Plan 2013

Homeschool Plan 2013

 

This year, we have two children who are six-years-old and will be seven on February 16^th. This will be their first grade year. My Name Was Here (their mother) will be their primary instructor. They will be educated mainly in the home.

Information

Name: C – 6 years old

Birthday: February 2007

 

Name: S – 6 years old

Birthday: February 2007

Address of Residence – Colorado

Days of Attendance – August 5 – May 16 Monday – Friday (with the exception of the week of Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas. Extra days included in case of unforeseen problems) We intend to include educational field trips and large projects on weekend days, throughout the year. We may trade those days for a week day off, or an early summer if, near the end of the year, we have already met our 180-day personal minimum.

Hours of Attendance – Irregular. At least four hours per day, when possible, with the expectation that we will average well over four hours per day at the end of the year.

What They Know

Coming into this year, they have met or surpassed what my research suggests they should know by now. They are both able to read, write, spell by sounding out, count to at least fifty, add, subtract, with vary degrees of skill and confidence.

They have become much more self-motivated over the last year, and better at following directions when given a list of commands, and even when directions were given some time before they can be followed.

We have already set the stage for learning about money, and they understand the days of the week, and how the calendar works, but there are definite gaps in their knowledge, here. They also have a very basic understanding of the clock (analog and digital). With regards to money, we have already taught them the values of coins.

There is already an established understanding of past, present, and future. We have talked, sometimes in great detail, about periods of history that they were interested in, such as prehistoric earth, and westward movement that resulted in the settlement of Colorado.

Last year, we began work with descriptions, asking them to describe to each other, or to us, what they were looking for. Verbs and nouns have already been presented by name and explained, but briefly. Capitalization and punctuation have been introduced as well.

They already have an understanding of the water cycle, what clouds are made of and how they are formed, and that rain is important for plants and animals. We have also discussed animal classification as well as the planets and our solar system.

One of our special focuses is on technology. Our six-year-olds have controlled access to their own computer. They have an art program and Scratch, which is a visual programming language. ,

What They Will Learn

Time and Money - We plan to reinforce their understanding of the days of the week and how the calendar works and help them understand the months of the year as well. Also, we will be strengthening their understanding of how to read hours and minutes, how many minutes are in an hour, and how many hours in a day. To improve their understanding of money, we will revisit that as well. Then, we will move on to math with coins and possibly work on how to make change.

Social Studies - Since we have built an understanding of our state, and our country over the past year, we plan to teach the about the original populations of North America, the European discovery of the continent, and the settlement of the East coast. We don’t plan to talk much more about the westward movement until later, because we feel that the cultural implications might require more maturity.

Math – We will review what they already know in counting, addition and subtraction. The basic concepts of multiplication and division (such as number groups – three groups of four is 3x4) will also at least be introduced and practiced.

Writing, Reading and English – We focus heavily on communication. They will be encouraged, and sometimes required, to practice description and definition skills with each other, and with adults. More parts of speech will be taught, with practice identifying them in sentences and alone. We will build on their basic understanding of capitalization and punctuation with short writing assignments and lessons about how and when to use proper noun capitalization, question marks, exclamation points, periods, commas, and quotation marks. This summer, we spoke briefly about how to determine fact and opinion. We will examine that further and they will be confident in that skill by the end of the year. They are already reading first grade level books with little trouble. We will continue reading every day, fortifying their phonics skills, and adding sight words to their reading vocabulary.

Science – We believe that a lot of science topics, at this age, should be determined by the interests of the children. So far, this has served them well because they’re always interested in what we’re teaching. However, there are a few topics we will definitely cover this year.

We will teach them about weather: some weather terminology, cloud types, storm types, fronts, types of precipitation, climate zones, and seasons.

Another important topic will be space travel. We plan to follow the activities of the space station and the progress of SpaceX, this year, as well as reaching into the past to discuss the moon landing, and many other successes and failures in space flight. Then, into the future and the prospect of reusable rockets, and maybe colonizing Mars (and why that would be beneficial to humans).

We will teach the different states of matter and how they appear, behave, and are structured differently.

Forces (push, pull, gravity, magnetism) will be explained and experimented with. We will test and observe how different forces effect different materials.

We will also review their understanding of animal classification, as we’re not sure they remember it clearly.

Technology – This year, the children will practice typing, mouse usage, navigating websites, and understanding some programming terms. We expect them to be able to write and send simple emails, type original ideas, or copy prewritten words, into a text program, and print.

Other – It is important to remember that these are homeschooled six-year-olds with a natural, and encouraged sense of curiosity. There are certain things we expect them to learn in order to keep up with state standards, but many things they learn will be unplanned. We believe in catering to their education rather than dictating it, whenever possible.