Monday, May 27, 2013

Our Preschool & Kindergarten Curricula*

PRESCHOOL

(up to 1 hour daily)
Number and literacy activities – daily, 20 to 30 minutes total
Religion – daily, up to 10 minutes
Story time – daily, up to 20 minutes
In addition to this more structured time, aim to include nature study and art and craft activities each week.
**Preschool (3-5 years old) foundations.

RELIGION
Bible stories**                                                                                 
The Mass Book for Children                                                           
Who Am I? Workbook A                      

STORY TIME & POETRY**
Let There Be Llamas!                                                                          
God’s Wisdom for Little Boys                                                             
Poems & Prayers for the Very Young   
Brambly Hedge Collection                                                                           
Raggedy Andy Stories
The Real Mother Goose
The Year at Maple Hill Farm
Eric Carle’s Animals Animals  

[our old books, including]:                                                                       
The Children’s Book of Virtues (Bennet)                                       
The 20th Century Children’s Book Treasury                                       
Harper Collin’s Picture Book Classics
Catholic Children's Treasury Box Vol. 1-10
Childcraft Stories & Fables
Childcraft Poems & Rhymes

HABITS**
Top 3 habits to work on:  obedience, attentiveness, truthfulness

OUTDOOR PLAY**
Freeplay & exploration outside

MUSIC
Making Music Praying Twice

PE
Swimming lessons

MATHEMATICS
Number & Logic Games for Preschoolers                                            
Kumon Numbers 1-30                                                           

READING & WRITING
I Can Find Letter Sounds  

________________________     

KINDERGARTEN

(1 to 1.5 hours daily)
Religion – four times weekly, for 10 to 15 minutes
History and geography – twice weekly, for 10 to 15 minutes
Music appreciation and picture study – weekly, for around 10 minutes
Poetry – twice weekly, for 5 to 10 minutes
Story time – daily, for 10 to 15 minutes

Monday - Bible, Reading, Painting, Break, Number, Handwork, Geography, Writing
Tuesday – Tales, Number, Handwork, Break, Reading, Singing Games, Writing, Nature Study
Wednesday – Poetry, Reading, Nature Study, Break, Number, Handwork, History, Writing
Thursday – Bible, Number, Handwork, Break, Reading, Singing Games, Writing, Tales
Friday – Tales, Reading, Picture Study, Break, Number, Handwork, Nature Study, Writing
*A break for free play must be included as shown above.

Other afternoon activities:
·         physical exercise,
·         outdoor nature observation,
·         gardening,
·         outdoor geography
·         more listening to stories.
* The arrangement of these must depend largely on weather and climate. Children should be allowed to help in the house and in the care of animals.

Sample Schedule

Monday to Thursday

Session 1 (45 mins):
Religion (10 mins)
Reading (10 mins)
Picture study, Music Appreciation or Poetry (10 mins)
History or Geography (10 mins)
Handwriting (5 mins)

Session 2 (25 mins):
Maths (10 mins)
Story time (15 mins)

Friday

Session 1 (45 minutes):
Reading (10 mins)
Art or craft activity (30 mins)
Handwriting (5 mins)

Session 2 (25 mins):
Maths (10 mins)
Story time (15 mins)

RELIGION
Who Am I? K Workbook  (CHC)                                                 
God’s Love Story  (CHC)                                                                   
Bible stories                                                                              
[Advent]
-      The Clown of God (Tomie dePaola)                                          
-      The Christmas Story (Little Golden Book)                                  
[Easter] The Easter Story (St. Joseph Picture Books)                                        

MATHEMATICS
Little Folk’s Number Practice
Math-U-See Primer   
Activities                                                          
·         Counting songs
·         Number games (dominoes, number lotto)
·         Board games with dice
·         Make and copy sequences and patterns
·         Time (clock with movable hands)
·         Measuring (ruler, weight scale)
·         Cooking (measurement)
·         Money (learn different coins, count pennies)

READING & WRITING
Little Folk’s Letter Practice                                                          
Little Stories for Little Folks Phonics Program                                      
Catholic Heritage Handwriting K   

 *Math(s), reading and writing – daily, for 10 minutes each (less for handwriting)

STORY TIME
Term 1: The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter (Beatrix Potter)      
Term 2: Charlotte’s Web (E.B.White)                                                        
Term 3: Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A.Milne)

POETRY
Poems and Prayers for the Very Young
A Child's Garden of Verses
Childcraft Poems and Rhymes
When We Were Very Young (A.A. Milne)
Now We are Six (A.A. Milne)

FILIPINO
Folk songs
National anthem
Ay, Naku! (Tahanan Books)
Araw sa Palengke (Adarna House)
Dalawang Bayani ng Bansa (Adarna House)

NATURE STUDY
The Year at Maple Hill Farm (Alice and Martin Provensen)             
One Small Square series: Backyard, Seashore, Pond, Night Sky                                                            

PICTURE STUDY
Art Masterpieces:  A Liturgical Collection (CHC)

ARTS, CRAFTS, HANDWORK
Childcraft Make and Do
Gardening – Onions in My Boots (CHC)
Cooking
Finger, & watercolor painting
Help with household chores                                            

MUSIC
Making Music Praying Twice
Classical music – Classical Kids

PE
Swimming lessons
________________________
*Based on Mater Amabilis' Prep Level Curriculum, with contents amended to fit our family's needs.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Great planned out school year. Sometimes I wish I could plan out things like that, but my life is just too un predictable for all of that.

    In our Kindergarten year we are going to be using what we used for Pre-school.

    English & Math-
    http://www.time4learning.com & Pintable's

    History-
    Story of the World & weekly co-op

    Science-
    http://www.science4us.com/ & Weekly co-op

    Art-
    Weekly Co-op

    As you can tell we are BIG on Computer Curriculums, but when you travel like we do, it helps to be able to keep everything you need inside your laptop ;)

    ~> Great Blog! O' and I love Education.com too! Great Printables :)

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    1. I just need a plan to hold on to. The previous year involved a lot of planning, hoarding of materials and resources, and definitely lots of revisions. The result was, our homeschool year didn't look like how I pictured them to be. But we were just taking it easy. Every step was part of the learning process. With the plan above, I'm more convicted with how we're going to run the year. So, hopefully, with lots of prayer, this coming school year will be a success, and whether how much we stuck with our planned curricula, my boys will learn whatever they have to in terms of academic, and more importantly values & character formation.

      Thank you, Keri for your comment, and I'll definitely take a look at your resources.

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  2. Gosh, I can't be this organized haha! I'll try to follow this Jade. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. That's the PLAN. Haha! Let's see if I can stick to this. This school year was a little disorganized ;) I kinda envy you. Looks like your handling yours well. :) And I love your unit studies in Filipino.

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  4. Wonderful plans, Jade! Like Mariel, I'm in awe at how organized you are! :) We've been "winging it" pretty much since the start! I think I need to be more organized for Grade 1 though! Haha!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Tina! My footnote says the curricula is just an amended form of Mater Amabilis, not really my idea. =) It does look very organized, but when we followed the schedule (gave it a test run), it does not feel so OC. It's quite flexible, easy to follow & modify. Very simple. The crafts part is a little challenging for me as I'm not a very artistic, crafts-y mom. Reading them books is my comfort zone, which luckily, the boys loved to be read to. I plan the day a night before, most often just minutes before, I just look at what subjects should we have for the day. The plan also helps a lot in that it always reminds me to just stick to the materials I decided on.

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