Curriculum 2014-2015

For Nathanael 7, Tabitha 6 and Abigail 4 (years 3, 2 and Reception) 

and any of the younger children who want to join in!

Bible

 

 

Morning Bible Time and related projects

Read aloud missionary books

Memory Verses and Hymn Singing

K-3 Picture Smart Bible

Postal Bible School

Walk thru the Bible

Time Travellers Club

Maths

 

Heinemann Maths

Maths Games

iPad apps including IXL, Primary Maths Skill Builders ages 4-8 or Maths  3-5 and 4-6 from EuroTalk apps.

Real life opportunities to use money when shopping, measuring and weighing in baking, collecting data for projects etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and lots of library books!

Phonics

Sound Phonics by Schofield and Sims.

Ladybird I'm Ready.. for Phonics!  app on the iPad.

Games such as Pop for Sight Words.

Spelling

Look, cover, write check method using Schonell's Essential Spelling Lists.

Spelling 1 and 2 by Schofield and Sims.

Handwriting

 

 

Schofield and Sims Handwriting Practice 1 and 2

Various workbooks and worksheets

Copy work from the Bible, poetry and in relation to current project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English

Lots of different projects and lapbooks, using the children's own interest as a spring board. Past projects have included Cowboys, Houses, The Human Body and Genesis.

Five in a Row.

Poem memorisation.

Literacy - Nathanael

Letts Key Stage 2 Activity Book

Galore Park Junior English Book 1

Bible studies

Literacy - Tabitha and Abigail

Nelson English Books

Letts Key Stage 1 Activity Book

Science

 

Science in the Beginning by Dr Jay L. Wile

365 Science Experiments, Big Book of Science things to Make and Do, No Fuss Science Photocopiables, Junior Illustrated Science Dictionary.

Geography

Having researched and completed mini projects on the four countries of the United Kingdom last year we plan to broaden it out to some European Countries and look forward to discovering more about the main geographical features, food and culture. We have also bought a large map of the world for the wall in the living room which is providing a great amount of discussion and learning about world geography.

 

History

 

 

Weekly lessons of History are going to continue with Daddy for the next 6 weeks on their WWI project and then returning to their project in on Ancient History. Resources are  Story of the World, activity book one Ancient World, Lost Civilizations - Time Life Books and various internet and YouTube videos.

Lots of visits to museums and historical buildings, drama, art and technology activities.

German

Rosetta Stone.

Simple oral activities such as numbers and greetings.

Music

 

 

iPad Naxos My First Classical Music app, My Orchestra app and The Carnival of the Animals.

Peter and the Wolf YouTube videos, both orchestral and ballet.

Recorder lessons from Recorder from the Beginning

Nathanael has Piano lessons from Tunes for Ten Fingers

Music theory book Theory made easy for Little Children.

Hymn singing.

Art and design

 

Katie books, A Children's Book of Art, Usborne Art Sticker Book, You can Draw, visits to Art Galleries and lots of opportunities to create their own art.

Simple sewing lessons and woodwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ICT

iPad apps, this year we are looking forward to creating e-books using Book Creator for iPad app.

BBC Touch Typing

Lessons in how to use Microsoft word.

PE

 

 

 

Lots of walks in the country, games in the garden, visits to our local parks and swimming pool.

Home Economics

Baking, cooking and cleaning lessons. Little Keepers and Contenders, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, Kids' First Cookbook.

Nature

We have enjoyed some lovely walks lately and spent time identifying birds and wildlife. I intend to build upon this, visiting the same country park every month, to document in their new nature journals the changes in season, birds spotted, flowers identified etc.

RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club.

Sounds like its going to be a fun year!

"And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD;

and great shall be the peace of thy children."

Isaiah 54:13

Maths Musings

I have always enjoyed maths myself and imagined my children would be the same. My husband, however would describe himself as a bit of a maths dyslexic, and it seems some of my children have inherited his maths genes and not mine! I have experimented with different approaches to try and engage the children in maths, starting with maths games and challenges when they were younger,

 

 

 

visual demonstrations,

 

 

 data handling activites 

and introducing some workbooks such as Schofield and Sims as they got a bit older

 

 and then giving up on maths altogether and waiting till they were a bit older and trying again!

We then got an iPad and tried a few good maths resources on it. This interactive approach definitely helped engage the children in this subject.

But to be honest, using lots of different maths resources left me feeling all over the place and not sure in what direction we were going and how to build systematically on what the children already knew. It was stressing me out and I didn't know which way to go next. I decided that I needed a solid curriculum, so I could make sure everything was covered and so I could then supplement it with additional games/activities/iPad where needed. The question was which one to choose? I had ruled out an American curriculum, because of the differences with money and measurements. The ones that we had already tried were Schofield and Sims, which I found confusing as there were so many different books, and Mousematics  which I did like initially but became too costly and time consuming as it had to be printed off from disc. These also lack colour. We had a short try of MEP maths, but it was far too academic and the pages were dreary to look at, which did not engage my already disinterested children.  I spent a lot of time asking different people their advice and my mum gave me the best suggestion, one that I had never thought of - Heinemann maths, the same maths curriculum I had used at school as a child! I didn't realise it was still in print, but I have managed to buy the workbooks from Amazon at a reasonable price and I have located some textbooks second hand.

 

 

A page from Year 1 Maths

 

A page from year 2 Maths

Year 2 Maths

 

 The pages are colourful and fun, and there is a lot of repetition and reinforcement. And guess what? The children are enjoying it and making notable improvement. I love it so much, I have purchased enough workbooks for all five of my children to complete primary level maths, just in case it goes out of print!

 



Curriculum Update

One of the great things about Home Education is that you do not have to be tied into a set curriculum, but can change and adapt to suit each individual child. With this in mind, I have dropped a few things off our proposed plan for 2013-2014 and added some extras. The additions are in red.

 

For Nathanael 6 and Tabitha 5 (years 2 and 1) 
and any of the younger children who want to join in!

Bible

Postal Bible School
Go Teach - Come and Learn
Walk thru the Bible
Morning Bible Time and related projects
Read aloud missionary books
Memory Verses and Hymn Singing
*Time Travellers Club

Maths

MEP Maths. This is new for us this year.
Schofield and Sims workbooks
Maths Games
Life of Fred
*Granny's retirement gift was an iPad, which she kindly allows us to use and it has added an interactive and engaging dimension to maths lessons. Each child has a 15 minute session a day using either IXL, Primary Maths Skill Builders ages 4-8 or Maths  3-5 and 4-6 from EuroTalk apps.

Reading

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and lots of library books!

Spelling

All About Spelling
Andrew Brodie Spelling for Literacy
*We have also been doing look, cover, write, check method to learn the 100 key words.

Handwriting

Schofield and Sims Handwriting Practice 1 and 2
Various workbooks and worksheets
Copy work from the Bible, poetry and in relation to current project.

English

Lots of different projects and lapbooks, using their interest as a spring board. Past projects have included Cowboys, Houses and The Human Body.
*This term Nathanael has started a project on London and Tabitha and Abigail have started a project on farm animals. I have been getting lots of ideas from Pinterest.
Poem memorisation.
I plan to dip in and out of First Language Lesson, Writing with Ease, Comprehension Activities, Scolastic Literacy Hours, Andrew Brodie Improving Comprehension, Collins First School Dictionary Skills and numerous worksheets I have collected.

Science

Related learning and experiments tied into our current project.
*We have thoroughly enjoyed our project last term on Water and are staring a new science topic on Forces.
365 Science Experiments, Big Book of Science things to Make and Do, No Fuss Science Photocopiables, Junior Illustrated Science Dictionary.

Geography


We are going to do a project throughout the year based upon an A-Z of Britain. In retrospect, I feel that this is too abstract for the children to start with, so we have changed to studying our local area, working outwards to our town and eventually onto England and the United Kingdom.
Me on the map, Usborne Sticker Atlas of Britain and Northern Ireland, Usborne Children's Atlas of Britain.

History

Weekly lessons of History are going to continue with their Daddy focusing in September on Ancient History. Resources are Ancient World, Lost Civilizations - Time Life Books and various internet and YouTube videos.
*We picked up a second hand copy of the Story of the World, activity book one, which has been a great resource and the children are moving on this term from Ancient Egypt to Ancient Greece.
Lots of visits to museums and historical buildings.

German

Rosetta Stone
*and simple oral activities such as numbers and greetings.

Music

Usborne First Book of Music, DK A Young Person's Guide to Music, The Story of the Orchestra
Recorder lessons from Recorder from the Beginning
Piano lessons from Tunes for Ten Fingers

Art and design

Katie books, A Children's Book of Art, Usborne Art Sticker Book, You can Draw, visits to Art Galleries and lots of opportunities to create their own art.
Simple sewing lessons and woodwork.

ICT

*iPad maths apps
BBC Touch Typing
Lessons in how to use Microsoft word.

PE

Hopefully lots of walks in the country, games in the garden, visits to our local parks and swimming pool.

Home Economics

Baking, cooking and cleaning lessons. Little Keepers and Contenders, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, Kids' First Cookbook.

Nature

We have enjoyed some lovely walks lately and spent time identifying birds and wildlife. I intend to build upon this, visiting the same place every month, to document in their new nature journals the changes in season, birds spotted, flowers identified etc.


Sounds like its going to be a fun year!

"And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD;

and great shall be the peace of thy children."

Isaiah 54:13

Curriculum 2013-2014

For Nathanael 6 and Tabitha 5 (years 2 and 1) 
and any of the other children who want to join in!

Bible

Postal Bible School
Go Teach - Come and Learn
Walk thru the Bible
Morning Bible Time and related projects
Read aloud missionary books
Memory Verses and Hymn Singing

Maths

MEP Maths. This is new for us this year.
Schofield and Sims workbooks
Maths Games
Life of Fred

Reading

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and lots of library books!

Spelling

All About Spelling
Andrew Brodie Spelling for Literacy

Handwriting

Schofield and Sims Handwriting Practice 1 and 2
Various workbooks and worksheets
Copy work from the Bible, poetry and in relation to current project.

English

Lots of different projects and lapbooks, using their interest as a spring board. Past projects have included Cowboys, Houses and The Human Body.
Poem memorisation.
I plan to dip in and out of First Language Lesson, Writing with Ease, Comprehension Activities, Scolastic Literacy Hours, Andrew Brodie Improving Comprehension, Collins First School Dictionary Skills and numerous worksheets I have collected.

Science

Related learning and experiments tied into our current project.
365 Science Experiments, Big Book of Science things to Make and Do, No Fuss Science Photocopiables, Junior Illustrated Science Dictionary.

Geography

We are going to do a project throughout the year based upon an A-Z of Britain (blog post to follow sometime.)
Me on the map, Usborne Sticker Atlas of Britain and Northern Ireland, Usborne Children's Atlas of Britain.

History

Weekly lessons of History are going to continue with their Daddy focusing in September on Ancient History. Resources are Ancient World, Lost Civilizations - Time Life Books and various internet and YouTube videos.
Lots of visits to museums and historical buildings.

German

Rosetta Stone

Music

Usborne First Book of Music, DK A Young Person's Guide to Music, The Story of the Orchestra
Recorder lessons from Recorder from the Beginning
Piano lessons from Tunes for Ten Fingers

Art and design

Katie books, A Children's Book of Art, Usborne Art Sticker Book, You can Draw, visits to Art Galleries and lots of opportunities to create their own art.
Simple sewing lessons and woodwork.

ICT

BBC Touch Typing
Lessons in how to use Microsoft word.

PE

Hopefully lots of walks in the country, games in the garden, visits to our local parks and swimming pool.

Home Economics

Baking, cooking and cleaning lessons. Little Keepers and Contenders, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, Kids' First Cookbook.


Sounds like its going to be a fun year!

"And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD;

and great shall be the peace of thy children."

Isaiah 54:13