The last couple of years I’ve done some tot school and preschool work with Tobi and Annie, but this is the first year that someone is actually in a grade. Well, kindergarten. This is the first year that, if my kids were going away to school, someone would actually be going to school. Tobi will be 5 in December, and Annie is 3.
I have a really hard time staying organized. I’m not very efficient with my time and I have a tendency to procrastinate (which is why I’m doing almost all of my planning about 2 weeks before I want to start school. You’d think I’d have learned by now to not wait until the last minute.)
Because of this, I really needed to find a curriculum that has it laid out for me. Unfortunately, these types of curriculum tend to be expensive. I also wanted to find a Canadian-based curriculum. While American history and geography may be important, I don’t feel it’s very necessary for a Canadian kindergarten student to know, and I didn’t want to spend our money on a curriculum that I wasn’t going to use in its entirety.
I ended up posting my dilemma on the Canadian Homeschool Magazine’s Facebook group page, and was told about Come Sit By Me. It’s a storybook based curriculum. Basically, each week we will focus on a Canadian storybook. Each 4 week block’s books are related by a unit topic. The curriculum lays out activities and work ideas for almost all subjects, including Bible and memory verses, that the parent can pick and choose from. Easy. So we’ll be using that for most of our subjects.
This is our (mostly) complete course for the year. Assuming things work well for us, of course.
Tobi
Math- Come Sit By Me
- Kindergarten workbook that I got from Walmart, I think
- math journal (I’ll post more about this later)
Science- Come Sit By Me
-I might supplement this with ideas I get from other blogs, Pinterest, etc…just because it’s fun 
Geography- Come Sit By Me
Phys. Ed.- Come Sit By Me
Art- Come Sit By Me
- regular kid crafty stuff as he wants to..colouring, painting, etc.
Music- Come Sit By Me
- I want to start introducing the kids to hymns, so I will likely purchase a kids’ hymn CD at some point as well
Practical Living- Come Sit By Me
Bible- Come Sit By Me
- daily devotional (I’m going to start with Growing and Learning Day by Day, by Betty Free) and daily Bible reading.
Reading- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
- Reading Rabbits books that I was given. These are similar to the popular Bob Books, I believe. The books start out very simple, with only a few different words per book, then increase in difficulty as the child’s skills progress.
- I want to introduce the kids to poetry, so we’ll be reading a short poem most days. I’ll be starting with A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Writing- Come Sit By Me
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
- Writing journal (I got some of those writing books with the top half blank for a picture, and the bottom half with lines for writing.)
- I’m thinking of also adding Handwriting Without Tears, but I haven’t decided yet.
Vocab.- Come Sit By Me
Annabel
For Annie, I’ll be including her with what we do in Come Sit By Me for what she is able to do and is interested in. She’ll also take part in our Bible reading and devotionals.
I also have a few workbooks from the dollar store for math and writing readiness. These are basically to introduce the letters (Annie knows a few, but not all), writing skills, numbers, patterns, sequencing, etc. I took the pages from the workbooks, put each page in a plastic sheet protector, then stuck them inside a duotang. The kids can work on these with dry erase markers or crayons and then wipe it clean.
And there we have it! I might add or take away some things as we progress, depending what works for us. But this is what I plan on using this year.
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Highly energetic blog, I loved that bit. Will there be a part 2?