That dreadful packet from the school district arrived last week. The one that is an inch thick requesting a pile of papers as my Individual Home Instruction Plan (IHIP). Every year I hope as the deadline passes that they have forgotten about me and every year they send the request and give me a deadline to meet. Funny considering how they don’t meet their required deadlines.
While I hate having to fork over so much paperwork to the state it does force me to have a plan in place for each child and to think through how I want the year to progress.
So here is the plan for Kelli who is hitting the big time by starting first grade. Remember I am using the format of Mater Amabilis which keeps me sane.
Mathematics (Daily)
Modern
Curriculum Press Math Book
Five minutes of daily drill in math facts.
Further Resources
Basic Facts Worksheet Factory – free downloadable software for
creating worksheets to practice basic arithmetic facts.
Language Arts
Reading (Daily)
Q1 – Q4 Modern Curriculum Press Phonics
Level A
Faith and Freedom Readers: Here We Come, This is Our Family, These Are Our
Friends
Reading for Comprehension Level A (Continental Press)
Writing (10 minutes daily)
Handwriting 1 for Young Catholics (Seton Press)
Copywork and Dictation (Daily)
Taken from Literature, Poetry or History Studies.
Literature
Tales (Weekly)
Read aloud one tale each week from any book(s) of your choice from the
following list:
English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Orchard Book of the Unicorn and Other Magical Animals by Margaret Mayo (and other
books in the same series)
Fables (Weekly)
Aesop’s Fables with pictures by Milo Winter. Two fables weekly.
Read aloud and narrate. These lend themselves particularly well to narration by
drawing or by acting out the fable.
Classic Children’s Literature (Read alouds with mom)
Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White
Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A.Milne
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Heriot
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Poetry (Weekly)
The Harp and the Laurel Wreath by Laura Berquist.
When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six by A.A.Milne
History
American
History (Twice
weekly)
American History for Young Catholics (Seton Press)
Geography
Maps, Charts, Graphs A: The Places Around Me (1 Lesson Weekly)
Map work in conjunction with saints study (see below)
Nature Study/Science (Weekly)
(Kelli
is enrolled in a science class at the Long Island Children’s Science Museum
from October to December)
Take at
least one nature walk each week.
Begin a nature notebook
Preliminary Reading List (see MacBeth’s Nature Reading List )
Henry David’s House
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg
Henry Builds a Cabin
Louisa May and Mr. Thoreau’s Flute
When the Woods Hum
Fog in the Meadow
Fawn in the Grass
Each Living Thing
Wild Birds
Mockingbird Morning
(Weekly, 3rd and 4th Q only)
Pagoo by Holling C.Holling. Read and narrate in sections of approximately
three pages.
Music
Appreciation (Weekly)
Young Person’s
Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten
Carnival of the
Animals by
Saint-Saens
Peter and the
Wolf by
Prokofiev
The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice by Paul
Dukas
(Kelli
will begin weekly music lessons as well)
Picture
Study (Weekly)
Come Look
With Me Series by
Gladys Blizzard
– Enjoying Art
With Children
– Exploring Landscape Art With Children
– Animals in Art
– World of Play
These books include some background information together with some points to
look for in each picture. Study one picture each week.
Art Activities
Painting, drawing, model magic and various arts and crafts
Religion
New Testament (Twice weekly)
New Catholic Picture Bible by
Rev. Laurence G.Lovasik
Q1 : Ch.1 to 18
Q2 : Ch.19 to 36
Q4 : Ch.37 to 54
Q4 : Ch.55 to 74
Reference Materials
Children’s Bible Encyclopedia for background information, maps, and
pictures of houses, clothing, every day items and locations.
Catechism (Weekly)
Faith and Life 1: Our Heavenly Father
Read, narrate and discuss one lesson each week.
Q1: Lessons 1 to 7
Q 2: Lessons 8 to 14
Q 3: Lessons 15 to 21
Q 4: Lessons 22 to 28
Faith and Life 1
Activity Book
Saints Study (twice weekly)
Once Upon a Time Saints
and More Once Upon a Time Saints by
Edith Pochocki
*MAPWORK – find the location of each story on a world
or European map. Mark it with a numbered sticker. Prepare a key matching each
saint to his or her number
Wow! That’s quite a plan! It certainly doesn’t make me feeling any less intimidated about homeschooling the little one. I’m discerning this year while we do preschool at home.
I feel so unqualified!
Keep it up buddy !! I really admire this, I mean it really looks interesting…
I gotta hand it to whoever wrote this, you’ve really kept me updated! Now, let’s just hope that I can come across another blog just as interesting 🙂
What a wonderful information… I found you via on google! This is great! loved reading. I so look forward to following the lovely list.
Deirdre G
Hello, People, what a wonderful site you have here. Once a friend of mine told me something similar. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.
As an exclusive article I see here now. Thanks for sharing your views about highlighted topic. You should bookmark your description as it is an informative related article. I know that people are looking for this kind blog sites. Thanks for sharing. I really like this post a lot. Sometimes it is too hard to post a comment on a blogger blog and I just give up.