Curriculum for 2009-2010 (4th and PreK)

Curriculum Plans (& Realities!) for 2009-2010
Fourth Grade & Pre-Kindergarten


Eclectic Girl

Spelling: All About Spelling Levels Four, Five, and hopefully Six.
Grammar: Editor in Chief A1 & A2 and Junior Analytical Grammar. Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island and Practice Island, followed by Grammar Town and Practice Town.
Penmanship & Typing: Spencerian Penmanship Theory Book & Copybooks, plus Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
Poetry: IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization, as well as Classical Writing: Poetry for Beginners A Michael Clay Thompson's The Music of the Hemispheres and then Building Poems.
Composition: Writing Tales 2, followed by Classical Writing: Homer A Michael Clay Thompson's Sentence Island and Paragraph Town.
Literature: Literature written about and during the time period 1850 to present, plus narrations and discussions.

Mathematics: Life of Fred series, Decimals & Percents and Beginning Algebra; Key to... series, Key to Fractions, Key to Decimals, and Key to Percents; Hands-On Equations and Verbal Problems.

Latin: Lively Latin Big Book of Latin One, followed by Latin Prep 1.

Science: A comprehensive overview of basic physics concepts, including electricity, magnetism, sound, the physics of water, flight, energy, force, and motion. For a full list of the resources utilized, see "Our Physics, Let Me Show You It".

History: Fourth year of the four year rotation, using Story of the World Volume Four as the main spine, with reading from various other encyclopedic-type works as well as supplemental nonfiction and biographies. Selected speeches and poems have been added to the memory work rotation, i.e., The Gettysburg Address.

Logic: Mind Benders, B & C series; Logic Countdown, Logic Liftoff, and Orbiting with Logic.

Art Skills: Mixed media projects through Master's Academy of Fine Arts; perhaps this will finally be the year for Drawing With Children.

Art Appreciation: Period-specific (medieval) appreciation through Master's Academy of Fine Arts.

Music Skills: Private piano lessons weekly; private trumpet lessons weekly; local homeschool band association Beginning Band weekly.

Music Appreciation: Period-specific (medieval) appreciation through Master's Academy of Fine Arts; Classics for Kids podcasts.



Fabulous Boy

Phonics: The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, McGuffey's Eclectic Primer, and lots of magnetic letter tiles.
Poetry: IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.
Penmanship: Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School, followed by Letters and Numbers for Me.

Arithmetic: Right Start A and Miquon Orange.

Literature & Content Subjects: Lots and lots of picture books to read aloud. Some favorites are Virginia Lee Burton, the Let's Read and Find Out series, and Steven Kellogg.