New Curriculum, New Year

This week I got a bunch of school supplies and new curriculum which I plan to use in the coming year. I will, of course, only accurately review each thing as we interact more with it, but below are some of the things we got and my first impressions:

Kumon Books

I wish these came in packs of mutiples at a lower price. They are not, on their own, expensive, but over the year it is easy to go through multiple books fairly quickly. This is not because they are easy. They are fantastic skill-building workbooks and I love them, but each book is one skill and because we are using the books to supplement our Khan Academy program, we can go over multiple math skills in one day. The most recent ones I ordered included first grade subtraction and second grade addition.

Melissa and Doug

What mom does not love Melissa and Doug? My most recent purchase is a clock that shows the time in digital form as you use the hands to find the time you are looking for that combines with the time cards. I was specifically looking for a clock like this that wasn't so expensive but which would also show that 1 represents 5 and 2 represents 10, etc. Playing with it when it came yesterday, it seems like something we can have some fun with it, though right now the hands are a bit stiff. I imagine they'll losen with use.

Tapestry of Grace Primer

I love the concept of Tapestry of Grace-- studying the history of the world, cultures, history, using great reading resources. I ordered the package deal which comes with a sort of devotional style book for the parent's development (the concept is very much geared toward a united family learning and growing together), a guidebook with overviews on concepts being learned, and the handbook with the lesson plans foor the week.The kit I bought also came with a flash cards type of game with characters from the Bible and history, activity books filled with coloring activities and ideas for things such as measuring the dimensions of Noah's ark to salt dough maps to learn the continents. I have my doubts about its alignment with our family's personal goals regarding Audrey's education, but I think with the variety of books being read through the curriculum and a bit of my own research, I can easily make it fit for this year. While I do want Audrey to have a strong faith and will teach her using the plans set up by TOG, I do worry about the integrity of the curriculum when two assumptions are made in the first chapter I don't particularly agree with. I wonder how stringent curriculum made by one person or one family can be, which feeds into some of my homeschooling doubts (primarily the one of most curriculum being slanted to a theologial worldview I don't necessarily agree with). However, because this is first grade and I am hoping to be moving to my school district of choice next year, I believe this is a good foundational starting point that I can build on to include some of my own favorite resources. This is not to say my educational endeavor to teach my daughter will stop. It simply means I will be working together with her teachers to supplement in coming years. It would be necessary even without our family belief system because of our family's cultural diversity. Once she she confident in reading, I plan on boosting her Portuguese and traveling whenever possible to teach something I like about Tapestry of Grace-- the consideration of other cultures and peoples and their position in history and our world.

We are continuing to use the books previously mentioned in other posts and the library is our go-to resource. I will add a few honorable mentions here at the end which I have not yet ordered, but which I hope to get soon as part of our school programs (all from my Usborne wishlist)

Usborne Wishlist