McCullough Schoolhouse

Today was Eli and Maddie's first day of Pre-K! And it was Aiden't first day of Toddler School, Year 2 :)

We started the morning off with a fun back-to-school breakfast of muffins, fruit, and pigs-in-a-blanket. While Daddy made breakfast, we read some books to get us ready to start school.

I'm still teaching them at home this year, but we are diving into a more robust curriculum in an effort to get Eli and Maddie prepared for Kindergarten next year {what???}

I went ahead and planned the whole year, as I found that I am more able to stay on task if I can do minimal prep each week. It was a pretty big endeavor, but I know it will pay off during the school year. I didn't use one specific curriculum, but actually drew from several, being sure to capture the comprehensive standards that the Virginia Board of Education puts forth for early learning. That sounds more intense than it really is; I was just curious what a Pre-K curriculum looks like in Virginia, had we chosen to send them to Pre-K, rather than teach them at home.

So here's a look at what we'll be learning this year! {And by default, Aiden is going to be doing everything with us, just with some things tailored for his age, but mostly understanding that he'll glean what he wants to and probably play and bother his siblings the rest of the time haha!}

Letter of the Week: The kids know most of their letters, along with their sounds. But we need to work some more on our lower case letters. So we will use weekly worksheets {our first time to use them} and crafts, and where I can, I will enforce the letter through our Attributes/Names for God, etc. We're also going to start writing, as we haven't done much of that at all yet. My big goal is for them to be able to write their names :)

Bible Time Lessons: We are walking through a few units that will span over several weeks. I don't have 1 specific curriculum, but have linked some of the resources I have drawn from to prepare:

• Faith Basics {The Bible, Prayer, Worship, The Gospel}
• The 10 Commandments {I love these visuals from Arrows and Applesauce}
• The Armor of God- I adapted lessons from both The Littles and Me and Bible Baton; I used more visuals from Arrows and Applesauce.
• The Fruit of the Spirit- I adapted lessons from both The Littles and Me and Bible Baton, though I didn't like the latter's lessons as much this time around...just not for my little ones. I used more visuals from Arrows and Applesauce.
• Bible Character Traits- I used these visuals, but adapted lessons from Trueway Kids.

Bible Time Supplements:

• Every Home for Christ Prayer Map, to pray for a new country every day. I plan to use The Voice of the Martyrs Global Prayer Guide and prayers for our own church's missionaries around the globe to focus and personalize some of our prayers.
• Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth N. Taylor
• Everyone a Child Should Know by Clare Heath-Whyte
• The New City Catechism for Kids by The Gospel Coalition
• Weekly Bible Verse {many visual cards from The Daily Grace Co}
• Attributes/Names of God {Tiny Theologians has newer, brightly colored versions than the ones we have from a few years ago!} 

Music: 

• Hymn of the Week
• Rhythm Time
• Instrument Families
• Musical Notes
• Peter & the Wolf- in the Spring, we will be following the curriculum in the Music Pack from the Gentle + Classical Press

Music Supplements: 

• Questions with Answers albums by Dana Dirksen
• Wee Sing Bible Songs

Art Minute: We're using the Art Pack from The Gentle + Classical Press, and I just supplemented my own chosen art prints for additional artists to stretch throughout the whole year. Since we did a similar artist study last year, I just plan to go a little more in depth and add some additional artists. I am using a combination of the Anholt's Artist Series books {good for this age} and the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists books {a little more advanced, but hopefully over time we can collect several and have a good reference library as they grow}. 

Math: We are using Preschool Math at Home by Kate Snow, just breaking down the lessons throughout the year. We haven't spent a lot of time on math or numbers, so our goal will be to get some more number recognition and solidify counting.

Science: I gleaned a lot of lessons from Teach Preschool Science. We will definitely be doing some more hands-on activities, which I think {and hope} will be more engaging and fun! I supplemented our health section with info from Kids Eat in Color {mostly because I find it helpful haha}.

Reading/Rhymes: 

• I will be gathering books from the library again that relate to our letter of the week and our specific lessons, whether related to art, science, or music.
• We're also going to read through some classic rhymes using this book: The Classic Collection of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes by Gina Baek

Manners/Life Skills: This is a pretty broad category, but we have specific things we need to focus on this year so Eli and Maddie can be ready for Kindergarten! It ranges from things like talking with adults {maintaining eye contact, shaking hands, answering politely, etc.}, sharing, letting others go first...to how to put on and zip their own jackets, how to stand in a line, or how to deal with strangers. Again, a pretty broad category, but I basically sat down and made a list of all the things I want to be sure they know how to do/handle before they're off in the world :)

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Seeing it all laid out for the whole year, it can feel pretty overwhelming. And I may go a couple of weeks and realize my sights were way too high haha. But we will see. It helps that they are excited about school, and have been asking me for weeks when we are going to start. So I hope that excitement remains and keeps pushing us through the whole year. So here we go!