June 2008 - December 2009 Focus Points

I have written down goals for the future, and have written down goals for a subject perhaps, but I have never written out the educational goals that I have for each girl for our school year. I am sure I have seen tons of people do this, but what really inspired me was Tonia's K4 Schedule.

I loved the idea of having OUR family's goals or focus points for the year -- ones that were created by my husband and I -- instead of worrying about following some government or publisher scope and sequence. This is personal. This is what matters to us the most. If by the end of next year, we succeed in these goals, everything else is just the sweet icing on the cake. And, if we don't meet all of these goals. . . that is OK, too. I am not going to use this as a task master, but rather as a check point for myself. How are we doing on these goals? Have they mastered this, but need extra work on that? Have I even provided them opportunity to work on that goal?? Have I been too busy worrying about what is in someone else's Lesson Plan and not focusing on what is truly important to US?

These focus points are probably going to be tweaked (apparently, my new favorite word lol) as the year goes on but I think these are very tangible and realistic goals for us. Next, I guess I need to work on my educational goals for myself! :-)

I will be using FIAR and Homeschool Share lessons throughout. In January, I will be adding Bright Beginnings to our curriculum, picking and choosing from those lessons. At some point, maybe in the next month or so, I plan on purchasing Language Lessons for Little Ones from Queen Homeschool, which you will see noted below. Besides those resources, we will be using materials and resources we already have, some of which I have noted below.

So, for anyone interested in our focus points/educational goals, here they are (Hi, Mom!):

Bible

1. Read through our current Children's Bible (Read with Me Bible, an NIrV Story Bible for Children)
2. Daily Devotional (currently Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Taylor)
3. Christian Children's songs during free play time (e.g., Wee Sing, 102 Bible Songs, Big Steps for Little Feet)
4. Be able to narrate the following stories:

• Adam/Eve
• Noah's Ark
• Joseph (coat of many colors to saving Egypt)
• Moses (baby to 10 Commandments)
• David and Goliath
• Daniel in the Lion's Den
• Esther saves her people
• Jonah and the whale
• Story of Jesus' birth
• Child Jesus in the temple
• Parable of the Good Samaritan
• Parable of the Prodigal Son
• Parable of the Talents

5. Work on scripture memorization (e.g., Hide 'em in your heart CD/DVD, and Bright Beginnings curriculum)

Phonics

1. Letter Recognition/Sound Recognition (Just reinforcement here, as they are both confident in this, thanks to Leap Frog DVDs) (Language Lessons for Little Ones, Leap Frog DVDs, Phonics Games, PBS shows, Bright Beginnings)
2. Simple CVC Words (Language Lessons for Little Ones 2, Flash cards, Phonics game)
3. Dolch sight words (Language Lessons for Little Ones 2, Flash cards)

Language Arts

1. Story Comprehension
2. Oral Narrations (Language Lessons for Little Ones)
3. Simple Dictations to Me -- Creative Writing, Oral narrations, adding new endings to our stories (to keyboard, print, illustrate and put in our notebook) (Mommy created opportunities, FIAR, HSS, Language Lessons for Little Ones 2)
4. Exposure to Poetry (Language Lessons for Little Ones)

Fine Motor/Pre-Writing/Writing

1. Work on scissor skills
2. Lots of opportunities for coloring and drawing
3. Circles, X's, tracing (can do some, but need to work on perfecting) (Language Lessons for Little Ones)
4. Begin learning correct formation of letters (Language Lessons for Little Ones)
5. Lots of Playdough Play!
6. Pouring skills -- Bath tub, pool, kitchen sink and pouring their own drinks
7. Butter knife skills (Peanut Butter and Jelly, fruit, buttering bread)

Math and Logic (this might be tweaked further after reading Ruth Beechick's 3 R's which I just got in!)

1. Measuring (Cooking and Baking) (FIAR Cookbook. . Thanks, Marsha!)
2. Grouping/Sorting (Counting Bears, Sorting M&Ms)
3. Puzzles (We have tons!)
4. Adding/Subtracting small numbers (Bright Beginnings, flash cards, Leap Frog's Math Circus)
5. Skip Counting by 10s and maybe by 5's (We currently have fun beginning this skill by giving "high fives" and "high tens" in a pattern -- 10, 20, 30.... or 5, 10, 5, 20.... The girls CRACK UP!)
6. Counting to 100 (handy dandy wall poster at the back of the 3 R's!)
7. Time -- first to the hour both digital and hand, then half hour (they can do this somewhat. We went over this in our Cinderella unit and found tons of wonderful books at the library as well as fun educational videos! They also have a play clock to manipulate)
8. Calendar skills -- the days of the week, months of the year, how long a week is
9. Money -- tell the coins apart (Bright Beginnings)

Art, Dance and Music

1. Exposure to Classical Music and Composers (Listening during the day, Little Einsteins and Picture books)
2. Review of the instruments (bookmarked interactive Internet sites, Youtube)
3. Playing our own instruments upstairs
4. Looking at Paintings/Pictures/Art (Language Lessons for Little Ones)
5. Occasionally talking about what the characters in the art are feeling, dressed like, Medium used (Language Lessons for Little Ones, FIAR, HSS, Questions listed in the Sonlight Core B schedule posted in the yahoo group)
6. Watching different styles of dance, ice skating, gymnastics, etc (ESPN, Field Trips, library videos)

Science

1. Nature explorations (Neighborhood, park days, Monthly Nature Group)
2. Basic gardening (watering the tree, planting herbs, etc)
3. Magic School Bus episodes/videos/books
4. Easy Experiments
5. Hygiene -- Brushing teeth twice a day, washing hands, bathing themselves, potty training, getting dressed (self created, Bright Beginnings, HSS)
6. Cooking

Geography

1. Continue to discuss the countries the characters live in (FIAR/HSS)
2. Discuss fun facts about those countries and basic words from the languages (FIAR, HSS, Galloping the Globe Resources, Children Like Me, Cultures)
3. Finding countries on a map or globe

Social Studies and Civic Responsibility

1. Basics that are covered in the FIAR and HSS lessons
2. Sibling relationships -- sharing, importance of service to each other (HSS, FIAR, self created)
3. Family relationships -- Who our family is, Family Tree, Chores (cleaning room, making bed, picking up toys, dishes in sink, helping mommy and daddy) (you could add knowing your address and telephone number here but they know that)
4. Service/Community Helpers (self created)
5. Manners -- Please, thank you, ma'am, sir, first time obedience, waiting your turn, sharing, quiet when others are speaking, telephone skills
6. FPU Junior Stories

Spanish

1. Focus on the words in our Spanish picture book, a page until mastery
2. Fun Spanish videos at the library (they LOVE Hola, Amigos!)