We are a creative homeschooling family of 3. I have homeschooled my 2 boys from the start and we do lots of unit studies and get out into our beautiful part of the world as often as we can.
As the boys are getting older and we are getting busier I find I am posting less about our journey but will continue to update occasionally.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

New Year, New Term, New Curriculum

Our new term is shaping up to be another busy, fun and exciting time.

We are going to do Antarctica as our main study unit this term.
I sent away for a free package from the Australian Dept. of Environment and Heritage- Antarctic Division and received lots of great posters, stickers, book marks, DVD and lots of lovely glossy information.
www.classroom.antarctica.gov.au
This is a comprehensive website with a lot of great info for teaching and terrific links.

We are also using a great article the lovely Fliztea sent me out of a National Geographic mag.
Exploring Antarctica- E&R Publications- thanks Kym
http://quest.nasa.gov/challenges/lima
and the
Live from Antarctica 2- teachers guide


Since I put up the posters it has inspired the boys to bring out their relevant treasures to support our Antactica unit- they are already learning.

Mr5 has dug out all of his plastic marine creatures and assembled the seals and whales ready to start school next week lol. Mr10 has bought out some relevant books and placed them on the shelf ready- they know our routine and how I like things to be set up and are helping- they are both keen and eager to start as well.

We do a main unit study each term and work on this after we have done our other work.
This year I am getting more serious and buying a fair amount of curriculum.

Mr10 will need to work more independently this year, he already does to a certain extent but this year Mr5 will be starting and I need to teach him how to read and write so I will be focusing more on Mr5 than Mr10.

Mr5 will be doing Jolly Phonics
www.jollylearning.co.uk
and
Math.U.See
www.mathusee.com/
and he will also join in with our Antarctic unit and anything else I am doing with Mr10 that appeals to him and lots of art and craft, play games, cooking, gardening, swimming lessons, art club etc.

Over the course of the year Mr10 will be doing

For Maths
Math .U.See,

For English/ Language Arts he will be doing
Bravewriters Writers Jungle
www.bravewriter.com

Growing with Grammar
www.oup.com

and he will also be working on reading out loud, narration, and poetry writing and reading.
Of course I will have to prise him out of a book every time I want him to do anything so I wont even mention reading.

For Science and Technology
we will do lots of things through the year but will be regularly working out of
Ellen McHenry's Basement workshop and we will be following her periodic table curriculum-
The Elements
http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/id98.html
This woman is amazing and the boys and I have loved exploring her web site and her ehow articles.

For HS&E
The Story of the World
ww.peacehillpress.com

For PD,H&PE
Exploring Feelings
Dr Tony Attwood

Other than that he will be swimming, having art lessons at the art club, playing with and looking after his animal, and working on being more responsible.

We will be starting off slowly next week, easing into a full workload as all of this wonderful curriculum I have ordered arrives.







4 comments:

Catherine (Alecat Music) said...

Wow, you're all set up!! Good to see the boys getting ready too.

How clever are you to think of focusing on cool Antarctica in the heat of summer. :)

keptwoman said...

Goodness we are curriculum twinnies this year! Our list for Mia and Connor are pretty much identical :)
It will be fun to compare notes as the year goes on.

Louise said...

Ahh Keptwoman you are a very inspiring woman
:-)

Amber said...

Wow amazing and inspiring...xxx