Curriculum planning

As George is nearing his 5th birthday which is the age children in New Zealand typically begin school, the pressure is building to get into some kind of routine with his education.  I also think it's time I spend some money on some material to use this year.


Alphabet
Letter of the week
We will continue with this curriculum from Confessions of a homeschooler and focus on a different letter each week to match the same letter we're learning in our other curriculum.

Alphabet Mazes
These are great to use to help reinforce the learning from the other curriculum we are using.


Handwriting
Handwriting without tears
I've watched several videos of teachers and children using this curriculum and have ordered it from a New Zealand supplier.  I'm hoping it arrives this week so we can start is ASAP.


Reading
Fitzroy Readers
A homeschooling friend introduced me to these reading series and I've ordered the Early Pack.  I already have several book shelves full of books including many early reader packs but nothing that builds up and reinforces previous learning as you work through the series as the majority of the books I own I got in clearance shops.


You Can Read
A homeschooler Mum or I should say Mom as she's American has put together this great program for her own children, working with sight words.  While you can get this for free I have to paid the small fee of $10US so I can access it early and support her work. 

R.E.A.D. I.T. reading journal
One of the schools my care kids go to use this reading journal, after dropping off the kids one morning I asked the office if I could buy one from them.  Since that day we've been using it every night with George, after his bath George and Daddy curl up on the bean bag and read a book or two.  George is excited about all the awards in this book which you achieve every 25 nights of reading. Now that I can buy them myself rather than getting them through the school I plan on using these journals every night.


Art
Worlds greatest artists unit study
I got this unit study for free and not sure when I'm going to start using it with George but I will keep it in mind for later in the year.

Pinterest
Pinterest is full of art projects we can do together if we lack any inspiration, but to be honest we don't really have  any issues with coming up something arty or crafty to do.


Math
I am still working out what I'm going to use for Math, I'm currently looking into Math-U-See, which I've read a couple of good reviews and I have found a New Zealand distributor.  I also like Right Start Math especially the use of a Abacus instead of rods, but I have yet to find a New Zealand distributor and it appears to have American currency in the program, if so it may not be worth spending the money to import it if there are parts which I can not use.  I've emailed them to find out more about this.   The last one I'm currently looking into is Singapore Math and found some of their work book at the Book Depository and as it's free postage I've ordered one.


Geography
Little passports
This has been my most expensive purchase to date, and I'm hoping it is worth the high cost.  This is a monthly subscription where your child is sent a package from two characters called Sam and Sofia as they travel the globe.  As I am not from America or Canada I couldn't purchase the monthly subscription but they did sell the 24 month product to me and it is being shipped to me in one lot.  One of the reasons this cost so much was the $90US shipping cost.


Music
I plan to take George with me to Music 4 Kids at our church every week and when he shows some interest I will teach him the recorder and maybe piano, we will also dance around to play music.  I will wait until he's older before we do any real study on music.


Home Ec.  
I bake several times a week and spend time in the kitchen every day as I mainly cook from scratch and make our own bread, George sometimes joins me in the kitchen.  I used to let him choose something for us to bake, go shopping together for the ingredients and then we would make it together.  I hope to get back to doing this at least once a fortnight but would love to do it weekly.


Calender
Daily Calendar
1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1 is a great blog and website for so many home school ideas and resources and here is another one I'm using with George.  I haven't been consistent with this but hope to change that as George enjoys this when I do get around to doing it with him. 

Well that's it for now. Will see how things go as everything I've order arrives and we start getting into it.