Our homeschool co-op has met twice now and is working out well. We meet the 1st and 3rd Wednesday every month and the children all seem to get along. On the 1st Wednesday Ms. Hana starts with some cute songs, Ms. Carolyn does math with abacus's, Ms. Melody does arts & crafts, I do a read -a -loud, and the other Ms. Tiffany does science. The 3rd Thursday is for field trips and this month we are going to the pumpkin patch.
These are the cute crafts Ms. Melody had for the children made of egg cartons.
I feel like I am getting the hang of things more and more even though I am constantly mixing things up to keep it interesting.
For Phonics we are using a variety of things: Reader Rabbit Reader's, sight word "Go fish", sight words around the house, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (we took a break from it for a couple months but there are a few lessons left that I think will be beneficial) and we just start using McGuffy Eclectic Readers. For writing we are using Handwriting Without Tears.
For Language Arts we started a journal. I have Benson re-site a particular event or retell me a story and I write down what he tells me, then he gets to illustrate the story. Later I have him read his journal to his dad and it is amazing the words he reads all because he knows what it is supposed to say. I also read to him everyday (The goal is 2 hours a day).
Math consists of everyday events or sitting down for 5 minutes and having him add beans or other objects. (Right now we are working on addition.)
History and language arts are blended right now. I read books to him about an historical events. If the weather cooperates, I want to do a unit on American Indians because Josh's dad has real tee pee that would be fun to set up after we learn about it. I want to plan out units for the rest of the school year but I have yet to do this.
Science, I just ordered a book called Mudpies to Magnets. I am excited to start this book for children. I think a little bit of science will help break up the mundane work.
Next Year, 1st grade:
We will continue to use McGuffy Readers for phonics and spelling.
I am really excited about the abacus curriculum I found. This will be a great Montessori approach to math.
I will use The Four Year Plan as a reference to tie in Language Arts, History, Science, and Religion.
With History I also plan to use The Story of the World, Book 1
Language Arts, I will continue to use journaling and the Library
It is so overwhelming all the resources that are out there. These are ones I found that I think will all tie together. Phonics and spelling is the only thing that should feel like "work" everything else should be fun. This is why I like the hand on approach of the abacus curriculum. Benson won't even know he is doing math. Science will feel like we are playing. History and Language Arts should be an enjoyable time for reading. It all makes sense in my head. Hopefully it will in real life.
Today we made scarecrow necklaces out of a peppermint for the head, a box of raisins for the stomach, tootsie rolls for arms, smarties for legs, and raffia for the string. The boys enjoyed it.
