Future planning

It's that time again- we're midway through the year and that seems to be the normal time to start mapping out curriculum paths and even purchasing items.

For Little Bird- we bought the book, "What your preschooler needs to know" and we are using it with her current preschool program. When she turns 4 I will introduce Earlybird Mathematics. This will be all that I really want her to do book work wise. Other skills to work on for her include things like being quiet when asked, continuing to work on narrating skills and coloring.

Sweet Pea is a little more involved. :)

Language Arts

Spelling- we are on track to finish Rod and Staff Spelling early 2011. After this we will go through more lessons in McGuffey's Eclectic Speller and the probably start level 3 of R&S's program.

Penmanship- the Well Trained Mind calls to introduce cursive in second grade. We did Cursive First in Kindergarten, so this year we will do the opposite. Sweet Pea can write in print but has some letter formation and neatness issues. Spot correcting should solve this, we're not going to use a special program.

Reading- we are not using a reading program and don't plan to introduce one next year. Sweet Pea is an excellent reader and we discuss her books as she's reading them. This will continue on next year.

Grammar- I don't know what we are going to do for grammar. I have some ideas knocking around but nothing for sure. We could do Rod and Staff English 3, Growing with Grammar (although I have no idea what level), or some other program. I don't know. I don't know at all.

Memory work- we are currently doing no school memory work outside of Bible/Catechism. I'd like to introduce other memory work things this next year, probably tied into both LA and history. I haven't narrowed down lists or anything yet.

Writing

We are between writing programs. We will probably follow the WTM outline on this for second grade- writing letters, dictation 3 times a week, and writing across the other subjects.

Mathematics

I expect to begin Primary Mathematics 2A at the beginning of next year. We'll continue to supplement with Math Mammoth.

History

Second grade is medieval- early Renaissance (400-1600). I think at this time we will continue with Story of the World. This summer we are going to go out of order and do US History.

Science

Basic earth science and astronomy. I plan to start working with Sweet Pea on outlining chapters this year.

Religion

We will be going through the New Testament. Sweet Pea should have a good portion of the Catechism memorized by the beginning of the year, so we'll continue to hone and improve her comprehension.

French

We will continue with Le Francais Facile. Once both girls know all the vocab we will work on usage more.

Art

We will continue working through Artistic Pursuits. It's easy for mom- which makes it a winner.

Music

We have been listening to classical music. I'd like to have Sweet Pea start piano lessons this year.

Obviously this is a work in progress, but it's good to start looking. And planning.