2019-2020 Curriculum!

You guys, I could not be more excited for what I have planned for this school year!

I've been eagerly anticipating Rhonda's first "official" year of homeschooling. (Actually, this technically isn't her first official year, since she's still preschool age, but...it's official according to me.) Last year, I felt that she was too young for a lot of structure, so we just had our morning time, did chores, and tried to read as much as we could.

However, going into this year, I wanted to incorporate a little more structure. Not because I think it's necessary, but because I think Rhonda would enjoy it. She really likes having activities planned for her, and I think she especially enjoys the attention and one-on-one time she gets when we do things together. When I don't plan for one-on-one time with her, sometimes it doesn't happen.

So, for a while now, I've been on the lookout for easy preschool ideas that will keep us all learning and having fun together, but don't have a lot of specific academic requirements. I definitely want to keep her first year of homeschool fun and exciting.

I was really excited to find Build Your Library. It was just what I was looking for: a laid-back, but easy to plan curriculum for preschool/kindergarten. (It's geared more toward kindergarteners, but I think Rhonda is a little intellectually advanced for her age.) This curriculum does not require any reading skills or math. However, with all the great books and activities that are included, Rhonda will undoubtedly be learning a ton.

I have to admit, I'm also excited for what I'll be learning! This curriculum is focused on learning all about the world. There's a lot I don't know about the world myself, so I'm really looking forward to learning with Rhonda.

Thanks to price shopping on Thrift Books, Half Price Books, and Amazon, I got almost all the required books for the year for less than $200. And it's a lot of books. This picture only includes what I got shipped in one day--still a lot more to go!

I love that the curriculum includes a few reference books, a few chapter books, and lots of picture books. I think it will be just the right variety for us. After looking at all the books I got in the mail, I'm very happy with the quality of the books. None seemed to be chosen just for the sake of having a book from a specific country or continent--I think all of them will be truly enjoyable to read.

I'm definitely unleashing my inner nerd as I get ready for the school year. I've been looking for tons of extension books in the library and making lists of books we can add to the curriculum. I've been on the lookout for different food and craft ideas from around the world, plus additional activities like documentaries on Netflix. I know Rhonda will enjoy this curriculum, but I think I'll enjoy it even more!

Aside from Build Your Library, we will continue doing our morning time, and we'll dive into Exploring Nature with Children (a collection of nature walks that I bought last year, but we've been sporadic about following it, so this year I hope to use it every week). We'll keep doing dance. I'm thinking about adding some kind of math element--perhaps just doing a very simple and fun math activity a week. We'll also continue to learn to read with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

I'm also considering what else we can potentially add to the school year. I don't want to overdo it, but this curriculum is only thirty weeks, so that leaves a few extra weeks of school year time to do other things if we want. I'm planning out a unit study based on Christmas around the world that I'm really excited about! I'm going to try to pay attention to Rhonda's interests and perhaps try to make a unit study surrounding them.

I know my enthusiasm might slow down and some things will end up falling by the wayside. If we only end up doing thirty weeks of school, I think that's okay! But if Rhonda enjoys our school activities this year as much as she enjoyed everything we did last year, she might actually be disappointed to take breaks from school! (We actually never stopped any of our school activities over the summer.)