For Next Year...

Little Bean is making great progress with his Kindergarten stuff, so of course I am already drooling over different curriculums for next year! We are keeping a lot of the same stuff (Right Start, Handwriting Without Tears, 100 Lessons for Miss O, Explode the Code, etc), but I am on the lookout for science and history programs that will be fun and engaging for him for 1st grade. Right now we are not doing history at all; I just didn't think that at his age it was all that important, nor did I think he could really handle it because he is such a young Kinder. And for science, right now we are using McRuffy Science K, which is okay, but I don't love it, so I am searching to see what else is out there. I will still probably re-use McRuffy on Miss O when she is in K though.

So in my research I've come across this really fascinating literature-based program called Winter Promise. It has a somewhat Charlette Mason feel with the use of living books, narration, nature study, and notebooking. Their website has a lot of information on it, and they have an official forum so you can ask questions to people who really use their curriculum. Their catalog, which is available for download is incredible!

Winter Promise uses history as the backbone of their curriculum, and then you add on other subjects, like science and language arts. They don't have a math curriculum all their own, but that suits me fine because we love Right Start and are sticking with that for next year as well. From what I've seen browsing, Hideaways in History looks like a theme that Little Bean would love. It uses Story of the World as its' spine, and then comes with a bunch of other living books (picture books and read alouds) that you pull from each day. The student also gets to do some notebooking, creating their own history book with exclusive Winter Promise notebooking pages. Lots of pasting, coloring, cutting, crafty stuff, which I know the kids will love. And the heart of the Hideaways curriculum is just that--for each major period you study, you get to make a hideaway for pretend play, which just solidifies what you've learned as you have fun building and playing in your hideaway. I've read that you do about one hideaway per week!

I'm still looking at my options for science, but Winter Promise has one that compliments Hideaways called The World Around Me that I am interested in. There are no consumables with this curriculum which is great because it means you can use it for more than one child without having to purchase more workbooks for the second child. The child keeps a science journal and does a lot of observation/recording each week. It sounds like a lot of fun, and very doable for a 1st grader.

So that's what's been on my brain lately! I know it's early, call me crazy, but I am a curriculum addict!