For a brief overview, the kids are learning math, phonics, handwriting, reading, science, English, Bible, memory verses, poetry, classical music, and famous works of art.
If we get more detailed, than things the kids are learning are things like...
Being able to say and write their first and last name
Address
Phone number with area code
Knowing that a letter can be a vowel or consonant
Knowing that the vowels are A E I O U and sometimes Y
Knowing that letters has two forms and can be upper case or lower case
Knowing all their letters and their sounds (they all know this already)
Working on rhyming
Being able to memorize and recite 1-3 bible verses per week
Knowing how many days are in a week and name them in order
Knowing how many months are in a year and being able to name them in order
Counting to 100 by 1s
Counting to 100 by 5s
Counting to 100 by 10s
Counting to 20 by 2s
Recognize numbers to 100
Being able to identify quantity by base ten, dots, tally marks, numbers, or pictures.
Identify famous works of art and music. So far we have learned about Michelangelo and the Creation of Adam. We have learned about Renoir and A Girl with A Watering Can. We have learned about Paulus Potter and The Bull. We have learned about Bach and Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Beethoven and
Für Elise, and Bizet and Les Toreadors.
We have learned about fruits, vegetables, bugs, insects and what the difference is between a bug and an insect.
We have learned geography with both our books we read and looking up where all the famous artists and musicians are from. We have a map and a globe and we use both to locate where places are. The kids are also learning (most of them already know them) their continents and where on a map and a globe they are and the oceans.
We have started writing or drawing in nature journals about things the kids are discovering and either they are writing down what they have observed or I am asking questions and writing down their answers.
We are learning about the food we eat and what makes them healthy or why some foods are not good for our bodies. We are learning about what vitamins they provide and what those vitamins do to help our bodies.
Learning about our five sense
Learning about our community helpers, throughout the year we will be making trips to places such as the fire station, police station, etc
For physical exercise the kids are in the Special Olympics which includes Youth Sports and Gymnastics, and private swim lessons as well. Towards the end of the year the kids will be starting soccer. During the day we take walks around the neighborhood, go to parks, or just play in the backyard. The kids spend at least 1-2 hours playing outdoors.
Some things outside the curriculum that we are working on with certain children who get some certain things added in and tailored to their needs are ...
Understanding positional words
Understanding proper use of pronouns
Understanding negatives (which one is NOT an apple - because of verbal processing some of our kids hear apple and would point to the apple rather than picking up on the word NOT)
Being able to communicate with a sentence rather than in a single word
Being able to describe what they see in a picture with more than one word
Being able to make a sentence describing what that they see/feel/hear/taste.
Working hard on handwriting skills
Learning to take turns and stay on task when playing a board game (Super Why, Perfection, and Candyland are some favorites atm)
One thing that works for us is to have educational playtime for kids who need 1:1 and then have them take turns getting the 1:1. We have five kids with special needs. Two need hand-over-hand to help with writing and cutting at times. Then we have one other kid can not read anything at all, a different kid that has ADHD and is constantly losing focus, and yet still another one who reads but has almost zero reading comprehension.
What I tend to do is do all our group work together and first thing (flag,bible verses, calendar, etc) and then we start on handwriting. That way I can get the 4 who can do it on their own started on something while I help the two who need 1:1 with hand over hand for handwriting/cutting.
You can see here how our son is working on stringing and lacing objects which will help his fine motor skills. Our other son in the background has gotten distracted and is watching everyone else instead of focusing on his task at hand so I am always having to watch and remind him to get back to his work
At the same time my daughter is working on her handwriting using a slant board. The slant board can be helpful to those who have weak fine motor skills.
All the while, our other little girl is working on an alphabet puzzle while I help one of our older girls with her work and our other teenager is working independently on work she is able to complete without help.
Sometimes, if one of our kids is getting too distracted, I find time in the day where I can pull them aside and do some 1:1 work outside of our regular classtime. To help make this fun for them, I typically will offer something like a little snack afterwards or a sticker to make up for taking up their playtime and them working so hard. If it is memory work, sometimes we work on that while one of the kids is helping me cook dinner or things like that.
We have some kids who have more trouble than others just sitting and doing work. We are currently keeping a 100s chart and each day we do schoolwork the kids can put a sticker on their 100s chart. (it is made up of 10 ten frames to make counting it and keeping track that much easier)
The kids get so excited about picking a sticker and putting it on their chart.
Each child has their own binder where their work is put in at the end of the day. They also have a checklist at the start of the book that tells what all they have learned. Each time they learn something we can check it off.
For our kids who have a hard time being still, we do a LOT of playing. We turn learning into fun.
Take for instance the months of the year. We will do the Macarena and get silly with it. Sometimes we go normal speed, other times we say it super fast, other times in a funny voice. Anything we can do to make learning fun. We will go outside and write with chalk on our deck things we are learning about during class time such as drawing a giant S on the ground and have the kids walk on it since some of the kids are trying to learn how to write an S. Our counting how many times they have jumped on the trampoline or counting backwards and then pretending we are rockets and running around - pretending we are blasting off- when we get to 0.
We make sure we do physical activity before we start schoolwork, take 15-20 min break after about an hour or two, take a 30-45 min break for lunch, bathroom, and some outside time, get back to work, do some art, music, story, take a 30 min play break, get back to work and then finish up and the kids go back to playing outside or playing inside depending on the weather. The kids are not on phones, IPads, or computers during the school day even when having breaks. They are expected to get their energy out and play.
