Friday, April 09, 2010

Letter of the week

I found this wonderful article in our local Homeschooling newsletter, and the author has kindly allowed me to post it here. I wish I had found this resource when my kids were younger. Im sure it would have saved me a lot of time. Hope you find it as helpful as I did.

Letter of the Week - curriculum help for mums in the beginning years.


Our favourite for homeschooling our younger children has been Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum by Katrina Lybbert, under the site name of Brightly Beaming Resources – Early Childhood Resources for the Home. The web site address is http://www.letteroftheweek.com/

It is a free curriculum for ages 0-11. There are many areas to this curriculum, including the Nursery Curriculum for Babies and Toddlers; the Preparatory Curriculum with Letter, Sound and Story of the Week; Science and Country of the Week; and a terrific Journal Ideas page. There are lots more, so it’s probably easier to just have a look at the site!

I have found that it provides creative learning for younger children when the older ones are doing their book work. My daughter, watching her older brothers, just wants to do schoolwork and this has given her something to look forward to each day as her special thing and she loves to show off her wonderful work!

The program is all set out and you can put as much or as little into it as you like. Basically, Letter of the Week Preparatory Curriculum, begins on Monday with the Theme eg Sheep, and a vocabulary word to learn and discover about eg. wool. Tuesday brings a shape or colour to do activities with. Wednesday introduces a letter. Thursday is number day and Friday has a nursery rhyme to learn.

The resources are all ready to find and of course Google images finds many more pictures to colour or relevant printables. I have backed up this resource with sites such as: http://www.kizclub.com and http://www.kidzone.ws for great printables that complement Letter of the Week. It depends on the age and ability of the child on what you include.

We made a learning board to display the weeks learning and then we stick everything into an A2 Sketch Book. We bought ours from Neds for $12. It is a Mont Marte Sketch Book A2, 30 sheets and holds the whole Preparatory Curriculum. The children love looking back through their colourful work.

After Letter of the Week, we begin Jolly Phonics to learn the 42 sounds of the English language. For our children, this has been a fun, activity based way to learn and has enabled them to move on easily to the next level.
 
By Marie Tapscott

3 comments:

Anne said...

well, i've checked it out, and I think we'll be starting once all the crazyness of april is over. so, I'll let you know in June or July if Sam and Tim like it or not.

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