Teacher Planning Day

I spent the whole day going over curriculum. I love what I use but it is getting exponentially more expensive the higher up I go in grade level. I am still going to be using Heart of Dakota for one last year with my big boys but I was not able to afford all of the extensions that are needed. The HOD books I was able to buy used for less than $150. I got the teacher's manual, the history books, and the science books along with a few other books from the independent study and the read alouds.

When I got the teachers manual I saw that the only option for spelling was going to be dictation. I have not been too pleased with the dictation this year. It was too easy for Skittles and too hard for Twizzler. So for next year I bought something new, Spelling Through Copywork by Sandi Queen. I got book B for Twizzler and book C for Skittles. I am looking forward to trying something new.

I also wanted to introduce Twizzler to cursive writing. I LOVE the Cheerful Cursive program that Skittles used this year. It really was fantastic. It has a lot of grammar and other lessons included with it though. I think Twizzler will be getting enough of that from his Rod and Staff English 3. I don't want to overwhelm him when he needs to be focusing on letter formation. I saw the Sandi Queen cursive program and I LOVE it. It has beautiful pictures throughout the book that go with each lesson. I love that they are getting some art appreciation mixed in with their writing assignments. Skittles will be doing book C along with Draw and Write Through History.

I have never used the HOD math program. I will be ordering Teaching Textbooks 5  for Skittles. Twizzler still has a lot of TT3 to finish up before he moves on to TT4 but I already own those so I don't need to order them again.

I had time to get some school work done too.

1. Skittles decided to start off with reading. He really likes his book. I have decided to let him pick out books that he likes from now on. As long as he can tell me about the book. We are heading into summer. He has done a great job plowing through the long list of books I gave him at the beginning of the year. 
2. I was able to show Twizzler the cool new math trick that Skittles and I learned last night. He thought it was pretty neat. 
3. In English both boys started Unit 6. They are learning about alphabetical order. It was way too easy for Skittles. Twizzler struggled through it. 
4. Hershey colored a couple of pictures of pirates. Then he colored in an old spelling notebook and an old sketch book. It was all I could do to make sure that he was coloring on paper. I need to figure out some activities to keep him busy next year when I am doing school with his big brothers.