Our New Curriculum

As I said in my last post, I started reading a new book called The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, and it discusses... well... a classical education curriculum.

 

It's an awesome book, and reminds me quite a bit of my Catholic school education, which isn't necessarily a good thing.  But, it was definitely classical!

We weren't planning on using any particular curriculum, but when I started reading about the homeschool requirements here in Florida, I immediately joined the HSLDA and decided I needed to create some sort of lesson plan. 

I modified a homeschooling planner page I found online (I had to make it pretty, otherwise I'd never use it) and started planning daily lessons for Sam. This is what I have for the first week of March:

 

You probably can't read all of it, but you'd probably be bored anyway as most of it is repeated. For example, First Language Lessons Level 1 Lesson One,  First Language Lessons Level 1 Lesson Two etc.

History Lessons

For History class, we're now using the The Story of the World  series of books by Susan Wise Bauer. The chapters are short and easy to read, and there is a workbook that accompanies it which has coloring pages, maps and other activities in it to reinforce the chapters. 

 Writing Lessons

For writing, we're using Writing With Ease by Susan Wise Bauer, which is also accompanied by a workbook. The book utilizes copy work and narration to teach the lessons. Narration involves the child listening to a passage and answering questions in complete sentences.

Science, Math, and Geography Lessons

For science, math and geography, I have coloring books (science and geography) and worksheets (math). Sam has more problems with subtraction than addition or even multiplication, so we've been spending more than the allotted 40 minutes on it. One day, daddy and Sam spent about two hours on one worksheet. 

We're learning about kingdoms during her science lessons using a Biology coloring book. Memorization is fairly new to her, so she has to take things in bite-sized pieces.For example, the worksheet below is only partially completed. Sam memorized three of the five kingdoms.

Of course, we're continuing our spelling and grammar, as well as our structured reading lessons. I've been using some of the "classics" for Sam's structured reading including:

• The Odyssey
• Dante's Inferno
• The Golden Ass
• Myths of ancient Egypt and Greece
• Stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe
• Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass

Using these books are actually interesting for Sam, and teach a bit of history too.

I also found a book for teaching first graders paganism. Although I haven't ordered it yet, but I'll be doing so this month. It's called A Witch's Primer Grade One by Lorin Manderly.

So this is our "curriculum" so far. Although I have it all scheduled out for two weeks at a time, it's really more of a guideline for what I want to accomplish during the week. Sam may not pick up everything as quickly as I think she will, but on the other hand, she may pick up some things more quickly, and others more slowly. We'll just have to play it by ear. 

I think it's going to be fun! Our own little adventure!