Share your curriculum ideas

[mother of faith]

what curriculum are you using this year?
have any ideas on curriculum choices this year?
are you willing to share some of your internet curriculum choices?

I hope that we can start sharing ideas on curriculum, and actually share samples of our schedules or scope and sequence, or even some of the content, or other materials that have been creatd, made, copied, or modified to help those who may be struggling with gettin git all together this year.

Our co-op uses many but here is a few,
www.lessonpathways.com
www.abcmouse.com
www.time4learning.com
ACE ministries
www.hippocampus.org
www.SAS.com/curriculumpathways
Jump Start
and tons more.................................

[Danial Henry]

I am planning to add new formats  of ballet dance for my students. Recently we have added Nutcracker ballet and kids.

[DadDude]

My "curriculum" for H., age 5 years 5 months:

Geography = reading books about countries, systematically reading books covering all the "important" countries and some not so important, among some other activities, see my latest blog post here: http://larrysanger.org/2011/11/what-are-the-best-books-about-countries-for-children/ ; 2-4 pages daily, at least
History = Bauer's Story of the World + three other books at the same time + random other books from time to time (will take us a total of 18-24 months to go through the whole history of the world this way--we're on track); 2-4 pages daily, at least
Math = Singapore Math 1A, 2+2 is not 5, and Life of Fred: Apples; we're going through very deliberately because I want him to understand everything very well, and so does he--we're enjoying ourselves reasonably well, actually, could be much worse!
Literature = various and always changing, mostly classics from among those I bought, often to go with history (so lately we've been doing Arabian Nights and Robin Hood, which go with our study of medieval history); also, Anderson's fairy tales; one hour a day of reading to self, at least, usually literature but sometimes history; Papa reads chapter books sometimes at mealtimes and every night without fail for ~30-45 minutes
Latin = Rosetta Stone almost daily
Piano = Music for Little Mozarts, 1-3 "mini-lessons" per day
Fiddle = occasional lessons from Papa
Typing = Typing Instructor for Kids a few times a week; occasionally I show him computer skills on his old $350 Netbook as well
Chess = Chessmaster + a whole bunch of other stuff

I highly recommend all of the above.

Writing is all self-designed and lately has mostly involved me saying, daily, "write me 3-5 sentences about anything" and then he usually ends up writing more than that, usually about various nonsense, but it's good practice.  Thinking about how to teach writing stories and reports that are more coherent.  Science is mostly reading various books (lately, a couple of Basher books) mixed with some experiments.  Little or no "language arts" yet, apart from writing and literature, but he's evidently picking up a lot of spelling and some other salient concepts.  We also not infrequently do "engineering"-type stuff like reading "how stuff works" books and doing electronics experiments.  Drawing is pretty random, but we do use a "How to Draw" book sometimes.  I keep thinking that we'll start learning drawing more systematically, but we never do...

[arvi]

DadDude, can you please write a review on Chessmaster. Also, can you please tell us how you started teaching chess to your son. My DS is too young for it, but I want to learn myself first.

[sonya_post]

DadDude,

Are you familiar with the Progymnasmata? It is a series of graded exercises that teach writing based on imitation of the best works available. One can use a curriculum but I don't think it is necessary. You focus on one or two exercises each year of study. Your child would start out with Fables. You'd study a fable and then the child will rewrite it in his own words. We've done some basic exercises with these:

1. Cut the story down to 50 words.
2.Cut the story down to 25 words.
3.Retell in your own words.
4.Use the same plot but pick different characters.
5.Expand the story and give more detail.
6. Change point of view.

Sometimes we'll do all of these, sometimes one or two. The best writing is illustrated and placed into a binder.

Here is the wikepedia intro on the progym:

As Progymnasmata (Greek "fore-exercises", Latin praeexercitamina) are rhetorical exercises gradually leading the student to familiarity with the elements of rhetoric, in preparation for their own practice speeches (gymnasmata, "exercises") and ultimately their own orations.
 
Both Hermogenes of Tarsus and Aelius Festus Aphthonius wrote treatises containing progymnasmata (in the second and third century CE, respectively).
 
The traditional course of rhetoric gave the progymnasmata in this order:
 1.Fable
 2.Narrative
 3.Chreia
 4.Proverb
 5.Refutation
 6.Confirmation
 7.Commonplace
 8.Encomium
 9.Vituperation
 10.Comparison
 11.Impersonation
 12.Description
 13.Thesis
 14.Defend or attack a law
 
Once these exercises were mastered, the student would begin preparation of a gymnasmatum, a full oration on a topic given a specific context.
 
Progymnasmata is now taught in today's Classical Christian Academies and teaches the student how to write these works so they may go on to Gymnasmatum.
your child gets older you'll be taking apart arguments, studing the rhetorical devices used and imitating them. 

We have used the progym for 6 years. I used curriculum at first but it's not necessary. A little internet research will let you know all you need to know, at least for the first few years. Just pick the very best. I found the book - The Writers Workshop - a helpful book of exercises that uses the same practice of imitation. It was written for college students, but it's an easy read and very basic.

[DadDude]

Sonya, thanks for the tip.  I will look into it.  Makes sense to me--as I write this, H. is downstairs filling copying and filling in the blanks of a fill-in-the-blank text.  Last week he wrote a simpler version first two sections of "The Snow Queen" (with a lot of help from me), and he's been writing his own "version" of Snow Treasure off and on for a few months.  So I get what you're onto here.  I just wonder if there is a way to teach him to, you know, produce more original stuff.  I can't simply say, "here's what to say," so this is difficult to teach!

[DadDude]

DadDude, can you please write a review on Chessmaster. Also, can you please tell us how you started teaching chess to your son. My DS is too young for it, but I want to learn myself first.

Chessmaster is a great program.  But first, how we started...when he was 2-3, I started showing him the pieces and how they moved, so when he was 3-4 he knew what the pieces were called.  When he was about 3, we started doing No Stress Chess semi-regularly.  This is easy and fun enough, but in the end it wasn't anything to write home about.  Then about a year ago, we started going through a basic chess tutorial book that came with a "travel set" of chess pieces.  After a few months we set that book aside (it wasn't that great) and started instead on Chess for Children.  By the time we were halfway through, he was finally able to play his first games, with help from me.  We also started some chess tutorial software, which I like, but which I'm not going to recommend for little kids--we never got far into it.  Shortly before finishing Chess for Children, late last summer, I enrolled him in a scholastic chess class/club and he's been going to weekly 1.5 hour lessons.  He even went to a tournament, though he didn't do so well--he was playing against more experienced K-3 kids.  Then last week we got Chessmaster, I'm not sure which version as the chess coach gave it to us, and we've been playing games & doing "mini-games" and exercises.  Chessmaster is the best chess software I've ever seen, although I haven't seen much :-) -- just a lot of apps.  Speaking of iPad apps, we've also played a fair bit on Shredder and he went through the brief tutorial on the Dinosaur Chess app.

I'm not sure that all of the earlier preparatory work, meaning the stuff we did before he was 4.5 or so, was worth the time.  In fact, I kind of doubt it.  It seems that he could have gotten to where he is now by starting with various tutorials.  But going through the tutorials wasn't hard, because of his preparation, and he's "getting" stuff faster now, so maybe the earlier preparatory work did help.

For all this training, he's still a total beginner, just like most other five-year-olds.  In another six months or year he might be able to play games that make more sense...

[sonya_post]

DadDude,

The point of the Progym is that children really don't have an idea of what to write yet, so you give them the model of the very best. As they accumulate a storehouse of words, sentences, and stories they will become original writers. The best writers read a lot. The progym is not enough by itself to create a good writer, but combined with a lot of reading (which you already do) it will give a framework to write his own material as he's broken down and looked at the mechanics of really good stories and really good sentences.


Sonya

[linzy]

For my older son 5 1/2 we are using:
Language Arts:
           Writing with Ease
           First Language Lessons
           An Evan Moore type daily review book I think it's caled "Daily Language Review"
           Spelling workout Level C
Math:
         50 problems timed addition
         50 problems timed subtraction
         25 problems untimed multiplication, first he does the ones he knows then he looks up the rest with the factor table
         Also we are slowly working through Jones Genius Math 3
Reading:
        We are working through a reading list I created by compiling Robinson curriculum, Ambleside Online, Old Fashioned Education,
        Great books and Sonlight. Recent fiction books were "Charlie and the chocolate factory" and "Wizard of Oz". But he also reads many
        science books and is very into using field guides and taking photos/picking mushrooms/leaves on nature hikes and classifying them

For the younger (24 months) we do:
Preschool prep meet the sight words (he already mastered letters, numbers, shapes and colors)
Readingeggs.com
Starfall
Reading Bear
Counting
Puzzles
Practice reading Bob books
Kumon tracing, coloring, pasting and cutting books

[mother of faith]

Thanks everyone for the detailed lists. We are now using complete curriculum.

[msocorro]

DadDude, I am really imprest with all that you do with your kid, I have two, one will be 3 on the 1st feb, and the other is 1,5, I would really love to put together a good curriculm, could you give me some tips?

[Tanikit]

L aged 4 years 2 months:

Math: we are using Singapore 1a as well as Horizons K which we only started recently. So far she knows almost everything in the Horiozons K but we are using it to teach her to write her numerals and follow worksheet instructions. Since starting Horizons K we are using Singapore 1a slightly less often. I am also doing my own games and exercises with manipulatives with her. We do math in some form every day.
Language Arts: We are doing phonics mostly at the moment - I have adapted The Ordinary Parents guide to teaching reading to teach her most of the phonics rules and we are going through that doing only 8 words a day (she still needs her words bigger than the font in that book so I have rewritten the words I want her to read) She is also reading short books to me most days - she is still not keen on reading much so if the book is longer than I read a page and she reads a page til she gets tired. Once she is writing her numerals more confidently I will start teaching her to write letters - she knows a few already, but needs more practice.
Science, History and Geography: we are doing themes every week where we cover different topics from all angles. I get books out the library and ideas for crafts and activities off various sites on the internet.
Art: we spend a fair amount of time colouring, painting and making crafts - sometimes based on the theme we are doing and other times just for the fun of it.
Readiness Skills: On Fridays we have a fun day and I will pull exercises off the internet that we can do for fun - some of them have involved crossing the midline, balance and various other ideas. They usually address both gross and fine motor skills and perception.
Physical Education: At the moment I am teaching her to swim so she swims every day when the weather is suitable. We have our own pool so it is fairly easy to do this. When it gets colder we will play ither games. We also play various following athletic games inside and outside.

We started doing some lapbooks recently and she is enjoying those and they allow me to add whatever needs to be covered (writing, reading words or sentences, extra math) to the theme for the week. She likes showing her dad the finished product which also helps with the homeschooling. I have used endless resources for these lapbooks adjusting things as needed)

[DadDude]

DadDude, I am really imprest with all that you do with your kid, I have two, one will be 3 on the 1st feb, and the other is 1,5, I would really love to put together a good curriculm, could you give me some tips?

It depends to a great extent on you and on where your child is at.  When I started teaching H. systematically, I put a great deal of thought into what I wanted him to learn.  Then the  I did was to get a lot of books that were at his level, some that were a little challenging, and some that were easy.  Though I've never shown it to anyone (nor would I want to), I have written well over 100,000 words to myself, in "rambling" mode, about methods of education, and in these I am always going back and thinking about the best possible ways to teach him, what I should be teaching, and so forth.  A good place to start with such a discussion (with yourself) would be to list the subjects you want to teach, then figure out what you think is the best way to teach each one.  If you don't seem to have adequate ideas about something, you can search online, get help on BrillKids.com and elsewhere, or, of course, read books.

As a result, although I have put a lot of thought into issues about curriculum, I have never "put together a curriculum."  Instead, I always examine what we've been doing lately and try to think of ways to improve or add to it, or maybe simply change things up because a slightly different approach might work better.

At 18 months, depending on how many books we've read before and whether the baby is up to it, I'd be reading loads of ABC books and other "concept books," as well as the simpler storybooks.  Those would include many Little Golden books, Margaret Wise Brown's wonderful stuff, Curious George, and others.  I'm pretty sure this would be too advanced for many 18 month olds, however, in which case you'd want to stick with the "baby books."  Powerpoint presentations, Little Reader, Reading Bear, flashcards...whatever you think is working the best (i.e., which the baby is liking and responding the most to).  (I'm delighted that baby E., at 13 months, is finally totally digging books, even more than the iPad!)

As to the 2 year old, that's really the golden age, as far as I'm concerned, for doing PowerPoint presentations and LR.  I made most of mine when H. was around your 2-year-old's age.  Also seriously consider Reading Bear--but that might work well with the baby too.

Anyway, those are just ideas, not even close to being complete.  See my essay (in my sig) for more ideas and above all, the important thing to do as far as I'm concerned is to set aside some quiet time to think through the issues and get clear on them in your own mind!

[fma001]

msocorro,

Three is a great age to start working on knowledge. Make a list of things you would like to teach, such as continents, oceans, presidents, how plants grow, animals, human body, various cycles (water cycle, frog life cycle), days of the week, months of the year, etc. Then focus on things you want to teach first. Make Powerpoint slides, search online for worksheets, find Youtube videos, and look for books at the library that cover those concepts. Make sure you expose your child to the advanced vocabulary a lot of books aimed at small children avoid. For example, if teaching the water cycle include words like evaporation, condensation and precipitation. You can also get books that are too advanced for your child but discuss the pictures and read only the things you think they will understand. Also, get a preschool workbook to teach basic skills like same and different, patterns and what doesn't belong.

This is also a good age to introduce simple chapter books. I'm currently reading an abridged version of Heidi and Two Times the Fun by Beverly Clearly to my 3.5 year old. Asking a lot of questions can be a good way to hold their interest. I ask questions like "Would you like to herd the goats with Peter?", "What would you do if you lived in the mountains?"  and "How do you think the window in Peter's house got broken?" I think this helps them understand the story better and encourages them to think about what is being read.

[msocorro]

tnks a lot for the great ideas, I think I have started this proyect not with a clear idea of what I wanted from it, and that is what is getting in my way.
the older child loves books, he can sit for hours just listeng to them, he likes books about just anything, he lears anything I teach him and loves it.
the baby is a diferent story, I didn´t have the time to sit with her and read (before I knew about early leaning, I did it with the older one becuase he seamd to like it, and I needed something to fill the hours), so she is not that in to it, she is liking the LR and LM, but they don´t seam to me as they are all I can do with them in a day...
I have looked at the web page, it is great, I want to read the esay tonight to get a better idea, I owuld love to get my child reading on his own, I know he would enjoy it, plus I have a nother baby on the way, it is dued for the 3rd of december.....so I will have my hands full.

do you teach your children together?I do have moments in the day when I can be just with the older one, but that is not the case with the junger one, each time I sit with her the older one comes, he is really interested, but distracts the junger one...I really don´t know how much she is leaning, but then they do say that babys don´t need that much atencion as we adults think they do.

I just love to see how much is done with the children of this sig, and I woudl love to get to this level with my children, becuase I know they are capeble. I hope I am  

I am going to take your advice, and sit down and think a bit, then I will probebly get back to you, because I will have a bunch more of questions.

have you tried LR?has it been all it says it will be?
I would love them to learn math and phiscs, and history,....
any expirince with music?I would like to start with a recorder, just because they are an axpensive and easy for me to be at a good level, I have no musc training..but still hope that I can  teach them something....

tnks again!!!

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