Sunday, July 19

A Year of Seasonal Themes for the Learning Basket...


I really like the idea of using themes that reflect the changes in the seasons for teaching pre-school. Expanding on Dawn's list of Kinderthemes, I came up with five themes per month that include the things that are happening during the month as well as one author that I'd like to focus on. I think that this will help my planning for my Living and Learning Lists as well as provide a focus for our week. Since I am planning this a bit far in advance, I am expecting to tweak things a bit as we go along. I am hoping to tuck the books, crafts, and ideas into a basket the week before we plan to learn about them and then we'll have a Learning Basket to work from at our own pace. I'd like this first year of homeschooling to be carefree but also a good foundation to future years when things will have to be a bit less spontaneous.

When September comes, we will also be using the booklist from Sonlight for 3/4 for more book choices and Kumon Books for our daughter's age and skill level. For our religious studies, we'll be following along with Katherine's Learning Through the Year of Grace plans as she writes them (of course we'll be keeping things very simple for our little ones). Finally, I am planning on ordering some of the pre-school materials offered through Handwriting Without Tears. Our daughter is not ready to learn how to write her letters yet, but I want to be prepared with this program when she is.

Without further ado, here are the themes that I would like to use for our Learning Baskets this year:

January

12 Days of Christmas
Snowflakes
Ezra Jack Keats
Snowmen
Early Spring Flowers - Forced Bulbs

February
Hearts
Valentines
Chocolate
Helen Oxenbury
Museums

March
Rainbows
Shamrocks
Spring
Barbara Cooney
Kites
April
Rain
Farms
Knights and Dragons
Alexandra Day

May
Flowers
Circus
Strawberries
Gardens
Patricia Polacco

June
Beach
Seashells
Summer
Boats
Eric Carle

July
Independence Day
Blueberries
Peaches
Sunflowers
Beatrix Potter

August
Watermelon
Corn
Butterflies
Shirley Hughes
Bugs

September
Apples
Harvest
Tomie DePaola
Autumn
Zoo

October
Leaves
Squirrels
Lois Elhert
Seeds
Pumpkins

November
Stars
Winter Beds
Turkeys
Thanksgiving
Laura Ingalls Wilder (My First Little House Books)

December
Candlelight
Saint Nicholas
Winter
Nativity and 12 Days of Christmas
Jan Brett

Stay tuned each Monday (hopefully!) with a peek into our basket for the week!

4 comments:

trinacoyle said...

Hi Emma, I have been following your blog for quite awhile now. I stumbled upon you when looking thru google reader suggestions based on my interests. I noticed photos of the church which caught my eye because it was right down the street from my house which TOTALLY caught me by surprise (these were postings just as you all were moving in and the adult shop was moving out - yeah!) I also homeschool (1st & 2nd) and will using Sonlight for the first time this year (Core 1). I wanted to encourage you in your homeschooling decision and offer support if you are interested. I am part of a homeschooling group with a wide range of ages that meets during the school year in Selbyville. All are welcome but the majority of the families are Christian and belong to various local churches. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in our group or if I can offer any assistance in our homeschooling venture

Arlie said...

Are you going to use the Five in A Row series? I found those a few years ago and thought that they'd be great for the preschool years.

MamaBirdEmma said...

Hi Trina! How cool that you found me so randomly! I'd love to learn more about your group. How do we get in touch?

Arlie, I may use the FIAR series at some point, but I am going to try Sonlight this year and see how it goes. Thanks for reminding me about FIAR though. I'm going to check into it more thoroughly.

Courtney said...

Great themes! I should really hammer a few things out more thoroughly. My general thematic plans are done, but I'd like to flesh them out a little with author study and add math, science/seasonal, and liturgical celebrations. Maybe once the injuries slow down. *rolls eyes*

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