Planning for May’s homeschool ~ Weeks 1 & 2

Whew! We’re in the home stretch! Our state requires 180 days of school for homeschools and since we are approaching that number, we will soon wrap up this year in our little school. We will officially finish the last of May but we will spend 2 – 3 days a week in June focusing on math facts and doing our read alouds. The kids will also be visiting the library and reading books & completing projects on their own. I plan to take the month of July off because if the garden does well, I will need to do preserving then. We will start back up early August. I want to be as done as possible when next spring rolls around so we can spend more time outdoors. It is too hot here to be outside much in August anyway. Since we are going to be inside more then, we might as well begin school too! :)

One of the things on my to do list was to plan out the rest of the school year. I spent time this past weekend with the older children’s core subjects and made checklists of the lessons to complete for the school year. They have enjoyed having their lessons listed and they are excited as they check off tasks done since they know that they are getting closer to summer!

This post will be a listing of our other subjects ~ preschool, science, history, geography, etc. It is mainly to have a place for me to link my ideas and write them down so I can find everything in one place. Plus, next year it will help me to know what we did last year with a click of a button!

~Our preschool lessons for the month of May will focus on the zoo and animals. I will probably touch on some other things that start with those letters (like the letter m is full of ideas) but mainly through the books we read. Our activities will focus on animals except for M week. On one day we will focus on music and xylophone because x is a tricky little letter to teach!~

~May 3 – 7~

Preschool

~ Letter Z ~

Themes: zoo & zebra

• Walking by the way ~ letter z
• Goodnight Gorilla (love this book!)
• Goodnight Gorilla at Homeschoolshare
• Z template at DLTK
• Zoo theme at Making Learning Fun
• Ideas for Z at Hubbard’s Cupboard (week 36)

Older Children

~ Complete seeds & plants~ (see April’s planning)

~ Earthworms ~

~May 10 - 14~

Preschool

~Letter M & the letter X~

Themes: Monkey, mice, mammals, and music (x is for xylophone)

• Delightful Learning ~ letter m
• Ideas for M at Hubbard’s Cupboard (week 18)
• M at No Time for Flashcards
• Letter M template at DLTK
• Monkey at Making Learning Fun
• Mice at Making Learning Fun
• Activities from Homeschoolshare ~ Goodnight Moon
• Mammals at Making Learning Fun
• Music at Making Learning Fun ~ xylophone
• X template at DLTK

Older Children

~Simple Machines from chapter 1 of The Swiss Family Robinson~

• Simple Machines Links
• Simple Machines Experiments