Speaking of homeschooling...

Several others have posted their curricula on their blogs, so I will share mine. Much of it is the same as others, so you will probably start to recognize some of it.


Brennan is 5 years old and is a Kindergartener:

For Reading, we started the Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We actually started this in January, doing a little bit at a time. Brennan thrived with this program and is now practicing with the Bob books and Little Folks readers from Catholic Heritage Curricula. We supplement the phonics with Modern Curriculum Press's Phonics Program. We started Level K in March and are almost finished with it and will continue with Level A. Brennan also has been memorizing poetry as suggested in Laura Berquist's kindergarten syllabus, complete with making his own poetry book.

For Math we use the Horizons Level K. I love it! It provides lots of useful teaching tips and ideas for using games and manipulatives to teach concepts. Brennan is already counting so much better after just a few weeks. He has also figured out his left and right just from playing Simon Says each day (as the book suggested!). I also have Mother Goose Math, which is a book of reproducibles and activities to reinforce math concepts.

For Religion, I use the Who Am I program 3 days a week and spend the other 2 days reading Bible stories from the Golden Children's Bible. We also have been making a Bible book of those stories per Laura Berquist's syllabus.

For Science I am using the Scienceworks Learn about... K-1st Series (on earth, weather, and plants). So far we have really enjoyed the Earth series. It is a set of lessons that teach concepts through simple experiments, observation, and various picture books. The reading list is fabulous and we have found all the books so far in our library. Each student keeps his own "log book" of his observations and truly learns through experiences.

For Art, I am using a combination of Baby Lambs (for learning to draw and learning about colors, perception, etc.) and a few art projects out of the Little Saints preschool program. We never followed the Little Saints program completely, however some of the art projects are fantastic!

We have several Music Masters CDs, as well as some music CDs from Vacation Bible School and Veggitales that the boys enjoy. I also plan to start Brennan on piano lessons in a few weeks via the Alfred's Basic Piano Library Prep Course. I'll let you know how that turns out!



For Nicholas (my 4 year old) I do a few Little Saints art projects, lots of math manipulatives (Three Bear Counters and so forth), the Who Am I PreK book, and we are starting to learn to read via the Little Folks Program from CHC (it seems to fit his learning style better than 100 Easy Lessons). We also practice our handwriting a little each day with Write Stuff cards from Discovery Toys. This is what I used to teach Brennan to write last year as well. It has some great writing drills you can practice in addition to writing practice for each letter and number 1 -10. Brennan will still drill with these cards if I notice a particular letter needs the practice.

Well, there is our School year! It is so much fun to get started!