2019-2020 Curriculum Review Part 5: Electives and Enrichment

Welcome to my final review–2019-2020 Curriculum Review Part 5: Electives.

I am joining five other homeschooling mammas in this review. Make sure to check out their sites and posts about their upcoming curriculums.

Youtubers: Ingrid of Mommy & Mia Homeschooling Chronicles, Kim of The Homeschooling Grammy, Vani of Mrs. Mom’s Homeschool https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfPflVNz8nQGLgXvWyV0Zdw , and Corinne of Mama’s Little Lambs

Blogger: Lisa of MammaWit Haven

It is important for a child to be balanced in their education. This is why we have added music, art, computer coding, Spanish, and typing, along with some sport activities for P.E.

Music

This year in music, we will be adding some studies about a few composers and their music. My son enjoys reading the Who Was Series books. We have found a few music composers in this series of biographies.

Our son has taken piano lessons since age 5 and will continue to do so. We have him practice his piano every day for a minimum of 20-30 minutes.

Art

This year we will also be adding art once or twice a week. Our son will be focusing on painting, pastels, and drawing. There is a small art studio near us that provides lessons for homeschoolers as well as others. He will be taking classes periodically at this studio to learn details in painting. Along with our painting, we will be adding a few studies about some artists and styles of paintings in history. We will be reading some books about artists from the Who Was Series books and looking up different artworks in books from home and the public library.

Another area of art that my son enjoys is the area of digital photography. We will be looking into some free classes in this area for him (and me) at our public library this year.

Computer/Coding

We will be continuing with learning our to code and to type this year during computer time. We started with the A Beginner’s Guide to Coding by Marc Scott and will be continuing with Coding in Scratch. We also will be continuing with some free online coding learning games such as CodeCombat and Codemoji .  We will also be looking into free computer coding classes at the public library once a week. “Free” is always a great word for me! Check your local library to see what classes or activities are available for your children.

Learning a Different Language

Our first year of homeschooling, we decided to add the language of Spanish into our curriculum seeing that we live in an area that has quite a bit of a Spanish speaking people. I didn’t know where to look to be honest, so I went to the closest teacher store and found an elementary Spanish workbook. I took Spanish 1 and 2 in high school, but let’s face it, that was MANY years ago. I remember only snippets of the language.

The next year while at the FPEA homeschool conference, I found a man who taught Spanish via pre-recorded video classes–La Class Divertida. This curriculum was such a blessing! Twice a week we had Spanish class. There are three levels for beginners and also high school level Spanish classes.

Each kit comes equipped with books and supplies for two students. I know that a person can purchase a combined level kit such as 1 & 2 or 2 & 3. We will be finishing Level 1 and then begin Level 2 this upcoming fall.

I really liked that each kit comes with the following items:

• Teacher lesson plans/schedule
• Student activity workbook
• Art projects with supplies
• Songs and stories
• Class Dvds
• Bag to keep everything in!

Here are some other positives about this curriculum:

• One is able to stop a lesson and go back if necessary. My son found this helpful when he was filling in parts of his lesson work.
• There is a lot of repetition.
• There are cooking segments of food from a Spanish speaking country that the child can do with a parent.
• There are step by step visuals on how to make the art projects.
• There are songs to help the child learn concepts being taught. These are quite catchy tunes!
• Each Level curriculum contains historical facts and stories from the focused country. For example: Level 1 focuses on Mexico while Level 2 focuses on Spain.
• The class videos are very easy and interesting to watch.

Physical Education

For physical education we like to go on bike rides, walks, play in the park, and swim in our community pool. We have also incorporated some other extra-curricular activities in which my son participates: martial arts, swimming, snorkeling, and golf. He takes weekly lessons in martial arts and golf. During the summer, we have him take two weeks of swimming lessons to help him focus on his strokes.

With having him physically active each day in the above extra-curricular activities, our son’s mind has become more sharp. He has become more focused. He also has many opportunities to meet other children his age and has formed some friendships as well.

I hope these insights into our upcoming school year has been helpful and encouraging to you. I would love to read about what activities you have incorporated into your school day or week to help balance your child or children’s home education. Feel free to tell me about them in the comments below.

Have a great day! and don’t forget to go to the channels and blogs of my fellow co-hosts in the curriculum review.