This is not quite a tiny acorn, nor will it result in a giant oak, but about six weeks ago, when I made the decision to home school my four year old twin sons, I made a point of reading up on the National Curriculum and then reproducing various detailed plans which would allow me to follow a similar route through what is known as the 'reception' year.
Now, I know perfectly well that I don't need to follow the National Curriculum. I can teach 'em to play a paper-comb and the spoons if I like, and leave reading and writing until they're ten. But my motto is 'If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it' and if some poor soul - or rather, group of poor souls - has spent many months putting together a carefully crafted curriculum for four to five year olds which will cover the basics in the minimum of time, then why on earth should I try to devise my own curriculum?
I would very much like my sons to learn things off the beaten track, things which they could never possibly hope to learn in a state infant school, especially given D.'s voracious and inquiring mind, but I think being able to read and write to at least a rudimentary level is an essential step towards that ideal. So I've cherry-picked the most important parts of the National Curriculum and put together some basic schemes of work.
Following this are the patterns of learning I've put together, weaving together the best elements on the way toward an overall scheme for the next three months, taking us to Christmas:
SEPTEMBER 2006: Preliminary ideas
Create booklet of ‘feelings’
Look at own baby photos
Contact other Home Ed families
Learn ‘alphabet’ song
Parts of the Body (Draw round child & label drawing - chalk outside if dry)
Health/Harvest
Introduce food groups
Past/Present
Create notice board for This Week,Last Week, Next Week
Colours(Primary & Secondary colours)
The above plan follows ideas I've seen elsewhere for the first few weeks of school under the National Curriculum for Reception. The one below seems a logical response to the boys' basic need for literacy & numeracy as fast as possible.
September 2006: Literacy & Numeracy
Numeracy:
Counting to 10
Writing numerals 1 - 10
Addition & Subtraction: simple sums under 10
Literacy:
Learn to write own first name
Introducing the Alphabet:
focus on one section per week (recognition)
This early planning has fallen by the wayside in most places, as I've spent the summer teaching the boys (most of) the alphabet and counting to 10; they have also started writing numerals, reaching 5 so far. D. is able to write M.'s name extremely well, oddly enough, but not his own. I wonder if that's a common phenomenon with twins. Although he clearly dislikes using pencils and is easily distracted, M. can write a shortened version of his name, with encouragement.
As for general literacy, both boys have shot ahead of my modest initial scheme with amazing alacrity.
D. is now able to read basic texts and is partway through the fifth book in the Ladybird 'Read With Me' scheme - not as trendy as the Oxford Reading Tree but a solid introduction to reading (plus a friend happened to give us a number of the Ladybird Readers for free!) - and I have also started looking at stand-alone library books in the early reader category with him.
M. has just finished the first book in the Ladybird scheme, and although he relies heavily on context and the pictures, he is still making good progress. Far better progress, in fact, than I could have imagined at the start of the summer!
Which brings me to the more detailed Weekly Plans, of which the following is an example based on our current work.
NB. The 'shop game' refers to a nice little shopping basket of pretend food items I bought on offer recently from Sainsbury's and a plastic till with accessories from Tesco's: £8 approx. for the two. I normally buy home school materials from charity shops wherever possible - especially puzzles, books and old board games - but couldn't resist the price reduction on these two items.
WEEKLY PLAN: Week commencing 5th September
Tuesday
Create a personal timeline, using ‘old’ and ‘new’ items
& photos. Discuss ‘growing up’.
Learn to write the number 5
Playing at shop - introduce money/food exchange
Yoga for kids (a library DVD rented this week only) - 20 mins
Wednesday
Introduce Parts of the Body (draw round body outside
using chalk if dry enough)
Do self-portrait page in red booklet (a personal record)
Sorting food items from ‘shop’ game into groups:
tins/bottles/boxes & solids/liquids etc.
Do preliminary ‘seasons’ work in science books
Yoga for kids - 20 mins
Thursday
Learn to write the number 6
Fill out another page in red booklet (personal record)
Make 4 page booklet of ‘feelings:
happy/sad/angry/afraid using pencilled faces
Music time: ‘5 Currant Buns’ song
Yoga for kids - 20 mins
Friday
Talk about This Week/Next Week:
create a timeline to show past/future activities
Consolidate earlier alphabet work:
the goal is to write letters a - g by tracing dotted letters
Yoga for kids - 20 mins
Daily Activities
Running in tandem with this weekly plan are daily activities which echo the idea of a daily literacy & numeracy session, starting off with 10 - 15 mins one-on-one reading time for each child and a joint mental arithmetic session of about 10 mins.
As far as physical development is concerned, we have a large garden here and running about in it freely for an hour or more is also a key part of each day, with indoor alternatives available for bad weather - hoop/beanbag/yoga/sofa-abseiling & other similar physical activities. All of which their younger sister is happy to join in with, and being quite a strapping girl for two and half years old, is at more or less the same level as D. at least in terms of physical development.
So, we're all set here for the start of 'term' - no doubt the pace will begin to slacken somewhat within a few weeks, but just at the moment, even the boys are quite excited at the thought of 'home schooling with Mum' ...
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