New Curriculum ORDER!!!

It's difficult to decide what is the best curriculum for each child. This is the downside of cyberschool: it's about staying within the "norms". I chose our cyberschool for it's flexibility and curriculum choice. However, I have noticed over the years they are slowly taking the choices and flexibility with my children's education away. It's a frustration I am not comfortable with feeling. I like having the sounding board.


K asked if we could do World History. Based on the cyberschool's time table, World History isn't even brought up and discussed until sixth grade. I knew she liked history. So I agreed. The only time I could figure to squeeze it in was Summer. This is a two-fold idea: we can try to create our own curriculum without having to create portfolio and being monitored and it gives us time to see if we like traditional homeschool. I decided that all three girls needed some extra help in math as well. Our math program is definitely advanced compared to the brick and mortar school my children would attend, but my children struggle with concepts that I just don't do well in teaching. The curriculum has more busy work than I care to deal with as well, so their struggles could be my own fault. No, it is my own fault. After all, I am the teacher.


After several recommendations and seeing an episode of the Today Show, I decided to order a different math curriculum as a way to "tutor" the girls and build up their math skills. The curriculum? Singapore Math.


I spent an hour organizing my summer math curriculum to fit into my kindergartner's school schedule...OMG! It's so simple but yet so comprehensively ADVANCED! G begged to do a little (before I organized it) and so I quickly made up the recommended flash cards, number cards and dot cards(except I used paw prints). I sat her down and made up a simple game to familiarize her with manipulatives (and to see how far she could count). The idea: She needed to match the cards. The number three, needed to go with the 3 paw print card and word three. She got a kick out of it and learning to read the number words. Then I laid out some bear manipulatives in two different colors. I asked her which group had more.. She pointed to the purple group (it had 5 and blue had 4). Then we worked on saying, "Purple has one more than blue" and "Blue had one more than Purple." I then handed her cards that had the <,=, > symbols and the word "more" and "less" and she had to label the groups. She loved it!