Reason #146...

 Reason #146 why I love home schooling (most of the time!)...
 I get to hear all sorts of funny comments from my kids.

When Elianna was practising printing her letter "q"s today, she said, "You know, a q looks just like a seahorse except that instead of a pointy head, it has a round head, and I guess its tail needs to be a bit curlier, too."  That kid has animals, critters, or sea life on her mind all.day.long. I love her. :-)

Grade 1 Homeschool Curriculum Plan

I wasn't planning on starting "school" until next week, but yesterday Elianna was really wanting to "do school", so we did. Today we took the day off to go to a "not back to school" party and meet some fellow home schooling families.

 Here is the plan for this year (Grade 1) in case you were interested. I also want to do a few "day in the life" posts this year with pictures as I personally love reading those kinds of things.

For the most part, we are using Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory as our main guide/lesson plan and supplemental activities.

• English/Language Arts:  
• Pathway Readers & Companion Workbooks. There are 3 readers and 3 workbooks for reading comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling practice. The books are called First Steps, Days Go By, and More Days Go By. This will be our main phonics/reading curriculum for the year. Elianna is an early reader, so this is just to build on what she learned last year. This is my own phonics choice, not part of Heart of Dakota.
• Using Heart of Dakota's lesson and activity ideas, we will also be reading through these 8 classic children's stories, including some Beatrix Potter and Thornton W Burgess animal stories
• Printing & Fine Motor Skills
• A Reason for Handwriting Book A
• Rod & Staff Going on Eagerly & Just Thinking and Choosing workbooks
• Math 
• Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A and 1B Textbooks and Workbooks

• Science
• Our Father's World
• Social Studies/History
• History for Little Pilgrims
• History Stories for Children
• Canada, My Country curriculum (not part of Heart of Dakota, but this is a necessary supplement because Heart of Dakota is more American-history focused. I wanted to add in Canadian history/social studies)
• Bible
• Reading through the Bible plan for Heart of Dakota
• Devotions for the Children's Hour (as outlined in Heart of Dakota)
• Hide em' in Your Heart cd 
• Music/Art/Drama/French/Phys Ed
• I will be teaching Elianna piano lessons using Music for Little Mozarts
• Draw.Write.Now Book 1 for drawing lessons
• Arts/Crafts activities that correspond to daily lessons (as planned in Heart of Dakota)
• Dramatic play as outlined in Heart of Dakota guide
• French youtube videos & free resources
• Phys Ed - free play, extracurricular sports, etc.

That is the plan for this year. It takes only about 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week of  actual "school work" to get this all done in 35 weeks or so. The biggest challenge is keeping the 18 month old and 3 1/2 year old out of trouble during "school." I am also working through Little Hands to Heaven (prek) with Nathanael to try to keep him somewhat involved and occupied.