Critic my Curriculum

[Lineymom]

We have been "out of school" for the summer, but I am planning starting the first of Aug. I like to follow the typical school calender, but we are starting early because I am having #3 in Nov and want to take a couple weeks off then. Anyway DS is starting 1st grade offically. I have all the curiculum I am going to get ordered, some has arrived, some hasn't.
We are doing:
Hooked on Phonics 2nd Grade reading
Hooked on Phonics Super Spelling Workbook
Singapore Math 1B (did 1A last semester)
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2
Usborne Encyclopedia of World History (we also plan on reviewing over the world map at this time)

Do you think this is good? What about music/art/health what should we be doing for that? I don't want to order anything esle. I think our schedule will be pretty full with this stuff, but if I needed to use some freebies from online I would . I don't want him missing out on learning anything, you know?

I think/plan that most of this we will be done with by Christmas, and I have not planned for what is next except the next Singapore Math and probably some U.S. history.

[LilyGrace]

What do you plan on covering with history this year?


I say just take it easy. The curric. you've picked out doesn't look bad. If I were you I'd look at the activity book from Story Of The World and see if that would mesh with your history plans. There's enough project ideas in there to add in art without making it a separate subject.

I think health is very easily covered in daily life. Doctors' appts, grocery shopping, routine hygiene all present opportunities to cover health topics.

[pageta]

I second the Story of the World Recommendation. Especially the activity book. It references pages in the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. Then it gives book suggestions and activity suggestions that are just great! We love it.

For art, I suggest Artistic Pursuits. We have it and love it. It teaches you how to lead your children through the process of art rather than teaching them how to draw a horse or a tree.

For health, we're supposed to have that as part of our curriculum, but I am at a loss as to what exactly to do. It seems like common sense to me. Stuff I'd teach in every day life. And our state lists it among the five subjects you're supposed to cover every year. Gah!

You might want to look at The Well Trained Mind for other ideas and suggestions. That is where I've gotten a lot of my ideas, and what we are doing is very similar to what you have proposed.

[elizawill]

i think your choices look fine. you can always add or drop things if needed. for music, i'd just use exposure at this age. you could introduce music from around the world, or expose your child to great composers, etc. your child could also take a music class introducing basic rhythm & exposure to different instruments. for art, we personally enjoy doing crafts a lot to reinforce what we're learning in science and history. we also discuss warm colors, cool colors, primary & secondary colors, etc. for health, i agree that discussing food groups, hygiene, etc (everyday things) will occur conversationally. hth!

[tallanvor]

For art and music at that point I would just expose them to different things. When you read about something in history, see if you can find examples online from that time period. Or keep your eyes open for a good art book. I picked up a book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at a used book store this summer and it is going to be awesome because it has examples from throughout history and from many cultures. For health, just throw things into regular conversation about why we do things we do. My kids love to read the nutrition facts on food packages, so we have talked about what the different vitamins and minerals do for you. We didn't study it (well, I had to look a few things up), but just talked about it as questions arose. Another thought for history would just to read. That might end up being too much reading, though. Sonlight has excellent lists of historic fiction for children.

[kwg]

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/thisweek.asp

not used yet but looks good.....NAK

[skueppers]

Originally Posted by kwg

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/thisweek.asp

not used yet but looks good.....NAK

Wow, that looks like a really great resource! I listened to two of the shows with my daughter this afternoon when I was trying to encourage a bit of calm, and we both enjoyed it.

[sha_lyn]

I too am curious about history and if you plan on covering it this yr. I incorporate music and art into history. I second using SOTW, although I prefer History Odyssey over the SOTW activity guide.
For art we use Art in Story, which is in the narrative style and has art prjects for each story.
For music we just use the interent and our history research spines.


Health we usually cover once every 2-3 yrs for a semester in science