School Plan for Next Year (as of now)!
Well I have been pretty MIA! But I will tell you why. Today I think I finally have a working plan for our school year, at least for now! I am sure that things will change as we go and as I break it down into a plan, but honestly you have to start somewhere. So I thought that I would share some of our plan (so that if you have a better idea, I have time to work it out)!
We have a ton of changes coming to our homeschool and I think that the biggest one is that Bunny is going to be moving away a bit from a Montessori. Now pick jaw up off the floor! We are still doing some, but we are going to be using some text books this year. Why you ask….well after trying to do the elementary work for the Montessori method last year with Bunny, I realized that it just didn’t work well for her. She likes to have structure and having such a big field of study was just too much for her. I felt like the beginning of the year was very scattered, but once I started picking a topic and working through it, Bunny was happier and leanred more. The other things that I noticed was that Bunny was done with a lot of the materials. I was trying to get her to work through the math serquence with materials, but once I let go of them and just let her do some worksheets, she excelled. So as a true Montessorian, I realized that following the needs of the child was more important then following what I thought I had to do. Another major factor for me in this change is the fact that I cant keep trying to make all of the materials. I feel like each subject has so many parts that I need to make and keep track of, there is no time for me to do some other things with the girls. We didn’t get to do a lot of art or music or other studies that are fun. I felt like all of my energy was being funneled into making work for simple subjects. Math and Language are pretty well researched and there is a lot out there. I feel like I am wasting so much time making things that others have perfected. Why reinvent the wheel? So this has led us to look into other ideas of learning this year. So what exactly is Bunny going to do this year? Let me show you!
MATH: BUNNY: No doubt about it, the Montessori math work is the best! However, Bunny loves her worksheets for practice. So this year I am going to buy Modern Curriculum Press for math. I have looked through a lot of books and I think that this is really just worksheets in a book all organized by the different parts of math. Since Bunny is really good at this and a little further ahead of the average greade, I am getting her the Third Grade book. My goal is to use this book with the Montessori math materials. When we are learning a new concept of she is stuck, there is still shelves of math work to use! 🙂
PUP: Is going to start really working on the traditional Montessori math sequence. We will be starting golden bead and bead boards with her. I think that she is going to have fun!
GRAMMAR AND WORK STUDY: BUNNY: I looked long and hard for a great grammar program, but came up without anything really good for us. First Language Lessons is a good program (best I looked at), but it was just not going to be a good fit here. So I am going to be using my Montessori albums in a modified way. I hesitation with using the Montessori method for this is the grammar boxes. Bunny doesn’t like to use work cards for anything and the thought of maing all those materials was really daughting. She does however LOVE LOVE LOVE the grammar symbols and building things. So I will be writing words on the board as we talk about each part being the building blocks of a great sentnence! Writing it out on the board will work much the same as word cards, but more directed and less independent. However, I think that this will meet the need here. Plus I will use some of this as Bunny’s copy work to help with handwriting. Plus she will be reading something everyday!
PUP: is going to be starting some moveable alphabet work and some object boxes. She wants to read SO badly. I am also hoping that she can sit in on some of Bunny’s lessons and pick up on the grammar things as we go!
SPELLING: We were working on All About Spelling Level 1 and we will be continuing on with that! Plus it does start to cover some word study, so that will be helpful there too!
PUP: well she isn’t working on spelling exactly. But we will be working on sounds and making words!
WRITING: Will be covered it all the other things we do. Writing about geography or history or just writing a story! She can pick that each day!
PUP: is still trying to write words. I am going to really be working with her on the moveable alphabet, but she loves to write the letters so it may just be done on paper instead of with the letters! 🙂 All that tracing have paid off for her!
SCIENCE: BUNNY: This year science will be rather laid back. We have done ALOT of science in the past couple of years and I think that we need to work on history and geography a bit more. However, that being said, Bunny wants to do nothing but science! 🙂 And more then anything she wants to build a robot! So I found an awesome robotics science program that I think will really get her excited! It called OLLO and it is for younger kids. I am planning on getting the starter set that has a 12 week program to go with it. My hope is that it will help her better understand how things move and what it takes to get them to move!
PUP: Well she is probably going to be getting a random bit of science as she finds something that interest her. She is wanting to learn about her body and about animals. So we may start there!
HISTORY: I love the Great Lessons and while I think it is really important to study all of history and have NO idea where to start and how ti do it without a good base. Enter Story of the World! If you have not seen this history program, you should look at it! It is amazing! It starts in prehistoric history and slowly goes all the way to modern time over about 5 books. These books are told from a story perspective and offer just enough information to be interesting and get a kid interested in a time period, but not so much that there is no more to learn! I am going to do book one this year and I have ordered the guild so I have all the maps, charts with early writing, book lists, and coloring pages that go with each chapter! I know that Bunny is going to LOVE this and even if we just read it as a story she will learn at TON!
PUP: will be doing this with us I am sure! Whether or not she remembers it is just fine! I think she will love to listen to the story and color some coloring pages!
GEOGRAPHY: Our homeschool group had decided to take a trip around the world this year and each month we will pick a continent to study together for the day. I thought that this meant we could do a deep study each month! So we will have a monthly contient that we will be studying! This is one area where I think my Artful Homeschooling will really come into play! Each week we will be picking an activity to do for that contient. So one week we will make a map, another week we will cook a food, another week we will find some landmarks, and the last week they get to pick something that they think looks interesting! It is going to be an overview, but enough that if they find something deeper they want to study they can! 🙂
PUP: will be doing the same thing here! I was thinking that she could learn about an animal from each continent and make sort of a zoo! Maybe sculpt each animal and create the habitat for the animals!
ART: For art we are going to be working that into our other studies. However, I did buy Artful Parent, and ArtLab for preschoolers incase we lacked inspiration! 🙂 That will be for both girls!
So that is our plan for the new year! I have linked this post up with the Not Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! Now I just need to order the books, organize the school room, and write up plans by week. I am also hoping to get back into some regular blogging! I feel like things have been rather busy with little summer things that haven’t been recorded because I really just haven’t had my camera on me! We are relaxing and having ….well summer! But school is coming and I think that it will be a good year! What are your school plans for the year? Do you have a brilliant resource to share? Are you doing something new? What about extras in your school work? I would love to hear your ideas! Plus if you are stopping by from the NOT Back to Homeschool Hop, WLECOME! So glad to have you! Happy Schooling!
July 11, 2013 @ 6:58 pm
This looks really interesting. As a teacher I think there is one part of writing that I would be including on a regular basis and that is creative writing. It is something that is missing from the Montessori curriculum but is very important. At school we have a half termly(6 weekly) topic for both maths and literacy. The literacy topics are poetry; lists, notes and letters; narrative writing; reports, book reviews; newspaper reports; myths and legends. With each topic I build on what we did the previous year and introduce new techniques or points of view. It is very important for the children to learn how to plan a piece of work, use writing frames and word mats and sustain a piece of work over a week or so. My seven year olds wrote their own version of an English legend and planned it out with a story board, wrote a first draft, corrected it with them, wrote a fair copy and then copied it out with best hand writing. They were all impressive pieces of work. I am sure Bunny would enjoy this, especially as it is quite structured.
July 11, 2013 @ 8:50 pm
Hmmm…that is an interesting thought! I forgot about poetry and legends. Maybe I can incorporate it into the history plan a bit since a lot of our work will be in the ancient history and that is the perfect place to start talking about legends and myths! Thanks for the idea! I think you are right. Bunny will probably love it! 🙂 I hope all is well with you guys! I haven’t talked to you in forever! 🙂
July 13, 2013 @ 8:52 am
The other thing that I forgot to mention is that we do use “non Montessori ” materials to back up the grammar and language work. We bought a series of grammar books and cut them up and laminated them to make grammar cards. You don’t need to do that because you only have two children but you could do similar. I don’t know that it helps you to know that we use books from a company called Collins but you could look on uk Amazon and see them and then see if there is anything similar for sale in the USA. You might even be able to buy them yourself. They are pretty cheap and good. The other place to look, and I know it is available in the USA is Jolly Grammar. We use both the Jolly Phonics, which would be great for Pup and the Grammar books which would be great for Bunny and Pup later. They follow the same colour system for parts of speech as the Montessori materials and is set out in weekly sections of spellings, grammar and punctuation. You don’t have to follow the weekly thing if yu don’t want to (we don’t!) but it is very sound.
July 14, 2013 @ 1:49 pm
Ohhh…thanks for the tip! I came across Jolly Phonics, but I really didn’t see where I could order it in the USA. But I will defiantly look again! I really would love to have a plan all in one place! Thanks so much for your help with this. You are the best! 🙂
July 11, 2013 @ 8:37 pm
I love reading homeschool curriculum choices & why! My daughter is only 3.5 but I love reading ahead…just a bit. 🙂 It’s interesting too b/c I am in love love love with Montessori but it overwhelms me with where to start and all the things to prepare etc. I have done a few preschool type things already and my daughter always grabs worksheet pages off her shelf first (just preschool type books, thrifted) so what you wrote about Bunny & worksheets made me smile. I am struggling with thinking I will need to do something more worksheet/lesson plan already done type thing for my own needs too and I loved reading someone else with a Montessori thought on this.
July 11, 2013 @ 10:52 pm
Well my comfort is that Maria Montessori always says Follow the Child. Some kids like worksheets. However, if all you do is worksheets eventually it becomes boring. I have found with Bunny that she likes her worksheets so long as I add some hands on as well. Especially with math being so hard to visualize, having some manipulatives really helps her understand before she head off to the worksheet. Most kids like hands on work too! Finding a fun game and having worksheets is a lot of fun for little ones! Even Pup I am noticing love to color in coloring books and things like that! Happy Schooling to your Little one!
July 12, 2013 @ 5:13 am
Keep up the great job mama.
Enter to my giveaway for a $50 gift certificate from Montessori Services
http://olivesandpickles.blogspot.com/2013/07/montessori-services-for-small-hands.html
July 12, 2013 @ 5:53 pm
Thanks Patty! I hope you are having a great summer and your giveaway goes well!