Our 2010-2011 curriculum

Over the last week I have been doing a lot of research, sifting through catalogues, books, and websites; and have finally settled on an outline for our upcoming year. I ordered everything we did not already have yesterday, and both Rylan and I are eagerly awaiting their arrival (yes, I know we are total nerds! ;) ).
Here is Rylan’s 1st grade curriculum (oh my gosh, I have a first grader!?! Where did the time go?) Although I have this outline to follow, everything is subject to revision if it doesn’t work for us:
Reading: I purchased Rocket Phonics last year, and we worked through the first few lessons. Although I like what I have seen so far in the program, and we may continue to work through some of it, Rylan has by in large taken learning to read into his own hands and doing very well, so we will see if is is necessary to add this into our days. Either way, I don’t mind having purchased the program because I will use it for Damian eventually.
English language and writing skills: we will be starting with First Language Lessons this year. As well as using The Complete Writer: Level 1 Workbook for Writing with Ease.
Math: we will continue working through the Math-U-See program. I will also incorporate math work into other areas of study, as I have before, because Rylan does tire of working on math only through the workbook.
Handwriting: We will continue with Handwriting Without Tears, this year using My Printing Book.Spiritual/religious: We will continue with our virtue lessons as a part of our daily circle time, as well as learning new prayers. In addition, we will continue reading through "Children’s Stories From The Dawn-Breakers" and Rylan will also be working through the Baha’i Children’s Workbook.Spelling: We will be starting with All About Spelling using Level 1 of the program. I am very excited about this program because I have heard a lot of great things about it from many people.
History: I just ordered The Story of the World and its activity book.
Geography: For now we will continue moving through the continents as a general introduction to world geography.
Science: I read through Rebecca Rupp’s Home Learning Year by Year as a general guide for what should be covered for science in first grade, and to be honest Rylan has already covered most of the areas, since he has such a passionate love of science related subjects, especially animal and nature studies. So, I am not investing in a science curriculum of any kind. We are going to stick with interest led learning here, although I think I will plan a unit on the human body at some stage during the year.
Spanish: I just ordered Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) Homeschool Edition Level 1. And I am going to do it too! :)
Art: We will continue working through Drawing With Children. I am also looking into using Discovering Great Artists to incorporate some art appreciation (thank you Jolanthe for pointing out this book!).Music: Music appreciation with Ramtin on weekends, focusing on classical music.
PE: Rylan will continue with swimming lessons and gymnastics during the year.
Damian at 2 1/2 will have no set curriculum, of course, just lots of play and reading time! He will, however, participate in much of what we do, like virtue learning, prayers, circle time, and so on and so forth. As he gets older and I see the need for more focused learning I will incorporate it into his days, but what is most important for him now is to learn through play and to continue to develop a love of reading, so that will be our focus.
And I think that is a wrap! I am super excited about this year and cannot wait to get started! I am aiming to start in about two weeks, we have to wait for the materials I just ordered to arrive and for me to get a look through them and a feel for how to use them. I also need to fix up the school area. Over our unplanned (but much enjoyed) summer break our school area has become a storehouse for various items I have piled up to go be sold on craigslist or go to charities. I need to actually get those things out the door so we have a nice, organized space to work in again!

Drawing with Children

I bought the book Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes (you can see the cover in my left sidebar) quite a number of weeks (maybe months!!) ago, but between family visiting, getting ready for a move that is not going to happen after all (yes, that's right, no move, thank goodness!!), I have been slow getting started on the actual work with Rylan. I had read all the introductory stuff, but actually sitting down and getting started...well, Rylan put his foot down and so we did the first exercise! :)

Actually, the whole reason I investigated this book is because Rylan told me he wanted to learn how to draw better, that he wanted the animals in his picture to look "more realistic". So, although I explained that his art work is beautiful just as it is, I told him that I would look into something to help his ability develop further. I found this book and was sold. We have only done the preliminary exercise that indicates which level to start at when we begin the first lesson, but already I love that these exercises will not only help to develop Rylan's ability to do realistic drawing, but they are also great exercises for improving hand control, which will in turn lead to better hand writing. I am going to do the course with him because I am not very good at drawing and would love to improve my abilities too. The book is set up for children to do it with general guidance from their parents, or for parents to accompany them with the lessons. Rylan and I are both excited about this project and I will definitely be sharing more on how it goes, including photos of how our drawings change and improve (hopefully ;) ) through the course of the book.

A shared project

I know...a few days ago I said all the crafting and homeschooling posts would be few and far between, and here I am doing nothing but posting about that day after day! :) Rain has kind of put a damper on going outdoors!

So, I promised to share an embroidery project with you and here it is now finished! A couple of weeks ago Rylan did this drawing of our family, and I loved it, and wanted to save it, with more than just a photograph, so I embroidered it instead. I think I will stretch it and frame it when I have a free moment.

Added to: Craft schooling Sunday and Get your craft on.

Making thank you cards from art work

Since a lot of people are busy right now sending out thank you cards for all the lovely gifts they have been receiving, whether it was Christmas or Hanukkah that they have been celebrating, I thought it would be a good time to share what we have done for thank you cards in the past...

I don't know about you, but we have STACKS of paintings done by our little ones, especially huge sheets of finger painting, since Rylan loved and now Damian loves doing them. But what do you do with all of them as they pile up? Well, I put aside my favourites, some of which you can see here, and the rest are used for making cards (and other gifts).

It is very easy, we simply fold a piece of light cardboard in half, cut a frame shape out of one side, and then cut out a piece of the painting to be used and either glue or tape it onto the card, so it looks like a framed piece of art work. Here is one we did when Rylan was about 3 years old.

And thanking becomes an act of giving - a beautiful piece of artwork!

Learning about shades of colour

Today we did a very simple activity to learn more about different shades of colour. I simply picked up some free paint samples from a local store, cut them, so that each square was one shade, and allowed Rylan to work at lining them up from darkest to lightest. He found these colours pretty easy to line up.
But this set was a little more challenging, since the differences in shade are very subtle.

But I think he did pretty well considering...

Creating a reading nook (or Book Nook as Rylan calls it)

Under our kitchen counter (on the dining room side, not the kitchen side), we had a little empty space which was supposed to be for a wine fridge, but since we don’t have one (we don't drink), it was just an empty (read: ugly) space…
(the before shot)

SO the kids and I embarked on a project to make it something special for them, after all which kid doesn’t like crawling into a little “secret” nook? I would have loved to paint on the walls directly, but since we are only renting our home at the moment, we opted for using large painting sheets, which I then put putty on to stick them to the walls. First, Rylan chose a castle and dragon theme for the wall, and space with a rocket and alien for the ceiling. Ramtin did the drawing for us (I am hopeless at drawing!), he used the cover of an old Ladybug Magazine for inspiration for the castle and dragon.

Rylan helped to create the sky, clouds, and bushes using paint and a sponging technique. I painted the castle, dragon, and rocket, which was kind of interesting since I only used the kid's washable paint and their well-used kind of fuzzed out paintbrushes (note to self: get new brushes!), but it worked well enough!

We then cut out the moon and stars from craft foam, and combined with the rocket to create the ceiling of the reading nook.

Remember I said we were going to use some of the animal softies for another project, well, they have become cushions in our reading nook to make it extra cozy, plus I made a couple extras out of an old shirt. I also sliced open a swimming noodle and stuck it over the sharp wooden edges inside the nook to protect from bumps.

The finished project:

Being enjoyed.

Added to: Get your craft on and Strut-Your-Stuff Thursday.

Making our own animal softies

Last week the kids made their own set of animal softies. I got them two types of cotton fabric, one smooth, the other soft and fluffy, just to give them a chance to experience drawing on two different textures. We used fabric markers to draw with (if you do this project remember these markers will not come out of clothes, so use old ones, or wear art aprons).

Rylan helped me with the sewing during one of Damian's naps.

Both working on stuffing their animals.

The finished toys. You could also sew around the edges of the drawings to give them specific shapes, but we are going to use some of these as cushions for another project which is underway in our house...hopefully I will be posting about it in a few days, because I am excited to get it all done!

This has been added to: Kiddos Create

Fun with the Grandparents

Today we made torn paper collages.
Grandma got in on the action too!

Afterwards Grandma taught Rylan how to play tic tac toe (a great handwriting activity). Which gave me some time to sneak out and work on my sewing project!

Then while I made dinner Grandpa had a drumming session with the boys and wore them out play ball.

Wow! So, this is what it would be like if family lived nearby…oh, what a luxury!

A giant canvas

Kids love to draw and sometimes just a normal piece of paper is not enough! So every once in a while I pull out my roll of IKEA easel paper (you can buy these from most craft/teacher supply stores too) and using a little tape, create a huge canvas for the boys to work on together on the floor. They love doing this, and generally work at it until the entire paper is covered in drawings.

Sometimes we create a giant canvas outside by using sidewalk chalk on the driveway. They love the clean-up afterwards as well, because they get to pull out the hose and watch the drawing "melt" away.

Giant ice-cream cones

Who could resist making these? Not my ice-cream, painting loving boys!
Got the idea for this from here via The Crafty Crow.

Spring cleaning

This weekend we cleaned. And cleaned. We just had lots to do around the house, and several things we wanted to do before my folks arrived. We also had a neighbor family over for dinner who just moved here last week. So, we were busy, but at home…the kiddos helped a lot with the cleaning, especially with cleaning the porches and cars. They love spraying that hose!

In between all the work, though, we did stop to do some fun stuff. With a couple of birthdays coming up, it seemed like a good time to make some wrapping paper. So, that’s what we did. I had planned to give them something with which to make a simple, repetitive pattern, but when I got all the paints out, and unrolled this long sheet of paper, I could see they just wanted to go wild with the paints, so I told them to do whatever they wanted. Gave them paints, brushes, pipe cleaners, paint bottle lids, craft foam stampers, etc. They had lots of fun!

In process

Finished product drying.

They also spent a lot of time building this weekend, while Mom and Dad were busy.

Some of the completed projects that I managed to snap a picture of before they were dismantled for the next one.

A plesiosaur.

Rylan's half velociraptor/half ankylosaurus.

Ankylosaurus with big club tail.

We also went to listen to the storyteller Lyn Ford at the library, who is visiting the island now. The kids really enjoyed listening to her stories, we all did, in fact, so much I never thought about pulling my camera out!

A favourite spot

I took some of Rylan’s finger paintings from the age of two-ish, added mounting and frames, and now this little area is one of my favourites in the house.

Soon I will have to find a wall spot for Damian's finger paintings as well.

Finished product, after a little help from Mom with the gold glitter glue.