5 weeks out

So here I am 5 weeks away from the beginning of our first school year, and guess what? I decided to change my reading/phonics curriculum. Why? Well because I'm no good at that stuff. The curriculum I was planning on using was something Darren was coerced into buying from a telemarketer on the phone a few years back and it has been sitting on our bookshelves since Aidan was 3. I've pulled it out and tried to work on it with him several times but we'd both get so frustrated that each time I'd put it away again after only a few weeks. It offers no practical application, no age range or cognitive ability to target your teaching to, so I have no clue if I am expecting too much or to little from Aidan when we sit down to do the work, and on top of that I have no idea how much of the program I am supposed to cover in a year's time. But.. me being pretty frugal (most of the time) didn't want to spend money on an additional phonics/reading program when there was a perfectly good program sitting on my shelf. However, when the curriculum orders for other subjects started arriving in the mail... wow!!! what a difference, thoughtfully laid out daily lesson plans, suggested activities, manipulatives etc... The more I thought about it the more I knew I couldn't stick with what we had. Aidan's ability to read well and understand the English language will carry over into all other subjects, and so after a long night of searching for curriculum online I decided to go with: HORIZONS KINDERGARTEN PHONICS AND READING SET. I also added COLOR PHONICS because Aidan loves playing on the computer and it looked like a good (and fun) program to reinforce what he'll be learning.
So YAY! I feel A LOT better heading into the school year now. Well minus the sting of having to pay for it. Boo.

So far I've been please with the rest of the curriculum that has arrived. I have a minor scuabble with A Beka's Bible Doctrinal Drill. As a whole the information is great and will be a good addition to our Bible class, but there are a few instances where they use phrases that I think paint an inaccurate and confusing view of salvation, but that will be easy to correct/omit.

We've been using Dr. Ferguson's books this last year for Bible school and we love them! They are excellent in that the first half of the lesson is generally an example of a real life situation that the child may experience and the second half ties that back to a Bible story. We're already half way through: The Big Book of Bible Truths 1. This school year we'll also use Dr. Ferguson's The Big Book of Bible Truths 2, and The Big Book of Questions and Answers. I also plan on going through the Cathechism for young children with Aidan. It's the introduction to the shorter Westminster Cathechism.

For Math I will be using Hoizons K Math Package. It's already arrived and I've flipped through it. The first 6-8 weeks, maybe more will be old news to Aidan, and because of that I plan on doubling up and doing 2 lessons daily until we reach new material. Therefore, we will finish the workbooks fairly early in the year. I haven't yet decided if I will then order the following years curriculum and begin grade 1 early, or if I'll just fill in the last few months with a Kumon workbook for grade 1 from Barnes and Noble.

For Science I was lucky enough to get all but his "experiments" from the Creation Museum when we were there last month. I purchased the Buddy Davis Mega Pack, the God Created Series at the museum. Then in order for Aidan to get some hands on time and do some experiments I ordered The Backyard Scientist and for cooking I got Rachel Rays Cooking Rocks! 30 minute meals for kids. I really really REALLY don't like bugs, even pretty ones like butterflys so I am debating with myself on whether to order fun "boy things" like ant farms and butterfly kits, tadpoles etc.. Right now the part of me that says "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW" is winning, but we'll see.

History I've ordered, but not yet recieved History for little pilgrims, and I'm totally stoked about it, it sounds incredible! For Social Studies I ordered A Beka's Social Studies K. I've also picked up work books covering social skills and self awareness, the United States, and 10 different countries from around the world.

I also plan on ordering Rosetta Stone's Russian program for Aidan and I to do together, I just haven't brought myself to swallow that expense yet.

So there you have it... that's what we'll be using this year. Now I've just got to get it all organized and fit it in the dining room. Wish me luck!