You could look at “Progress in Geography” text/workbook or CGP KS3 Geography (both on Amazon), and adapt content from there.

We use AAR, but skip the fluency sheets, or put a selection of the words onto the letter magnet board. The presentation in a whole sheet is just too much for this five year old boy. It’s a solid program and he enjoys the games. (And he loved Ziggy in the pre-reading level). We supplement with Collins Big Cat phonics readers. (I pick out the ones on helicopters or construction vehicles or insects or whatever I think he might be motivated to read. Technically he has the skills to take off in reading, so now it’s just slowly building those skills and offering tempting literature, so when he’s ready and motivated he can fly). There is a TV show Alphablocks which could be interesting (bits on Youtube).

I don’t know in detail for French, sorry. A bit of googling suggested Storyplayr, for something digital. Habbi Habbi reading wand/ books is also now offering French but it is basic. Tiptoi reading pen offers some options in french: https://www.ravensburger.fr/produits/tiptoi/index.html You could also look here: https://www.little-linguist.co.uk/talking-pen-starter-pack-french.html Or similar resources probably exist in Canada?

The preschool level of HWT (My First School Book/ My First Lowercase Book) is also good if fine motor skills are an issue. The writing is bigger, fewer repeats are expected, and it means the later levels seem familiar. For Art curriculum - we don’t follow a curriculum. For us, handwriting fine motor issues are coupled with a lack of interest in coloring/drawing. Not sure if this is the case for you. Anything that gets him to willingly interact with drawing/crafting materials is a win. Things we do do: *Kids Art Hub draw along videos *Encouraging making greeting cards and thank you notes (he will draw or craft for a purpose) *Making seasonal crafts/decorations *We are fortunate to live in a city with museums/art galleries with kids days that usually involve some hands on workshops/ craft activities - he will usually take part. There are also kids interpretive tours of some art exhibitions. *If we are traveling we visit art museums and focus on a few pictures. We try to read picture books about the artist or a famous painting in advance. We also read picture books on styles like "If Monet Painted a Monster" and "If Picasso Painted a Snowman"

I agree it‘s normal that handwriting is behind, especially if the kid doesn‘t naturally enjoy coloring. I just posted on the first grade planning thread without specifying levels, but it‘s the handwriting aspect which would be (hopefully) K level come fall, while the other areas are more solid. We didn‘t start handwriting books until he had a good pencil grip. (Maze books, scissor crafts, bath crayons, outdoor chalk, and encouraging drawing through Kids Art Hub on Youtube before this, plus playing lots). We‘re working through HWOT and all the bits like chalk and wood pieces and playdoh and not too many letter repeats are working for us.

Current 5 yo has a summer birthday, so will be a young first grader (or older Kindergartener) next year. We mostly will continue with what works, where he will likely be somewhere between K and 1st grade level come the fall. Language Arts: All About Reading, HWOT, possibly Spelling You See Listen and Write, possibly CGP Reception/Year 1 Phonics or English. We read aloud lots of books and poems - focus right now on lots of books he cannot wait to read himself like Dragon Masters. Math: Singapore, moving into Beast Academy. We’re already finished Singapore K-level, and thinking about taking some months to play lots of math games to really internalize math facts before moving on to first grade level. Science: Magic School Bus and other science picture books, and some hands on activities inspired by them. We are a sciencey family so we have a lot of science picture books, grow vegetables from seed, play with electronics kits, record the weather etc anyway. Possibly Kiwi Crate or Mel Kids subscription boxes. Fine motor skills could use the extra practice, so will do some crafts around science/engineering interests. History: dinosaurs and prehistoric animals are a big interest right now, so we‘ll dive into that. Usborne Beginner History series as a brief overview of major civilizations. We have some specific picture books that fit well with the content of museums (Romans, Egypt) that we can visit easily. Geography: Sill picture books on habitats, Barefoot books sticker atlas as jumping off point to discuss and look up stuff. Other: learning a musical instrument, Lingobus Chinese, swimming. Previous years we’ve been doing picture books and crafts around seasons/holidays/festivals and will continue that as it‘s fun and we already have all the stuff.

I‘d be OK with aiming for grade level average in the weaker subjects, and allowing the child to really fly in the areas of interest. It may be in some weaker areas, aiming for grade level requires some additional work. The exception to that would be if, for example, I was expecting that my child would want to aim eventually for a very academic college environment in order to pursue the area of passion. In that case, I‘d be trying to keep the weaker subjects at a appropriate level for a student of that grade who was heading down that pathway.

Here are some blogs and books I like. Kavanaugh Report: https://www.thekavanaughreport.com (blog and podcast are both really great) How we Montessori: https://www.howwemontessori.com The Montessori Toddler: https://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Toddler-Parents-Raising-Responsible/dp/152350689X When reading some resources, it can seem that "doing Montessori at home" means buying lots of items - keep skeptical on what you really need to buy. We never had a "kitchen tower" for example - standing on a chair worked really well for us, and cost nothing. The Lovevery subscription box can be interesting to look at the contents list for, to give ideas of what stage various types of toy and activity might be interesting - but usually you will be able to access or make similar activities without having to buy the precise item. Looking back the main things that were Montessori-ish we did at that age were all the baking, gardening, having small cleaning supplies, and some things like making sure he could reach his own coat hook, turn on the tap and wash his hands independently, and maybe a focus on books with realistic pictures. Plenty of time outside and biking, swimming playing etc. A lot of it was just being willing to take a bit of time and tolerate a bit of extra mess to let the child contribute meaningfully to the family activities if they wanted to. Edit to add: for some really simple ways to get started: 1. Get a safe toddler knife (like a crinkle cutter) - see if she wants to chop soft things like banana with you. 2. See if she wants to help help take things in and out of the laundry basket/washing machine. 3. Stool and faucet extender at sink, so she can wash her own hands. 4. Montessori coat flip to put on coat

My child was (and still is) rather unwilling to follow parental directed activities. He would rather do his own interesting thing. I tried all the activities I saw on BusyToddler or Days with Gray or similar, but usually I was just left thinking "Do other people‘s kids come and do the activity if you set it up for them. For more than one minute?“ Things that worked for us: Talk. Talk lots! Narrate your day, your thoughts etc. Figure out what brings her joy and talk about that. I talked a lot about trams and construction vehicles. Visit places like farms, post offices, stations, forests, beaches, museums and talk about all that stuff too. Read lots of books together. Read seasonal books or topic books. Read about what brings her joy. (If you are aiming for bilingual, and schooling/daycare is in only one language, for me us it helps to be a bit intentional about what we read. E.g. right now it would look like reading a spring picture book, or one about birds as well as Demolition! Or Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site. We really enjoyed some Wimmelbook type books at this age. Looking at some Montessori books or blogs and picking up activities from there - e.g. baking, planting seeds, independence with handwashing etc. (The book Montessori Toddler is good, as is the Kavanaugh Report Blog.) The key is that this stuff is an offering to the child, not a set activity - they can come and join you chopping bananas if they like (and you have a stool and a safe little knife ready if they do). Talk about numbers just as part of your day - while shopping, baking, tidying things away, counting steps, counting small snacks etc. You can get in the habit pretty quickly of it just becoming a normal part of your narrating the day: "Up the steps! 1, 2, 3….“ We spent a lot of time on the balance bike, or at the zoo, in the library, or in the park. Also splashing in the swimming pool. He was pretty resistant to art activities but you could try playdoh or paint, or big chubby crayons and paper. The BusyToddler mixing colored water was always a hit! The activities that don‘t work now don‘t go anywhere. Your kid will grow into them,. We enjoy crafts now at five that I‘m sure some kids were doing at 2 or 3 - but it doesn’t change how enjoyable they are.

Seconding the recommendation for Merlin Missions. Also checking out the Bravewriter recommendations. Heartwood Hotel series Dragon Masters - maybe not a step up, but encourage lots of enjoyable reading. Similar - Kingdom of Wrenly, Last Firehawk. Ramona series Artemis Fowl - reading level might be a bit high, but potentially high interest/enjoyment enough to persevere. Worst Witch Would „The Giver“ work? Ms Frisby and the Rats of NIMH? Roald Dahl books? What about comics/graphic novels like Asterix? (Or there must be better/more modern stuff by now).

We used All About Reading Pre-reading with the Ziggy Zebra puppet (from almost 4). He already knew letter sounds starting it (mostly) but it was great for rhyming, picking out sounds in words etc. It worked because it was fun, he liked Ziggy and he liked the games. We mostly skipped the art and craft book and I just drew a letter on paper and he painted it or stuck foil or tape or glitter glue or whatever as he wanted to, but we did do the ones that used scissors. We also combined it with playing with some other resources like magnatab letter boards, and some of the preschool stuff from HWOT like wood pieces or playdoh mats. Gakken has some cute workbooks aimed at little children. I think we did a letters one and a numbers one, plus they had some with mazes etc. They had a bit of coloring, cutting and sticking etc. For other resources - it was about this time I began adding more seasonal/celebration related picture books, and picture books to follow up an interest or maybe a museum visit we had had. (On top of our vehicle/construction related favorites). We also did Koala crate (subscription box) for a while.

I don‘t think you need to push extra course load, because really until math goes so far, there is only so far you can go in science - it might be interesting, but it doesn‘t build on itself as linearly as math. Some ideas: All of the competitions and contests and extras that are on offer - science fairs, science writing competitions, science quiz etc. They are fun, you meet other interested kids, and it pushes you in a self directed way to learn new stuff. Maybe some museums or universities you can visit offer special lectures or tours? Books about any science topic of interest. If he‘s interested in a topic, help him explore what‘s on offer. As a teen, I tended to prefer actual texts (but only the visually beautiful ones) to typical popular science books. There are some great science subscription boxes now (Mel science has chemistry and medicine, both of which I‘d have loved) and science kits for things like microbiology, DNA extraction etc, electronics. Math and reading/writing comprehension skills can limit ability to succeed in science, but the amount of science covered in his early teens is really unlikely to limit anything. So I‘d focus any limited extra study time on math or English, and have science or engineering enrichment be about joy and fun and things that are his idea.

My son (also 5) is also sensitive. He’s very curious about death and what technically happens, but we haven’t got into humans killing or maiming other humans on purpose yet. I know some of the Usborne books Bookshark has, and while they’re wonderful, I wouldn’t read them to him yet (also because I just don’t think it adds that much yet - e.g. I can see that while he loves the animal themed Magic Treehouse books, he doesn’t really “get” the historical ones). Some other things we do: We are fortunate to have access to a museum with a good Egyptian display, and a Roman reenactment day, so we have read a few books about Egyptians and Romans. We love dinosaurs. He had a passing interest in Titanic and the lunar landing which we followed up with picture books. He knows a lot about and loves books about the history of trains. Otherwise we haven’t done so much history yet, and instead have focused on topics like Scout suggests - lots of picture books and stories to understand our major celebrations, holidays and traditions (which also anyway leads to discussions of historical topics). Do you have access to any historic sites/museums that together with some picture books, could form the basis of an alternative history option?

It‘s probably that one! If he has a serious interest in chemistry, then the Mel Science Chemistry subscription boxes are also worth looking at.

Usborne has a nice periodic table book, also puzzle. https://www.amazon.com/Lift-Flap-Periodic-Table-Inside/dp/1805070282/ref=sr_1_9?crid=3FIVKIM6DCNNB&keywords=Periodic+table+kids&qid=1703800854&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sprefix=periodic+table+kids%2Caps%2C217&sr=1-9 I also see this one, which looks good, but I haven’t read myself: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Book-Visual-Encyclopedia-Periodic/dp/1465456600/ref=bmx_dp_s7s0pnpo_d_sccl_2_1/146-3353734-7797210?pd_rd_w=CZG9q&content-id=amzn1.sym.2d3e76dc-c4bd-4e07-8ec4-d52b40e7fd91&pf_rd_p=2d3e76dc-c4bd-4e07-8ec4-d52b40e7fd91&pf_rd_r=44QAQ4GRK2C4ZNZ9KSGH&pd_rd_wg=dwyug&pd_rd_r=4ec2d5b2-00d5-4f08-8593-f5a18858bdaf&pd_rd_i=1465456600&psc=1 He might also enjoy the elements song by Tom Lehrer.