happypamama Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 We are using the Wee Folk Art book and project lists this year and liking them so far. But my little guys are all two grades apart, so I will have preK and Kers following after each other for several years, and I don't want us all to get bored. I love the books plus project ideas. What else is out there that has it all put together for me, aside from Wee Folk Art and FIAR/Before FIAR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kharisma Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 We use Build your Own Library's Around the World lit based K. Light and fun. Sonlight is another option. Or you can use them as a book list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nannyaunt Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Moving Beyond the Page. I haven't used it, but I plan on buying individual units for summer breaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tearose Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 My 5-year-old did Moving Beyond the Page (the level for ages 4-5) last year, and he really enjoyed it. The materials kit is great, since it has everything you need (I am not crafty, so I don't have stashes of that kind of stuff). I do recommend getting it the first time around, but you can recycle/replace some of the materials to save money the next time(s) around. There is a great MBTP Facebook group (Differently schooled with Moving th Page), and I have a (not quite finished) document there that lists what needs to be replaced for each unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Great ideas so far! Keep 'em coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverie Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 happypamama, I'm searching for the same sort of curriculum. Peak With Books is similar to BFIAR, but seems to be designed more for multiple children/classroom setting. I prefer the BFIAR/FIAR book selections, but it might be worth a look. Here's a peek: http://books.google.com/books?id=u0V0qbFwb60C&printsec=frontcover&dq=peak+with+books&ei=9KbRSKurBpWKyQT44OjpAw&sig=ACfU3U2SoHFWaG8Znw6H9I3pxztXGZeg_g#v=onepage&q=peak%20with%20books&f=false Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommytoFour Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Water on the Floor put together a lit-based K http://wateronthefloor.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/literature-based-kindergarten.pdf We use a combination of her recommendations, along with Build Your Library K (plus some additional science, math and phonics). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I am currently using Sonlight's P3/4 program with my special needs 6yo. I really like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amazzie Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 You know, I like to have a schedule for some reason, but never end up sticking to it. For example, we will be using SL P4/5 this year and so far have read Milly Molly Mandy chapter 1 FIVE times. Dd just wants to hear the same chapter a few time since she enjoyed it and I don't really see a reason to "force" her into SL's schedule. Plus, that book isn't scheduled until week 22 or something but she asked to read it first and having her interested and excited is the most important thing to me at this age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Sorry for the derail but I have a question about these literature based PK/K curricula. Do your children really listen to the stories on schedule following the curriculcum, e.g. chapter 3 of My Father's Dragon on tuesday, etc? I ask because my DD is not very tolerant of schedules for books. First, like all little children she likes the same books over and over again. Second, she often is not interested in what is on the schedule. I came up with my own schedule for reading and quickly abandoned it because I hated fighting with DD about what books to read. Now I just make sure that every book on the shelf is a quality book and choose quality books from the library and we read a mix of what she chooses and what I choose. I don't schedule strictly. We do the next thing on the plan when we feel like doing it, and if we don't have something on the plan when it comes up, or we don't feel like reading, we skip it. I read their favorite picture books over and over in the evening or other times, but during the littles' block of dedicated time (which is more for me, to make sure I carve out time to do things on their level), we read the stuff I pick out from the plan. For instance, we started the fall Wee Folk Art this week, after getting a bunch of the books on Tuesday. Wednesday we read the book for the first week (the other for that week hasn't come in yet), and yesterday we read two books for the second week, and we made butter (which I highly recommend doing with littles sometime because the wow factor is high), which went along with the books. Today I am not feeling great, thanks to sinus issues, so my readaloud voice is kind of shot, so I just read one picture book, one of DS2's choosing, and we did non-lit related activities -- math, a farm addition and subtraction sheet, and phonics. Next week we will make salt dough veggies and keep reading books as we come to them in the list. It may be personality. These two little guys of mine are very easygoing and open to suggestions. I think they also understand that time with me is a big deal, because the older kids' schooling takes so much of my time, so if I suggest something, they're pretty open to listening. But if they say (and this does happen occasionally), "Oh, but we really want you to read X instead," where X is a book or whatever that has nothing to do with the plan, I'm happy, at this stage, to read X instead. And some days they really just want to run around and build with Duplo and play trains and pretend they're firemen, and they have no interest in anything sit-down, even stories, and that's all good too. Nothing is so crucial at the preK and K level that it must be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 More great suggestions -- I love them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatmansWife Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Moving Beyond the Page and Sonlight were really good suggestions....and if you want something like Sonlight, but secular, you could look at BookShark. Each level is for multiple ages. It's a wonderful literature-based program. :001_wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Sorry for the derail but I have a question about these literature based PK/K curricula. Do your children really listen to the stories on schedule following the curriculcum, e.g. chapter 3 of My Father's Dragon on tuesday, etc? I ask because my DD is not very tolerant of schedules for books. First, like all little children she likes the same books over and over again. Second, she often is not interested in what is on the schedule. I came up with my own schedule for reading and quickly abandoned it because I hated fighting with DD about what books to read. Now I just make sure that every book on the shelf is a quality book and choose quality books from the library and we read a mix of what she chooses and what I choose. I may read what's on the schedule, as well as whatever books dd wants to read. It hasn't been a problem. There's also nothing wrong with putting a schedule aside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 4, 2014 Author Share Posted October 4, 2014 A couple of others that I found: Confessions of a Homeschooler (Letter of the Week): http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/letter-of-the-week http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/k4-curriculum LotW doesn't have a specific booklist that I could find in my quick look, but Elizabeth Foss's Serendipity does: http://www.ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/along-the-alphabet-path-1.html I think they would work very nicely together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 My last post was a bit a curt, as I was rushing, so wanted to add. Dd's favorites may be read for days (weeks) on end. I do like to introduce other books, whether from a schedule or just ones I like, to ...broaden her horizons. She does enjoy new books, but it doesn't stop her from wanting her favorites day after day after day... sometimes I'll read the new story first to make sure I got to it, then read hers, which she's usually holding in hand. I don't mind rereading books. I'm 40 and still have parts of The Fairy Princess from Magic Media memorized, and I haven't heard it in over 30 years, lol! I mostly use Sonlight P3/4 as a booklist, hubbardscupboard.org has some nice selections that go along with themes. I also have Peak with Books and Honey for a Child's Heart. 1000 Great Books site. Dd also just picks books aff the library shelf indiscriminately that I read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 4, 2014 Author Share Posted October 4, 2014 I'm looking into animal related stuff. Like, read a book or two (ideally, a fiction and a nonfiction, both at the picture book level, such as Make Way for Ducklings and then a nonfiction book about ducks), do a few crafts or projects, listen to some sort of music (like Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals), look at a piece of child-appropriate art, maybe have some sort of related snack or cooking activity, maybe have a finger play, maybe a poem, have some printable/sensory/Montessori sorts of activities to hit early math and literacy and to provide some semi-independent work for early learners to do while older siblings do schoolwork. All related to one animal. And then another week do a different animal, and so on. I haven't found something already put together like this yet, so I might have to do it myself. Also, the Sleeping Bear Press "A is for. . ." books are so much fun. I could easily put together units based around those too. Too bad I only have five years after this one before I no longer have preK/Kers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg429 Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Sorry for the derail but I have a question about these literature based PK/K curricula. Do your children really listen to the stories on schedule following the curriculcum, e.g. chapter 3 of My Father's Dragon on tuesday, etc? I ask because my DD is not very tolerant of schedules for books. First, like all little children she likes the same books over and over again. Second, she often is not interested in what is on the schedule. I came up with my own schedule for reading and quickly abandoned it because I hated fighting with DD about what books to read. Now I just make sure that every book on the shelf is a quality book and choose quality books from the library and we read a mix of what she chooses and what I choose. We also have a loose schedule - but we do FIAR so reading the same book every day is the point, and my kids love it. I get many quality library books each week that have to do with the topics we will be learning about. For instance, this week we're reading "How to make an Apple Pie and See the World" so I picked up many apple books, both fiction and nonfiction, and they go in the book basket. I read the scheduled book first, and then each child is allowed to pick a few books from the book basket to read. It seems to be a happy medium between what I want to read and letting them choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg429 Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 What you're looking for in your last post sounds a lot like how we use FIAR. Check out some of my posts at my blog to see what a week looks like for us. Many (if not most) stories include an animal which can be studied more in depth. Some other options that I haven't seen mentioned are Picture Book Activities : http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Book-Activities-Preschoolers-Childrens/dp/0743216172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412470258&sr=8-1&keywords=picture+book+activities And also Itty Bitty Bookork: http://www.ittybittybookworm.com/ Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 I know WinterPromise has a study kind of like that, but centered around the habitats and the animals in them. I've never used it, so don't have personal experience. I know what you mean though. I have 11 years between my two girls, and often matched nonfiction and fiction books around themes of their interests (still working on the 3yo with this). I've usually had to just look up by the topic and find ideas, so by animal for you. Sometimes it came down to what was available at my library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DhanyaCali Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 I love sonlight P4/5, we're halfway through it, but it's not exclusively animal centric, although a lot of the characters, ARE animals. I think 1+1+1 has some animal units with book suggestions, doesn't she? Scheduling! I *try* to stick at least somewhat to the schedule and only read what's on there for the week or reread (we do LOTS of that) passages we have already covered. For me it's because I don't want DS4 to go through this 36 week program that I paid big $$ for in just a month or two!! Having said that we blew through Uncle Wiggly, he loves it so much and wouldn't accept less than 2 stories a week so we're about to start a sequel. And we gobbled up Bernstein's bears nature book but happily it holds up to rereading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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