2021-2022 Curriculum Picks
PRESCHOOL: 4-5 YEARS OLD
Language Arts: Ages 4-5 are seriously some of my very favorite years! This is the area I’ve had the most experience teaching in the classroom with and it’s because I just love the blooming curiosity of pre-schoolers. If I didn’t have to work with my other kids - I’d play preschool all day and be happy! This year my son is old enough to participate in the Waterford Upstart Kindergarten readiness program. We did this program with my twins and it’s so great so we are going to do it again with my little guy. I cannot recommend it enough if you’re in a qualifying state. This will help him get the rest of his letter sounds down and we will keep working on those pre-reading skills. He’s in a stage right now where he is super interested to read so we’ve been doing lessons from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (admittedly I modify these lessons quite a bit and roll with what my son does). We’ve also been practicing blending sounds in our Learning Dynamics early readers. I never put any pressure on this age, but when he is excited - we run with it!
Handwriting: I love to start practicing writing at this age. We’ve used our Doctrine and Covenant pre-school sheets just for fun and he’s done some really cute things! But, we’re also working on writing with The Good and The Beautiful pre-writer books. He’s done Part 1 and I’ve got Part 2 on hand for practice this year. We will also still be using our sandpaper letters and writing with sensory materials like sand or sugar at this age.
Math: When The Good and The Beautiful released their new math program for Level K - my son whipped right through the readiness assessment pages so I thought why not? Let’s order the book and try it out. He was so excited to have a book like his big sisters that he just jumped right in. I was worried he wouldn’t sit long enough for a text book at this age, but we’ve already done a few lessons and since they’re so short he is LOVING it. So we’ll ride this wave as long as he’s interested.
We’re still undecided but last year my son was enrolled in our local Montessori school a few days a week and we’re leaning toward keeping him home this year. We haven’t decided for sure yet, though so if we don’t I may change this up a bit. But, one thing we’ve all really liked in the past is playing games and learning with Let’s Play School! Last year I had her monthly PDF subscription - which I really like, but it does take a lot of time in prep. This year I decided to simplify and try 6 months of the book club so we have some new themes to pull from and I don’t have to prep as many materials. (We have her ABC books and I’d recommend those - they do take a little time to prep but I just spent one weekend last summer and did them so they’d be ready to go all year and that is what I would recommend doing. I also have her fundamental pages to mix things up this year and they’re super easy to put together which is nice! I’ve enjoyed all of the materials from her shop.
Check out a list of some of my favorite preschool items to have on hand here. It would take me forever to list them all, but I tried to gather a few of my top favorites.
THIRD GRADE CURRICULUM: 8-9 YEARS OLD
There are a few housekeeping items to go over…once I settle on curriculums for the year I map them out on a google doc. If you want to see our Year at a Glance Curriculum Map - check it out here. I also have a very simplified version you can download for free and use to bounce off and adjust to make your own. Also, we use My Tech High for financial assistance. And, if you’re in Utah — please look into this program because we have had such a great experience with it.
DEVOTIONALS AND MORNING TIME
We add in a lot of picture books during this time - this Amazon list has a few of my favorites. We integrate Come, Follow Me and our scripture study here. I also love pulling from Latter Day Kids for this time. This year we’re adding in a scripture-supported character development curriculum from Beautiful Feet. Devotionals are an area I get a ton of questions on so if you’re wondering more about it - you can check out this page where I wrote all about our morning time and listed lots of resources and ideas.
SCRIPTURES
Since we’re studying Doctrine and Covenants and Old Testament this year we’re going to be pulling from all the goods…Come, Follow Me for Individuals and Families, CFM for Primary, Red Headed Hostess, and my D&C Handwriting Sheets. For more details on these materials check out my Come, Follow Me page. Our subscription with Red Headed Hostess has been such a blessing in our home and I will recommend it over and over and over! There are so many great tools for this area though!
LANGUAGE ARTS & MATH
Daily: The Good and The Beautiful: Level 3 and 4, Evan-Moor Spelling Level 3, The Good and The Beautiful Handwriting Level 3
1-2x per week: Lexia Core 5 and TypingClub.com
We’ve used The Good and The Beautiful the last few years and are going to keep with them as the main source of LA for this year. My twins started homeschooling mid-school year and were already testing above grade level when we pulled them from public school. Because of this, we are currently about half way through TGTB level 3 so we’ll finish that up this Fall and most likely begin level 4 at the beginning of 2022. The reading and grammar is spot on for the girls, but the spelling lists have always been too advanced so we switched to Evan-Moor Spelling and that has been perfect. This year they’ll work through Level 3 words. The workbook is a little boring, but it works and if you need suggestions to jazz up spelling - I have an IG story highlight saved with some ideas! Just a note that if you’re using TGTB for the first time - their LA courses don’t match up perfectly to a public school grade level - they’re usually considered advanced. (IE Level 1 would be considered advanced first grade/early second grade.)
We’ve used some type of computer supplement for reading and English since the twins were four and and I feel like it has helped so so much. I am a big fan of using technology intentionally. We’ve used Lexia Core 5 for a year now and are sticking with that. We’ve also been practicing typing. We tried the workbook from TGTB and didn’t love it. The girls love typingclub.com though! It’s been a good fit and big bonus is that it’s free!
Math is pretty straight forward. We’ve loved The Good and The Beautiful. We’ll be finishing up their old Level 3 this fall and, similar to LA, most likely starting their new level 4 Simply Math in early 2022. Prodigy is a pretty good supplement. My kids LOVE it - I wish it was a bit more comprehensive, but since they’ve really enjoyed it - we’re going to keep it around another year.
SCIENCE
I’m starting off the school year with this Biomes and Ecosystems study because the twins really wanted to study more animals this year and I wanted them to have a better grasp of the ecosystems as a whole. Each month we’re just going to be spend 1-2 days learning about the life sciences and they can just pick a favorite animal to learn about. We chose this book as the main book we’ll pull animals from because we liked how it showed which continent the animals came from. We’re planning to do some note booking pages (see the Biomes link for a notebooking guide I would recommend) and some arts and crafts to tie in a little art. I was inspired to do this after our dinosaur unit because they absolutely loved drawing the dinosaurs and writing about them so I think they’ll have a lot of fun doing this.
We’re also going to continue to use Exploring Nature with Children as a guide for us to cover more earth and some more life sciences. They have weekly science themes but I suspect I’ll combine some of those into general month ideas. I’m hoping to get outside while the weather is good and also bring the outdoors indoors and utilize a science table and our sensory bin for these themes. We’re using lots of our favorite science books which you can look over here. I’m sure I’ll also throw in some mini science units and projects around holidays (IE one year we made crystalized Christmas tree ornaments and learned about chemical reactions and crystals). I tend to just go with whatever I am in the mood for these fun little side experiments.
The Draw, Write, Now Books quickly became some of our favorite books around here. We’ll be using these apart of science and social studies this year as well. They also help with handwriting and art so it’s a win win.
(UPDATE: We ended up switching science curriculums and doing a Zoology unit)
SOCIAL STUDIES
This year I have felt impressed to study early American history and I am so excited. After spending months doing research I settled on sticking close to the Beautiful Feet guide because it aligned really well with the Well-Educated Heart rotations and I typically end up being more eclectic and pulling from lots of resources anyway. I do have the Notgrass text book on hand, but once I got it I just didn’t feel like I could see myself sticking to working through the whole book and I was afraid my twins might get a little bored with it, but I am happy I have it on hand because it gives me some great perspectives and an additional resource to pull from.
UPDATE: I am also so so excited to integrate some of the American Girl dolls and their history books into our curriculum. US History can be pretty dark at times and at such a young age I want to still keep things light so I think learning through stories and the AG dolls will really help with that. We’re going to be integrating the Little School of Smiths AG units.
We’re also still using our Letters From Afar subscription which is such a fun way to tie in Geography. We’ve been hot and cold with our family economy this summer so I’m hoping to get it back up and going when we settle back into a routine this fall - I feel like this is such a natural way to integrate some financial literacy and economics into our routine. If you’re looking for more - we’ve used the Tuttle Twins books to talk more about civics and the economy in the past. They also have free worksheets available when you purchase their books.
FINE ARTS
If you’re using TGTB - they actually integrate some fine arts into their Language Arts curriculum (they also integrate geography). But, my twins have done piano for a few years now and we recently decided to switch to on-line courses with Hoffman Academy because I am having a hard time balancing their schedule with my toddler’s schedules. Music Adventure Box sent us the best Orchestra themed subscription box just in time for the school year and so we are trying them out for a few months. This is mostly geared for my four year old and two year old, but I’m planning on using the composer study with my girls which I am really excited about. Emilie, the founder of Music Adventure Box, gave us a first time ever 20% discount code - CASSIE20 - so make sure to utilize it when you go to purchase.
I’m going to include our Tech Class here, because technically this falls into fine arts and tech this year. This is specific for My Tech High, but if you aren’t a member of their program - you could still totally design this course for your kids. I am doing a custom-built class for digital art and focusing on the procreate program. We’re utilizing classes from Pippi Post and Skillshare. Someone recommended Brooke Glacier’s classes on Skillshare so we’re going to try those out once we’re done with the class from Pippi Post. There are some neat brush packages on Creative Market and Etsy we may snag up. My Tech High will reimburse for the Apple Pencil, procreate, the classes and brushes so it’s a great deal. (You can also get the iPad reimbursed if you promise to stay with the program for 3 years or there is no time commitment if you purchase a refurbished one which is pretty great.) Also, while I am discussing tech, at the last minute I also decided we may do some work with Osmo devices this year, but I am waiting for them to go back on sale this fall. I threw them into our MTH schedule under “exploring technology” so I am keeping them in the back of my mind for something we may introduce in January.
We’ll also be integrating art into all subjects this year - TGTB always have art opportunities, our science and social study units all have art projects and opportunities and I even noticed Red Headed Hostess is even incorporating more art and art study into the Come, Follow Me kits which is amazing! I’ve always loved using the art in the CFM books too. The kids really wanted some more hands-on activities though - painting and clay and acrylics and all the things so I picked up the Mini Masterpieces book and we’re also going to give this one a try. I have an art supply list you can browse through if it’s helpful.
HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Circling back to anatomy, nutrition, and social emotional health each year is important. Some of the things we want to touch on can be naturally integrated into our lifestyle (exercise and nutrition), but I want to make sure we’re talking about all these things regularly and practicing it. The kids are all really active, but I need to get back into a better routine of regular exercise so we’re going to try to set a little time apart each morning to get our bodies moving. We’ve also got some extra curricular activities lined up this year like swimming and soccer…I’ll let the kids pick some sports for next spring once the weather warms up. This year I am adding a few little mini units on home, internet, earthquake, and fire safety. I don’t have any specific units planned out yet but I did leave some time in October, January and February to cover these topics. I’ll most likely end up piecing together our own units on these topics as they approach. In the past, I’ve used all of these books and various mini units off of Teachers Pay Teachers.
HOLIDAYS
I’m adding an extra box here because I love to incorporate seasonal and holiday items into our homeschool and always get questions on this. Aside from moving some of our home decor into our learning areas, the $5 a month Magic Mama subscription from Pippi Post has given us so many cute little ways to make jazz up for the holidays fun around here. I love to set out holiday books and my Amazon storefront has some of our favorites, but if you need more suggestions check out Read Aloud Revival’s Around the Year in Picture Book list. I love to plan and set out little extra activities and games whether those are in our learning shelves or just around our house that my kids can explore and choose to play when there is a little downtime. I usually scan over Teachers Pay Teachers for free activities or Pinterest. Last Valentine’s I wanted one that would support spiritual development, but I couldn’t find what I wanted so I made my own and listed it on Etsy. There are so many fun things you can do with holidays and kids love it!
I think that is about it! Whenever I talk about it or write it all out it feels way more than it really is. But, remember these are areas we cover a little bit at a time all year long. Mapping out and pacing ourselves really helps me digest everything. I always come back to the scripture in Alma - by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass.