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There are plenty of things you can do to get a jump on next year. This will be especially helpful if you have multiple kids. The proliferation of “do this with me” in the syllabus has me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. You don’t have to do all of this, because doing ANY of it will help you later.
NOTES FOR NEWBIES
The knee-hugger grades aren’t as fleshed out in math and language arts as most newbie parents expect. If you have never taught this grade before, be sure to see my newbie notes HERE.
ORGANIZATIONAL THINGS
- Read Aloud Plans: If you want a schedule for the all the fiction reading for the year based exclusively on MODG picks, email me at ivorysoap76 AT gmail(dot) com.
- Print out my 2015-2016 liturgical PLANNER booklet or email me for the syllabi one. Then pass an eye over your crafts and see if they fall right this year. FYI, the stations of the cross craft kit may take ALL OF LENT to complete. Here are the saint’s book Tables of Contents by date.
- Check out my OUT OF PRINT LIST list so you know what to substitute.
- Tear out your Abeka worksheets and file by week. Maybe get the manual. Abeka assumes you pretty much get those add/subtract facts DOWN this year.
- Print out your handwriting. I think all the handwriting books comes in pdf now. If you do the crate system below, go ahead and file it by week.
- Print out my Memory Book so you can consolidate your catechism and poetry.
- Check out my K-2 GRD Hymns on your devices or upload your CD to itunes and play it from there. This is not intended to be your evening music time. It’s memory work. Lump it in there. Scrambling for that CD all year is a pain.
- Order your blank books. If you don’t need a bunch of other stuff from Emmanuel, Barebooks.com is the best pricing. I get the “kits” that have a plastic cover and line guide. See THIS post to figure out how many books you need and what sizes. We don’t draw directly in the blank books in the early years; they’re too cumbersome for little people. I use something like this and paste it in.
- Go ahead and cut out your art cards. I have an attractive, cheap way to store them HERE. I think the pdf that now comes to enrolled folks says to toss out Miro and Chagall. I can’t remember if anything else is ugly.
- Somewhere on your Mom notebook, write “Beginning, Middle, and End” (defined here.) That’s the language arts focus this year. Most of the saints retellings won’t help here, unless you used a picture book with an actual PLOT. Another Very Hungry Caterpillar made up example would be this: “The main character is a caterpillar and it starts on a leaf near a trash can (or carnival, or whatever setting the child picks for all those weird foods). The egg hatches and the caterpillar is really, really hungry. All week, he eats foods that aren’t for caterpillars. He feels sick. Then he eats a nice, green leaf. He feels better. Then he becomes a butterfly.” Compare it to last year’s example I gave to see the difference (as I currently understand it) between Sequencing and B,M,E retellings.
- On your weekly assignment list, put in a home culture section: “Enjoy something nature-y together.” “Enjoy some beautiful classical music together.”
BONUS POINTS
- Start a CRATE SYSTEM: a walmart crate, 32 hanging file folders with tabs, printer paper, index cards.
- Put 32 folders in the crate and number the tabs 1-32.
- Tear out/copy/print out all of your worksheets, tests, and whatnot.
- Drop in any weekly flashcards or music masters CD’s.