I just saw in an email that curriculum materials are the new toilet paper… Luckily we had started early. No matter what we do though I’ll second guess my decisions. We know we definitely want something secular, and we were hoping to follow the common core standards to be sure we cover everything. Sticking with, but adding to the current school year plan.
I had went onto Amazon and searched each of the topics I wanted to cover and then ordered a textbook for that subject and our grade level. I added books that had great reviews that looked good for resources. We had also gotten the common core standards for each subject from IXL. Our mistake we found was the textbooks turned out to be from before common core. They didn’t follow the requirements. We had hoped to stick with the common core standards to make sure and not miss anything important and to leave the option to return to public school when it becomes safe.
So far I’ve ordered a list of books that included the older textbooks, some additional workbooks that had great reviews, and some online resources. We had already signed up for Brainpop, quizlet, tynker and Mangahigh. I’ve now added IXL, Scholastics Science and Math magazine subscriptions (with the teacher online components), Newsela (the free log in so far), Medium (not sure if I will keep it), and I may add more.
For subjects, we made sure to look at Social Studies, Math, ELA (Reading, Writing, and Vocabulary), Science, and I added Spanish and Computer Coding. I’m still looking at what to include for art and PE. I have a subscription to Craftsy for myself, so I may use some of those classes for art. Finally for PE, I think we can pick sports this year and look at how they are played and also look at some health and healthy eating topics.
I’m currently using chalk to plan out our schedule. Our goal is to record everything we can to be sure to document everything we do. We are debating how to evaluate progress, but we are hoping the IXL subscription will help with that.
I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 13 to 29. We are working on saving enough for college at the same time as dealing with school and our older independent kids. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid's in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now work as a computer consultant, run a handmade home business, and am available for workshops. Life here is always an adventure!
