This is our first official year we will be homeschooling our princess, going into Kindergarten. We have always done some type of school with her: teaching her the basic, anything to prepare her for Kinder. After some extensive research we have decided on going with My Father's World for her Kindergarten curriculum. To supplement math (the only thing in MFW curriculum that didn't seem much of a challenge for her), we decided to go with Math U See Primer.
I've put together how I organized the curriculum trying to make things easier for when we start our school year. Hopefully this will someone out there or give you some idea as to how to get things started. We are new to all of this so it's a growing process for us.
I took the teacher manual and decided to place tabs in every unit and index section, to make it easy to flip to the unit or section I need to look through.
TEACHER'S WORKBOOK
Bought a 3" binder to hold everything I would need for this school year.
In the inside pocket of the binder holds the unit that comes next. I try to have 2 units ready at a time. The one we are going to work on and the one after. Never know what might happen so I always try my best to be prepared a little early.
I have every section in the binder divided up by units or materials I may need for the year.
Our first section hold all the zipper pouches. First pouch holds all the alphabet flashcards for the units. I placed the letters in order of the units, which is not in alphabetical order.
Second pouch is our Say Hello to Classical Music CD and I've included a picture of each composer to go along with the cd. I've also done some research on each composer and tried to find whatever information I could of each music, which I couldn't find it on all but a good majority. Just something basic to let her know some information of the composers and music she is listening to. There's the link to the blog where I have posted all the pictures of the composers: Say Hello to Classical Music.
Third pouch holds the ABC Game Cards, and Bingo cards. I had these cards laminated, I know these will get lots of use so I wanted to make sure they would withstand the use.
In the fourth pouch I placed our Biblical Concept Flashcards (memory versus), I have also placed these in the order of the units. It makes things easier especially for when I am prepping the lessons.
Fifth pouch holds all the Badge Patterns, which I also laminated and have in order of the units.
Sixth holds some Passport cards (3 different kinds that I bought in the Dollar Tree) and some flashcards that have different flags from around the world. Purple Passport: Landmarks of the World, Green Passport: Nations of the World, and the Red Passport: Flags of the World.
Seventh and last pouch holds the picture cards which I've laminated. The cards go in here after we use them for the units.
Next is the outline section. Here is where I have the unit reading list. I write down all the books we use as we go along in the units. I preorder the books from the library at least 2 weeks in advance. We decided not to buy the book package that came with this unit mostly because we have a big enough library of our own and we decided to use the library for this. Our local libraries hold almost all the books that are in the list.
This is the second part of the outline section. Here I write down the instructions to each craft I want to do for each unit. Helps me know materials I would need in advance and be able to prep things instead of trying to do everything at the last minute.
Next sections are the units. I have divided each unit and all the worksheets I need (student packet), all the paper is in clear page protectors. That way all I have to do is take the worksheets out that I would need for the unit instead of having to go through all worksheets and try to find what I need exactly.
I also laminated the picture pages, since the child would be going back to the pictures during the unit.
I took the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book and took it apart and put each page in a clear page protector.
An example of the pages in the protector. That way I can take the page out that she will be working on and not worry about having to get the whole book out.
I decided to divided the rods and show her a diagram of how it will be used and what amount each one would stand for.
MATH U SEE
This binder holds all of our Math U See materials: dvd, teacher manual, and student manual.
In the pouch in the front holds our Primer DVD.
Inside is our teacher manual workbook and student manual. I've taken the student manual and took it apart and placed each page in a page protector.
I keep the worksheets in their page protectors and let her write on them with a dry erase marker. That way I can always go back and reuse the pages as many times as need.
This box holds all the Math U See manipulatives.
A picture of the manipulatives.
KANANI'S WORKBOOK
I got Kanani her own workbook (binder), also 3", to hold all of her finished work and charts.
First page is her 100 Chart, will actually it's the attendance chart but that's more for me then her, she writes down the number of days we have been school. Once we reach 100 we will celebrate by probably going somewhere special of her choice and have a mini party.
Next page is her calendar, she writes the days down as we do school. I have the page in a page protector as well.
Next is the section in which I put her worksheets, crafts, and poems in.
I will have her poem along with her worksheets for her unit.
All her crafts that can fit in the page protector will be stored for each unit individually. The ones that won't fit the page protectors will be in her folder in the back of the notebook.
HOOKED ON PHONICS
Here are some Hooked on Phonics worksheets I had bought for her for Pre-Kinder. I use them as part of a review while we do each unit.
UNITED STATES MAP
Here is a picture of the United States with all the states names on them. We are trying to remember all the states and then we will move on to the capitals of each state.
UNIT THEMES BUCKET
Lastly I have a Unit Themes bucket which houses all of the units materials. I have a ziplock bag that has toys, pictures, shapes, etc... for each unit theme. For example for Unit 1:Sun and the number 1, we placed the letters Ss the word Sun, pictures of the sun, stamps of the sun, and the number 1. Above the bucket I printed out a small list of the units so I could pull the bag out I would it. I also have the bags in the order of the units.
All the other materials: Butterfly garden Ant Hill, world balloon, and etc.... I have on a top shelf for when we need them I can pull off the shelf.
I hope this has been helpful for those of you considering to do this curriculum. So far we have enjoyed it and have learned so much. The best thing we love the most of this curriculum is that it is based of the bible. Which is so important to us.
GOD FIRST in EVERYTHING!!
I'll also blog each unit once we have completed it. It will show some of the things we do for each unit or theme.
God Bless!
I will post a link to each unit as we finish each one below:
Letter Mm
Letter Ll
Letter Nn
Letter Uu
Unit 7: Us
Letter Dd
Unit 8: Dinosaur
Letter Oo
Unit 9: Octopus
Letter Ww
Unit 10: Water
Letter Ii
Unit 11: Insect
Letter Gg
Unit 12: Goat
Letter Cc
Unit 13: Cow
Letter Hh
Unit 14: Horse
Letter Ee
Unit 15: Elephant
Letter Pp
Unit 16: Penguin
Unit 17: Kangaroo
Letter Zz
Unit 18: Zebra
Letter Rr
Unit 19: Rock
Letter Jj
Unit 20: Jewel
Letter Bb
Unit 21: Butterfly
Butterfly Garden Experience
Letter Ff
Unit 22: Frog
Letter Xx
Unit 23: Fox
Letter Vv
Unit 24: Vegetable
Letter Qq
Unit 25: Quail
Letter Yy
