 This is a book from Sonlight and has simple one page bibles stories with pictures.

 Aiden, Gemma, and Keiran (Grade 3, 1, and K)
 The Family Bible Library. We will use these for years to come! They are multifaceted when it comes to learning scripture and the history in the bible stories :)

This set came from a traveling salesman (I am not kidding!).


Science times three.

We like to do science all together. Aiden, Gemma, and Keiran will take part at different levels.

(Grade 3, 1, and K)
 
These creation science books are great for family study and have three levels of learning to accommodate different grade levels. 



Some extra science books: 
 
I also picked up some books on space to make Aiden's grade three fuller. 

 
Some interesting topics..... Dad likes fossils too.  

 
 

Social Studies!

We love Donna Ward Socials curriculum! Aiden will do this second program in the Canadian curriculum series....

(Grade 3)




These picture books are from the Canada My Country series and Gemma and Keiran will learn about Canada through these.....
(Grade 1 and K)

(Grade 1)
 Gemma will also get an introduction to mapping skills.

2014-2015

Math Curriculum

The kids have already started their next Math-U-See programs, as we work sort of cyclically in math. Here is their current and next-in-line books:



Aiden (Grade 3)
 
Beta and Gamma 



Gemma (Grade 1)
 
Primer and Alpha


 Keiran (Kindergarten)

 
Keiran will start Math with Singapore Earlybird K Math. I started Gemma with this beginner math program before she started Math-U-See and it helped her solidify her numbers. It worked great, so Keiran will go the same route.

 
And, then on to Math-U-See Primer. 

Organizing before summer.

Last night I was organizing our curriculum so that it is all planned, sorted, and ready to go come end of summer. Here's our picks for this year, starting with English:

Aiden (Grade 3)
 
For grade three I (mom) picked basic Sonlight LA with readers. Here is the main pack and the many books Aiden will get to enjoy :) 

 
Aiden has shown interest in learning to handwrite so we are going to try out this workbook as well. He has a bit of quirky printing as he is left handed so I am not going to hold to this if it doesn't work out, but hopefully it will improve his style. 




Gemma (Grade 1)
 
Gem will carry on with Sonlight for Grade One LA and with all the extras that go along; Explode the Code 1, 2, &3 and Handwriting Without Tears, My Printing Book. We love all these resources and have used them each year in some form.

 
These are the readers that go along with Gemma's Sonlight program. 




 Keiran ( Kindergarten)
 
For Keiran, I am going to use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The reading is included in this book as you go, and I find that it brings a child to a higher level of reading by the end of it than Sonlight K does. We will use The Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code books and Handwriting Without Tears to learn letter and number printing. I had bought extra worksheets for Sonlight K last year for Keiran too, so I may use some of them, as well as the beginner readers.




Thursday, June 19, 2014

some spring/summer pics

We are finishing up a last little bit of curriculum and have started into our next Math-U-See programs, but mostly we are just taking some time to breathe a little.....

 
The kids gathered rocks with Dad for a new fire pit. We have already had a few marshmallow roasts here with friends and family. 


There has been tons of bike riding going on around here- our fave activity. 


 
Aiden's U10 soccer team won their mid-way tourney!

 
We love getting these boxes in the mail.... our English curriculum has arrived :)

 
Time for some vitamin D.

 
Gem collected some wild flowers from our yard. 


 
Aiden checked out a book from the library about castles and was drawing his own coat of arms/shields. 

 
One for Aiden and one for mom (by Aiden). 


 
Grandma was up and brought a new toy find. 

 
Aiden turned eight and had fun with friends and family, and on his own, building Lego for days.  

 
Finn is seven months old now and is rolling around. 

 
 Gemma and Keiran helped Dad build this chair for Mom (one of two).
We are ready for summer to come!