We’ve chosen “Five in a Row“ as our core curriculum this year. Because Elliot has a passion for books, I thought it would be absolutely perfect! In a nutshell, it’s a list of quality children’s literature that you read aloud together. Each week you choose a book and read it five days in a row (hence the name) and do a different lesson/activity that is provided in the manual that ties into the book. Language arts, science, social studies, and art are all completely covered for each book. I’m planning to take our time and just do Volume 1 this year, taking two weeks to complete a book study to allow us plenty of time to look into things in depth. We’ll be utilizing the library frequently to find a variety of non-fiction books to further explore the subjects we’re learning about in our Five in a Row book. When we read “The Story about Ping”, for example, we’ll study things like China, the Yangtze river, ducks, buoyancy, and anything else that strikes our fancy! Another neat thing is that Five in a Row also makes a Christian Character Bible Study Supplement that provides you with Bible passages that tie into the themes of the stories as well. I’m so excited to start “rowing”, as I’ve seen it called, with my little guy.
In addition to Five in a Row, we’ll be doing “Explode the Code” for phonics and “A Reason for Handwriting” for writing. I’ve spent a great deal of time scouring different curricula on the web and in stores and I’ve decided doing a mishmash of things will work best for us. There hasn’t been one complete program that looks to be the best across the board, so I plan on picking and choosing what seems to be the best for us. The great thing about homeschooling is that I have the freedom to do that! For math this year we’re going to be winging it. I’ve got a bunch of math games and manipulatives and we’re just going to have a fun time together and be really relaxed. I figure there is no better time than kindergarten to take that approach. Next year we will likely add something like Saxon or Right Start math to the mix. So, that’s the plan…..read, play, learn, read, write, read, create artwork, and read some more!