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| For preschool, we offer a literature-based interdisciplinary curriculum package called Peak With Books . At this age, literature can provide a great springboard into numerous areas of study. Children using these two programs will learn reading, writing, science, math, colors, letters and social studies and will have opportunities to explore drama, music and art. This program will be a fantastic preparation for any school program, and is especially well suited as preparation for the Age 5-7 Moving Beyond the Page curriculum. We feel that Peak With Books provides the most complementary preschool curriculum to Moving Beyond the Page available. |
| Peak with Books is an exciting, literature-rich preschool program that will engage children and will encourage a love of learning. It includes simple, easy-to-do activities and projects for 42 great books that every parent can share with their child to make learning a stress free and fun time. This curriculum will pave the way for years of future learning. It has been shown that children who engage in frequent conversations with adults achieve a higher level of success in their early school years. Peak With Books will give you the opportunity not only to read and talk to your child, but also to listen to his ideas, opinions and feelings. Peak With Books will provide you with an opportunity to share great books with your child and engage in relevant projects to stimulate learning. Peak with Books is not designed especially for gifted children, but we do believe that it is much more advanced than most preschool curricula on the market. Also, many of the researched best practices used in Peak with Books are supported and suggested in the field of gifted education. Peak with Books is designed to use with preschool and kindergarten children in a classroom setting. Although not written specifically for homeschoolers, we feel that any parent can easily tailor the curriculum to working with a child in one-on-one instruction at home. We provide a handout that outlines ideas for homeschooling with Peak With Books. We know that many homeschooling parents are looking for the best educational practices in the curriculum they select and one that is written by experts in the field of education. This is what they will find in Peak with Books. |
| Peak With Books provides activities that clarify and expand a child's understanding of the 42 stories covered in the manual. Activities are easy to implement. Moving Beyond the Page provides a separate handout that outline ways to modify the curriculum for use at home. At Moving Beyond the Page we suggest taking a “thematic” approach to the recommended literature in Peak with Books. This will make the stories and information more meaningful and will allow your child to draw connections among books and characters. This will also prepare her to begin thinking about the “big ideas” or concepts, which are very important in the following years of Moving Beyond the Page. We have divided the books up into the following thematic units: Family and Friends (Relationships) (7 weeks) Animal Stories (Living Things) (8 weeks) Numbers, Colors and Letters (Basics) (7 weeks) Stories of People and Places (Diversity) (6 weeks) Rhyming Books and Traditional Tales (Classics) (8 Weeks) We have suggested 36 books, one for each week of the school year. Before beginning on Monday, look through the literature unit and decide which activities you will implement on each day of the week. We recommend reading the book every day of the week. The activities in each unit are not divided into days of the week, which gives you the freedom to decide which days you want to implement the different activities. Our suggested “schedule” is as follows: Monday – Setting the Stage, First Reading, and Getting Involved, Tuesday – A Closer Look, Story Time Extension, and Poetry, Wednesday – Involvement(1-2 Activities), Integration (1 Activity), Thursday – Integration (2-3 Activities), Friday – Continue Integration (1-2 Activities) and Everyday Learning Activities (2-3 Activities) |
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Originally Posted by annettemarie
 I was extremely underwhelmed. I bought two units to use with my fifth grader and did not find them particularly innovative, creative, or advanced.
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But I don't know... my 4 year old and two year old are gifted and that was one reason I liked the description.|
Originally Posted by mom0810
As a certified teacher, I just find it kind of hard to just "go" with out any set curriculum, you know? Any other suggestions?
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Originally Posted by mom0810
As a certified teacher, I just find it kind of hard to just "go" with out any set curriculum, you know? Any other suggestions?
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Originally Posted by heatherdeg
I'm not sure what grades you taught, but I taught high school. When I stepped back and looked at my best lessons, they met an objective but they weren't lessons supplied by the curriculum. I may have gone completely on my own or pulled resource materials from somewhere else. So really, you just need objectives. Core Knowledge puts out K-8 Scope & Sequence and you can teach it without buying anything more than the "What Your X Grader Needs to Know" books for lots of help and then going it on your own. They DID put out a Pre-K curriculum and WYXGNtK book but I don't know if they have redone their Scope & Sequence book to incorporate Pre-K.
We have MBTP with a mildly gifted 5yo. It's definitely under his ability in many ways; but we also weren't looking to push academics on him this early--so it's really just kind of perfect for us. That with Saxon Math (he enjoys and craves math) and tons of activities that we find "learning" in. I was drawn to Core Knowledge initially because it appealed to my "teacher-planner" side; but we spent the 4yo year figuring out curriculum and CK as a curriculum was seriously OVERWHELMING. I even got the day-by-day planner for pacing and so help me, your kid would be "schooling" ALL DAY to cover all that they've laid out. But I do like having the scope & sequence and I have the K teacher's guide which I think is helpful for "teaching the teacher" on the things that need to be covered each year and really helping you understand all of it so that you can find teachable moments vs. sitting down and teaching. |
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Originally Posted by Momma Aimee
by the scope and sequence and the K Teacher's guide -- do you mean having the book
What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning (Core Knowledge Series) by E. D. Hirsch Jr. or os there another teacher's Guid? that you are refering to? I had What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Get Ready for Kindergarten (Core Knowledge) by Core Knowledge Foundation and was underimpressed -- just a bunch of stories and poem and so on .. nice enough, but no goals or objectives really Aimee |
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Originally Posted by kgianforti
...I did recently buy a homeschooling book called "Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families" by Lisa Rivero. I was hoping for more of a "how to" but it was full of ideas on learning styles, tailoring curriculum to gifted children, etc...
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! Just search Amazon by the title and it is easy to find, though.
