Down on the Farm with ChiknGirl

The Curriculum Plan

I'm laying out what we will be doing this year.  As usual, something will change at some point during the year and I'd like to be able to look back to see how the year started.  This will help me plan the next year, I'm sure.  We will be using Ambleside Online's Year 1 plan with a few changes.  I've removed the religious studies and added some extra history study using History Odyssey: The Middle Ages since we love history so much.  We will be using the Harmony Fine Arts program instead of following Ambleside's program because we used the 1st grade program last year and really enjoyed it.

Language Arts
        Spelling - All About Spelling
        Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears Printing Power and copywork from poems or for nature journal
        Literature - The Aesop for Children, Just So Stories, Parables from Nature, The Blue Fairy Book, Tales from Shakespeare
        Poetry - One poem read a day using A Child's Garden of Verses, Now We Are Six, A Child's book of Poems

History
        World History - Our Island Story, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Viking Tales, Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages
        American History - Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Buffalo Bill

Geography
        Paddle to the Sea

Science
        Natural History - The Burgess Bird Book, James Herriot's Treasury for Children
        Nature Study - The Handbook of Nature Study

Fine Art
        Artist Study - Harmony Fine Arts Program for Grade 2
        Composer Study - Harmony Fine Arts Program for Grade 2
        Pottery Class at Open Arts Studio
        Handicrafts - general handicrafts like knitting, painting, drawing, etc

Math
        Singapore Math Textbooks and Workbooks 2A and 2B

Physical Education
        Homeschool PE class through Pierce County Parks and Recreation Department

Additional Reading
        The Velveteen Rabbit, The Red Fairy Book, The King of the Golden River, The Adventures of Pinocchio, St. George and the Dragon, Pocahontas, Peter Pan, Little House in the Big Woods, Charlotte's Web

Additional History Books for History Odyssey
        Shakespeare for Children, Meet Christopher Columbus, Knights of the Round Table, History Pockets - Native Americans, Days of Knights and Damsels

Other Books We Will be Working In to the Schedule
        Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork, ...If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern, The Adventures of King Authur by Angela Wilkes, Stories of Knights by Jane Bingham, Days of the knights - A Tale of Castles and Battles by Christopher Maynard, Who Were the First North Americans? by Philippa Wingate, Christopher Columbus by Stephen Krensky, Winter Poems by Barbara Rogasky, One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes, Math for All Seasons by Greg Tang, How Much is a Million by David M. Schwartz, Family Math by Jean Kerr Stenmark.

I have a huge list of books I want to find, my wishlist on paperbackswap.com has most of them listed.  I'm always hunting yard sales and thirft stores for books. 

Changing Things

So far, 2009 has proved to not be crafty.  I haven't done much outside of sewing Anneliese's birthday dress.  Her dress turned out wonderful.  I used pattern #32 from Ottobre 3/07 magazine in size 122cm, which fit perfectly.  The fabric is 100% linen I purchased from Vogue Fabrics, it is a lovely ercu color with butterfly fairies and flowers all over. 

It has been a year (almost anyway) full of medical challenges, family upheaval and financial worries.  I'm crossing my fingers that we are coming out of the worst of it now, and life can start settling down a bit.  Our school year starts in a week and I'm really looking forward to it.  I've got most of our curriculum planned out for the year and I think it's going to be really fun for the kids and me.  We are using Ambleside Online's curriculum, which is a Charlotte Mason based curriculum.  We'll be reading lots of really great living books and spending lots of time outside exploring nature.  I plan to use this blog to post about the challenges and joys of this coming school year.  And hopefully I'll have something crafty to post, too.

I'll be doing a bit of remodeling to suit more homeschooling updates, so expect to see some changes soon.