Brynne's Curriculum

I already had lots of resources available to me because Brynne has always been into doing school. I just made sure to add some 1st grade worksbooks to challenge her. I have two really good ones I am drawing from. Otherwise, I am winging it.

Here is the gist of her daily curriculum:

• The 3 R's ~ Reading, WRiting and ARithmetic
• Here I am using the Workboxes. I go through our many workbooks and tab ones that I want her to do that day, about 3 or 4 of them.
• Each afternoon I copy Eli's homework (he's in public school first grade) and she does those two pages the following day. They are waiting for her in her Workbox.
• We are doing a Letter-of-the-Week, just for a theme. We started with A and will work our way through the alphabet. We do the following activities:
• Monday ~ Rainbow letter, Tracer page, Muffin Tin 
• Tuesday ~ Letter wall collages, Letter bag
• Wednesday ~ Show letter bag items, Mini book
• Thursday ~ Word search, Letter spiral
• We have some early reader phonics books and some early readers from the library and she reads one a day.
• She and I read one book that uses the Letter-of-the-Week.
• I read her one story out of The Yellow Fairy Book. I like these stories because they are only a couple of pages long and they use different language, what she is not used to hearing. I have to discuss the story with her when we are done. But in the meantime she is hearing a wide range of vocabulary. I read this to her while she is working on her pages.
• This week I will be adding journaling pages for her to do, with a lead-in sentence that she can complete while writing phonetically. I always love these kinds of pages. So fun to look back at when they are older to see how they spelled things.
• History ~ American Girl Series
• Here is where Lapbooks come in. Each month we will concentrate on one of the historical American Girl dolls and her era. {There is actually an American Girl formal curriculum, but I decided just to build it myself.}
• We are starting with Kaya, a Nez Perce indian girl.
• I read aloud a chapter of Meet Kaya to her while she does a coloring page for her Lapbook. (I was planning on reading a chapter a week, but she is wanting a chapter a day. So we'll have to move on to the next Kaya book in the series next week.) She has colored a horse and a page with pictures of salmon (what they fished). She will color (decorate) a tepee and do other pages as I find them. The Internet is an amazing thing!
• I ordered her the McDonald's mini paper dolls off of ebay (she actually had gotten a couple of these in her Happy Meals, way back when, and really liked playing with them). I also ordered her the Kaya mini American Girl doll to give her at the conclusion of our unit. I am also going to get her some cheap horses to play with.
• We are reading books about Nez Perce indians and horses.
• When we are done we will put all of our colored pictures and a map and facts onto our Lapbook.
• Then we will move on to the next doll and her story.
• Other ~ Computer, art, personal reading, library days, coop
• She has three favorite computer programs: Playhouse Disney, Starfall and Barbie. Any other good ones?
• We will do art projects as they come up. She will also probably do some modified versions of Dawson's art projects. The two of them have been sketching together. She did her first Sketch Tuesday this week.
• I have her sit and read in the Reading Park every day for a bit. If she can't read the words then she just does a Picture Walk.
• On Wednesday afternoons our library has a homeschool storytime and craft day. We went last Wednesday and she really enjoyed it.
• We are joining a social coop. It meets on Friday mornings. So school on Friday mornings will be limited to coop activities. They have P.E., Music, Fun Class and once a week they meet at a gymnastics facility for Open Play. They also do monthly field trips. We know some little girls in this coop and I think she will really enjoy it!
• Quiet time. Every day from 2-3 p.m. I have Brynne go to her bedroom for quiet time. Really, it's mommy quiet time. I need a break. She can watch a movie, read, play quietly, whatever.
• Nature Walk
• We are going to participate in Harmony Art Mom's Nature Study. I am really looking forward to this.
• On Friday afternoons we will take a Nature Walk and do the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
• Then we will record things in our Nature Journal.

This seems like a lot, I know! Believe me! But, honestly, she does most of it in about an hour. She breezes through the work and is usually begging for more.

This will be such a fun year of learning!