Lets keep it real - we've played a lot this week :-) Just played . We are still enjoying some really nice days - so much better than last summer - so I am not about to stop the play. Plus, I'll be honest, I'm enjoying not planning and not overseeing planned activities. We all play together some times and some times I'm able to get some extra things done around the house. I'm sure as the summer heats up, I will need to help the kids accomplish some things so that they don't get on each others nerves but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Anyway . .. here is our plan for the fall.
The main curriculum that I will be using for Josh comes from
Confessions of a Homeschooler and is her K-4 program
This curriculum really covers all of the bases in every basic subject that a 4 year old should know. We are not technically starting Kindergarten with Josh this fall since his birthday doesn't hit until the end of October. We made the decision to wait one more year plus this put Nate and Josh only a year apart in grades which will keep them together through the years in other activities. Not to mention that homeschooled kids tend to graduate a year early (not always but often) so waiting a year won't hurt him. One of the things I love about this curriculum is that 36 weeks of lesson plans are provided and within the plans are links to everything you need to print. It is awesome that the work is already done!
The main curriculum that I will be using for Nate this year also comes from
Confessions of a Homeschooler and is a great preschool program.
Last year, the boys did the same curriculum because Nate wasn't really in preschool. He just tagged along for fun and some days, left the table early. Because he did a lot of the work with us, though, I had to find him something new to use in "Preschool" by himself this year. This curriculum is a great option because it is similar to what Josh is doing so when he compares his work to his brother's it won't seem so different. (It is my plan to use the K4 curriculum with Nate next year). This curriculum comes with 26 weeks of lessons, pre-planned, with links, ready to go!!
I like to add a Bible Supplement to our day because it is so important for kids to be grounded in the Bible. I did a lot of research and found this curriculum from
Positive Action that I really impressed me.
Bible is one of those subjects that both boys can do together so I will be working with both Josh and Nate on this study. The interesting thing about this is that I "grew up" on Positive Action material. I complete 6 years of Pro-Teens as a teenager in my church so it excites me to share this same curriculum with my kids.
I also plan to start Handwriting with Josh using curriculum found at
A Reason For.
Learning to Read goes hand and hand with learning to write so plugging this in even once a week will help him alot. I like that they use scripture verses as writing practice.
This last item is a bonus item - it is PE curriculum from
Family Time Fitness and is a great way to do PE when you don't have a clue.
I want my kids to be active and enjoy sports. I looked at this last year but my kids weren't ready for it at that point so I waited but I am planning to pick it up this year to use with the kids. We also like to put our kids into an activity . . .our focus right now is actually swimming. They will be enrolled in swimming lessons by the end of July and we plan to continue with those until both boys can swim with confidence. We did gymnastics this past spring and the boys enjoyed that but swimming skills can save their life. :-) We are also tentatively thinking about putting Josh in soccer this fall - we'll see! (Nate is too young still!)
My next step is to start working on our schedule. I'm thinking about doing a 6 week on/1 week off rotation which would open it up for us to have a longer break in December and finish up our year mid-May. Josh's curriculum begins with a lot of review so starting in Mid-July wouldn't be a big issue and we would only do his K-4 curriculum for a little bit each day. I plan on using time next week to lay out the plan, starting printing the first 6 weeks of lessons and also get the other stuff ordered so I'm ready to go :-)
