our Curriculum Choices

The Summer surely is approaching fast and I'm so excited to proudly announce that my little cheetah racer is officially signed up for kindergarten for the following Semester !! He is learning how to read for quiet some time now and anyway with our home schooled Leap Creature in 1st grade it's almost silly saying that my Kindergardener  "starts" classes this fall. But anyway it's official and I'm SO excited. We picked up school material for both of the boys and then the big scrambling will start about putting lesson plans together etc. Can't wait !!


Also do I have no idea about how to teach two boys since one alone is already very time consuming but.. all I know is.. that I'm excited. We always pick our school materials before the summer holidays so the funny thing is, right when it's time to actually wind down and go into relaxing mode, I see all the new school material for the next school year and feel like: How can we just not study now having all the new exciting books etc. !! haha.. well we all do need a break but I doubt that it'll really last more than about a month.



I also finally have the curriculums together since there have been some changes and adjustments here and there:


Leap Creature's 2nd Grade:


Math: 
-Rightstart Math Level B (we did use it for the last 6 month and it worked great so we'll just keep going.) I did mention it thoroughly in an earlier post.
Language Arts:
Grammar: Daily Grammar and first Language Arts for everyday use. I yet have to figure out how and how much of which since I'm new to both. I did read positive reviews about both Curriculum though and didn't want to have to choose.
Phonics: Explode the code #3 (another first)
Spelling: Spelling Workout B (This is yet another first and we'll see how it goes. Leap Creature reads tons and writes quiet a bit so this might just be supplemental)
Reading: Core Literature there's always a book that comes with an activity pack, for now he chose Mr. Popper's penguins and Charlotte's Web. He was an early reader (4) so this is the least of my concerns. I will lay a bit more importance in re telling and comprehension the coming year.


Science: 
Houghton Mifflin California Science #2 ( I like it for a bit of a guidance about what's expected in his grade level and from there we usually drift off here and there to make it our own.)
-Science in a Nutshell: all about Rocks,  and a few books with experiments.. Science is such a fun subject, we'll never go out of ideas on what's next !!


Social Studies: I have to say not my favorite, except that I really enjoy History, and so does Leap Creature. 
History of the World Volume 1: with some extra of our own about Geography, Culture of the Countries today, Language etc. He's really looking forward to learn about Asia, particularly India. 
Activity Package about Native Americans 
Maps and Globes level B as supplement just because he likes it


Cheetah Racer grade K:


Language Arts:
Phonics: 
-Hooked on Phonics Level K-grade 1
-Explode the Code 1
-A Kindergarden Package that comes with tons of activities, games 


Science and Social Studies:
Unit Studies from their Charter School that come with booklet(s) and activity pages.
Maps and Globes level A
and whatever other fun things that cross our ways...


Math: Rightstart Math Level B


Other than the Curriculum we have Discovery Education.com and compasslearning.com to work with. D.E. is great for complementary videos, Lesson Plans etc. and compass learning is a full Curriculum the Charter School offers that I use for an additional learning that the boys love since for them it's playing time on the computer !! "how convenient". Who knows what will stay and change for the next year but so far this is what we'll start with. I'm one of these moms that always worry about not doing enough but writing it all down it does look like "plenty" !! So plenty that we desperately need a second book shelf for some more storage space !! 

Myriam