D's Curriculum plan for 2012-13 year

D is 5.5 years old and will turn six this December.  If she were to attend public school she would have started Kindergarten and if she were attending a Montessori School she would be in her final year of Primary and doing some early elementary work.  As mentioned in my previous post, we are sticking to mostly Montessori with some Classical curriculum mixed in.

If you want to see what worked and what did not the past year please visit my previous post.

Language:

Reading - This next year I am planning to have a special read-aloud time everyday.  D will read from our FIAR selections and I would read one chapter from our chosen chapter book.  The idea is that this would improve her fluency and speed.

Grammar - We will be sticking to Montessori Grammar and Word Study.  I will be using Karen's albums as well as some of the free early elementary albums.  Just like last year we would be doing First Language Lessons to change things up when we feel like it.

Poetry - Most of our memorization of poetry would be from the First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 1 (Second Edition) (First Language Lessons).  Just like read-aloud time, I plan to have once a week Poetry time where we would take turns reading from some of the poetry books we own.

CopyWork and Dictation - I plan to introduce some texts slightly longer than a line from the FIAR books and also from the chapter books we will be reading.  At some point, I want to introduce dictation of texts from books, but it would be based on D's lead.  We are not following any special writing curriculum, D does a lot of free writing and any structured writing at this point will come from CopyWork and Dictation.

Handwriting - We should get enough practice from CopyWork, but D has a great interest right now to learn cursive and on her own has learnt to write a few lower case letters.  I had picked up HWT cursive (3rd grade) Teacher's Edition at the used book sale and am planning to use that if D's interest still continues through the school year.  We'll see!

Spelling - We are currently around half way through All About Spelling Level 2 and will continue with it through out the school year.

Mathematics:

Our basic focus in Math this year would be to try and master the basic Arithmetic Operations.  For this we would continue with Montessori Math and add in Singapore Math TextBook or RS as we see fit.

I want to create special areas for Geometry and Fractions in the Math Shelf and follow the Montessori Sequence for this.  We might do some early elementary work in this area depending on D's interest.

Measurements, Time & Money from Singapore and RightStart.

History:

We would be continuing The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition through the year.  Our goal is NOT to finish the book, but to take time and savor each chapter and do a lot of activities.  So we would be taking our time with this.

Culture:

As mentioned in my previous post, for Geography and Science my goal is to go through the sequence in the Karen Tyler albums. That should give her a good base for elementary.

Critical Thinking:

We tried Mind Benders Beginning Book 2 (Gr 1-2) and Lollipop Logic, Book 2 (Grades K-2) over the summer.  D enjoys these and we might do some of these as D's interest strikes!

Art & Music:

We are trying this new co-op once a week where we have enrolled for Art, Astronomy and Nature classes.  Most of our art should come from here and the rest based on lessons from the SOTW.  We might do some seasonal stuff too so that M can participate.

For Music we need to start back up on our Piano classes for the coming year.  D loves the piano and loves to practice!

This is our tentative plan for D.  She had a lot of input on what she wanted to learn this next year and what she did not like during our past year.  We are excited to start the new year!

I’m linking this post up at the iHomeschool Network’s Not Back to School Blog Hop.  Pop over there to take a peek at other homeschoolers plans!