Monday, March 31, 2008

Next Year's Curriculum Choices

Wow, it has been a busy and fun month watching all the curriculum for next year (2008/2009) coming in. We've had at least one Box Day every week this month! I've waited until I had everything to make this post which highlights what we'll be using for the upcoming school year.

We are year-rounders so we don't have a specific date to start but will start using the new material when the old material is finished in each subject.

Here we go!

2008/2009 Curriculum for Grade 2

If you want a closer look at the pictures just click on them to see super-size.

The only subject not shown here is Math. I won't need to purchase that until 2009, but we will continue on with the next Math U See, Beta.

For science, Winter Promise's World Around Me

dcp_5554

Our main program this year will be Winter Promise's American Story 1, which includes history, geography, art, crafts, bible, and read alouds. We will be studying US/North American history with an emphasis on Native Americans. All the books we will be using are shown below with the exception of one biography on George Washington which is still on backorder. Plus I added an extra book: Draw Write Now which covers Native Americans/Pilgrims/North America. Ds had so much fun with the DWN book we are using this year he asked if we could do another one. I also went with Sonlight's Book in Time for our timeline.

dcp_5556

AS1 - 2

AS1 - 3

This next picture, sorry it's so dark, are the read-alouds scheduled with the program.

DCP_5559

Since AS1 above is American History I will be tweaking here and there. Removing overtly patriotic American topics and substituting Canadian history topics. We will be using Donna Ward's Canada, My Country to learn Canadian geography plus the following history books. I also intend to use the library for more books as appropriate.

Canadian history

Ds will be using Sonlight Grade 2 readers for his personal reading.

Readers

Every school day morning just before lunch we read a short myth, legend or fairy tale. We will most likely read more than these but they are the three we will use for sure. They cover Canadian fairy tales, greek/roman myths and legendary heroes.

Myths, Legends, Fairy Tales

We also read poetry daily. Monday to Thursday we read two poems (one new and the other a favourite we've read so far from the current book), on Friday we just read favourites. Sometimes we end up reading more though so it is likely we will read more than the two shown below but these are the two I want to cover for sure.

Poetry

Again, ds enjoyed the Ed Emberley book we used this year so much that he asked to do another one. I got a deal for buying two so picked up these. This will cover formal drawing instruction. There are also plenty of other arts/crafts in the above materials.

Drawing

Art appreciation is covered informally with a new picture introduced and displayed each week on a little easel in our kitchen for viewing and discussion.

From Rod and Staff we will be using their English, Phonics and Health. For Handwriting we will continue with the next Handwriting Without Tears book.

R&S & HWT

All About Spelling

Spelling

And finally for Music we will use God Made Music which covers both theory and appreciation.

Music

It is going to be a fun year!

3 comments:

Dacia's School said...

We are going to start WP AS1 too his year I love your blog!!!

Debbie said...

Hi, I stumbled on your blog while searching for rightstart math. I have a 2nd grade son also, and we are using WP AS1 and WAM. I used rightstart last year and started using MUS this year, but I am looking to switch back to rightstart...all the opposite reasons for your switch last year. My son loved the card games and hates the worksheets. But he loves building stuff with the blocks!

Nikki in Niagara said...

Math can be so hard to find the right fit with each child. Fortunately Math U See is still working very well with this son.