1st Grade Homeschooling Curriculum...Tentative

I have had such fun researching curriculum and planning for O(5)'s first grade homeschooled year.  She will graduate from her Montessori Preschool in May  in 2 weeks (I just realized that it IS May....I keep thinking it's February...you'd think I was the one with the brain tumor!), and I'd like to start our first grade year in June.  She is VERY excited, but probably not as excited as I am!  


I've been writing out the lists of our curriculum subjects and materials on my private blog just to help me organize my thoughts, but I thought it might be beneficial to some of you if I shared it here, too.  After I typed it out, I realized that it looks rather daunting.  I don't plan to "school" O all day.  In fact, one of the reasons I want to homeschool her is to provide her with the freedom to play and explore and spend as much time as possible outside rather than inside a school room doing "work" (even fun work). 


We are going to have (hopefully) a school room that is separate from our house (located in our detached garage).  I'm hoping to set up the room similarly to a Montessori school room...I want to have a shelf for each subject and have the materials neatly displayed on the shelves.  I don't like the cluttered walls and rooms that I typically see in public and private typical (not Montessori) schools, so I am going to try to avoid that as much as possible.


During the summer, I plan to spend the first 4 to 5 hours of the day outside playing and exploring, and then we'll have our "school" time during the afternoon (when it will be too hot to be outside anyway).  I am anticipating spending 2 to 3 hours in our school room each day, but we will spend less time during the summer and more time in the fall and winter.  When we have nice weather, I plan to have "school" outside on our deck, on the boat, in the woods, etc. 


So, here it is...it's probably too much, but it's a start and we can add/delete programs and subjects as we go in order to make our school the perfect fit for our 1st grader.


Art Appreciation- twice weekly

Meet the Masters (via Homeschool Buyer's Co-op)
Usborne Art Treasury
World's Greatest Artist from Confessions of a Homeschooler


Music Appreciation- twice weekly

World's Famous Composers (Confessions of a Homeschooler)
Classical kids Cds
Maestro Classics
Orchestra book


World History- twice weekly

History Odyssey (Ancients) includes SOTW


Science- twice weekly

Science Odyssey (Life)
Science work from Montessori Print Shop
Magic School Bus Young Scientist Monthly subscription (via Homeschool Buyer's Co-op)


Spanish- daily

Elementary Spanish on United Streaming (links via Satori Smiles)
Spanish books from Reading A to Z
Spanish games (Zingo, bingo, beanbags, etc)
Spanish books
Spanish flashcards
Hooked on Spanish
Little Pim dvds
Boca Beth dvd, cd, and puppets

American History- weekly

American Girl books (1 AG per 4 to 6 weeks)
AG lapbooks via homeschoolshare
history books relative to AG girls timeline
Beautiful feet books guide



US Geography- weekly

maybe Holling C Holling books
maybe incorporate map work into AG studies


Math- daily

Singapore Math 1A (she'll fly through this and then we'll decide whether or not to continue with Singapore or not)
Rightstart Math Level B
Montessori Math materials
Miquon Math books and cuisenaire rods
Life of Fred- Apples

ELA - daily

Leveled readers via Reading A to Z               
First Language Lessons
Writing with Ease
Literature selections via Ambleside Online
Poetry journal
Nonfiction story journal
Fiction story journal
Letter writing
read aloud
listen to audio book selections via tales 2 go app for Ipad
Five in a Row Volume 2 (occasionally)


Nature Studies- twice weekly

Little House on the Prairie Nature study guide
Burgess Bird Book (links via Satori Smiles)



Sign Language- twice weekly

Signing Time dvds
ASL ABC poster
ASL books, flashcards, games


Handwriting- daily

Cursive book via Queen Homeschool
printables via handwriting worksheet maker



World Geography- twice weekly

country studies via cultural exchange
map work with large felt map
globe work with talking globe and google earth
maybe include Expedition Earth from Confessions of a HOmeschooler


Thanks to everyone who has offered advice and suggestions!!!  Also, I'll add that O(5) had LOTS of input into this curriculum.  Her interests and personal goals were the starting point in the choosing of each book/program.

Rainbow Water Xylophone

E(2) and I had a great time making a rainbow water xylophone last weekend!  (since we hadn't done this activity in more than a year, I decided it was time...we repeat a lot of our activities around here...if it's fun, repeat!)


First, E poured water into 7 glass baby bottles (leftover from my breastmilk storage days).


She added food coloring to each bottle of water.


Then she made music!  She quickly handed the mallet to me and said "Play the music, mama, so I can dance!"




Here's a quick video of E having fun with her rainbow water xylophone!


She discovered that she can make music on the porch railing, too!


We decided to leave the rainbow water xylophone on our outdoor table as a fun centerpiece, and they girls have had fun playing with it every day at mealtimes!

Excavating Toys from Ice

Excavating toys from ice is one of our favorite Spring/Summer activities, and we do it often!


To prepare this activity, I filled a plastic container with small toys, marbles, and gems and then filled it with water.  I put the container in the freezer and forgot about it for at least a month (that always happens!).


 I finally remembered the container was there (when I was searching the freezer for something to cook), so I dumped the ice block on a pan and gave it to the girls along with salt, water droppers, a hammer, spoons, dull children's knives, and a cup of water.



We all worked together to get the toys out of the ice, and it was tons of fun...as usual!

Painting Like Monet

We studied Monet (briefly) during the month of March. We read a library book about Monet's life. Then we took O(5)'s art set and easel out to our boat and set up a floating art studio just like Monet! O was very excited and she LOVED working on her painting "just like Monet."
(The boat was actually beached and not floating which is why she is not wearing her life jacket) E(2) painted, too, and she said that she was "painting like Degas!" O painted the water and the reflection of the sunlight in the water. She used several different mediums (acrylic paint, watercolor pencils, pastels, etc.) and paintbrushes to complete her masterpiece. And here is E(2)'s masterpiece. We are making Monet inspired art at O(5)'s Montessori school this week, so I'll post about that project later this week. 

Rice Crispy Treats Fun!

Since Elliott and I were away for his brain surgery during the week before Easter, we didn't get to do many Easter activities with the girls.  Luckily, we were able to get home right in time for Easter (they told us this was unlikely, so we were very thankful that it happened), and we had some Easter fun with our loves.





After seeing the Rice Crispie's commercial where the mom makes egg shaped rice crispy treats with her kids, I thought we should try it.  It was a little harder to make the eggs than we thought, but the girls had a wonderful and messy time!





O(5) was proud of her rice crispy nest.



E(2) stuffed as many treats in her mouth as she could!  Making rice crispy treat sculptures may be a new tradition for us because this was just SO much fun, and the clean-up was relatively easy, too :)

Meet the Masters!

I am SO excited to have purchased a 3 year subscription to Meet the Masters via Homeschool Buyer's Co-op!   I've been interested in this program for a while, but I thought it was a little pricey.  So, when I saw that it was being offered at a deeply discounted price (45% off) at Homeschool Buyer's Co-op, I was quick to purchase it.


Our girls LOVE to study various artists, and I think this program will make it easier for me and more fun for all of us to learn about the different artists.

Here's a link to more info about Meet the Masters via Homeschool Buyer's Co-op.

Don't forget to put CHEERIOS as your referral code when you join Homeschool Buyer's Co-op (it's free!)...you'll get 500 BONUS Smartpoints, and I'll receive a small bounty.  Thanks!

This offer expires on May 7, 2012.

F Week

E(2) had F week a couple of months ago...

She traced the sandpaper letter f





She matched objects that begin with the letter F to the felt F





We went to the woods for feather hunt, but we didn't find any.






We flew like birds!
Loving the flower arranging sensory bin! We baked cookies and got covered in flour! E LOVES playing with her forest puzzle! She loves using her dot painters on these coloring sheets. Her favorite activity from her "F" fun pack was the growing fish in an aquarium ("tarium").

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