Current Curriculum

As the year continues, my curriculum and change continues to change and grow. There are a few things that have come in particularly handy as my daughter continues to learn more and more.

Reading and Writing

We have not completed the Teaching Your Child to Read lessons. I still recommend it as the perfect place to start for reading whether you finish it or not, but as the lessons got longer, Audrey lost interest and I felt that suddenly her interest in reading was declining, so I added variety. Several things have helped significantly, and I use them alternately so that the lessons stay interesting.

1-- Teach Your Monster to Read

teachyourmonstertoread.com

This is connected to another resource we use often to encourage Audrey to read independently, which is the Usborne Very First Reading Set (found at educatinghope.com ). Before starting anything, the website's games gets you ready for the reading set through games where children collect sounds, play games to learn additional sounds and progress to read and form words. The books with the set start with simple words. The children read the right side and the parents read the left side of each page. They get continuously more difficult as the children learn more sounds. Everything is built with color, interest, choices, games and illustrations. The website is free and can be used independently, but combines well with the book set, especially as they learn more and begin to read more fluently.

2-- Local Library

I will cover more of this on my following post as I go into some of our favorite reads of this month, but I would always check your wishlist with your local library. Interlibrary loan is a lifesaver as you go into studying some of your child's deeper questions or interests. Our local library has a summer program where children can read to a dog on Saturdays, something my little one LOVES. If you are too busy for all the different programs at the library, as is often my own case, go online for your searching and literary needs (including learning DVDs) and place everything on hold for a quick in and out to the library. While Audrey was sick this week, this was a great solution to our need to rest up and not spread germs as I could just run in and pick up everything on my list and leave and spend the rest of the day with chicken noodle soup and learn italian DVDs.

Math

Math has just started to get really interesting ever since I started using Khan Academy. Khan Academy is an online international curriculum. For kindergarten through second grade, math is the only subject specified to this age range. However, as the children grow and learn, they offer various sciences, computer programming, and more.

Now that we've covered a lot of the skills that I believe she is ready for in Khan Academy, I'm spending most of this summer with various activities to practice what she learned and fill in the blanks where Khan Academy does not work (mainly telling time and counting money). The best I've found that actually sticks with the ideas of Khan Academy but with more drawings and fun, are the Kumon activity booklets. We have truly been enjoying them this summer and they are easy to do an activity or two in a restaurant or in the car and as independent work.