| Preschool Curriculum: A Year of Playing Skillfully I love this play based curriculum because it aligns so well with the kind of education we are going for at The Orchard. Joyful, playful learning that is hands on and engages the brain and body in a variety of forms. There are monthly themes and our lead teachers will use the curriculum to create a day for our Preschoolers including activities from these categories: Language and Literacy, Math and Manipulatives, Science, Sensory Art, Music, Gross Motor Skills, & Social-Emotional Skills Youtube Review and Flip Through: https://youtu.be/YY1bK6e-UZk?si=9emnLLWKC_RSVaxo |
| Elementary Groups Curriculum We are so excited to dive into these themes this year and learn right along side the kids. We chose curriculum for the teachers to use as a backbone, but each teacher will put their own flair into the subjects they are teaching. I have included some videos that will show you a flip through of each curriculum and links to the curriculum itself. All of these curriculums cover way more material then we could ever cover in a day at The Orchard so you could purchase them to extend the learning at home. Of course, you are not required to do so and are free to bring in your own resources for that. Some subjects such as: phonics, math games, and art we did not purchase curriculum for. |
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| Culture Study Curriculum: Beautiful Feet Books Around the World: Europe, South America ***Note: The curriculum price listed here is for all of the books included. You are able to purchase the teacher’s guide separately for much lower price. Youtube Flip Through: https://youtu.be/gglXSGcdF2M?si=U3g_S__RagQTXNdi We loved using Beautiful Feet Books Around the World Volume 1 last year and we are so excited to jump into the countries in the second volume. Next year the kids will learn about countries in Europe and South America including: France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Brazil. We will not get to all of these countries in our year at The Orchard but these are the countries covered in the curriculum. This curriculum uses living books (more on what that is here) to invite children into the culture, history, geography, animals, and habitat of a new country each month. You are welcome to purchase this curriculum and follow along at home or just let Thursday be your child’s stand alone culture study day. Optional, Supplemental Geography Mapping Work Book: Draw Europe, Draw South America We will not be doing the above curriculum at The Orchard at all. I put this here as an idea for you to do at home if you want to. |
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| Creative Writing Curriculum: Jot it Down (designed for ages 5-7) and Partnership Writing (designed for ages 8-10). We are so excited to bring Creative Writing to our older groups this year. We will be using Julie Bogart’s Brave Writer program (Jot it Down and Partnership Writing) to creative monthly writing projects that will inspire the kids to create a finished written work each month. One reason I chose this program is because Julie is one of the only curriculum writer’s who teaches writing from an author’s perspective. She has taught me so much through her podcast, books (The Brave Learner is my fave!), and her amazing curriculum that I have used in my own homeschool. Supplemental Writing Curriculum: Brave Writer has an amazing literature based writing program that would pair excellently with what we are doing at The Orchard. You can choose the program based on the age/level of your child or pick one that falls in between your kids levels so you can do it all together as a family. Quill (Ages 5-7) there are two options of year long programs that have really fun monthly themes that invite the child to explore excellent picture books and develop pre-writing skills simultaneously. We did the “Hedgehog” one last year and our favorite month was “Inventions & Inventors” Dart (Ages 8-10) Each month features a novel and immerses your child in the world of stories, literary devices, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and book club parties. My family we will be using this program for writing this year and I cannot wait to start! Here are the novels picked for this year and the video explaining more about it. Quill & Dart Book Reveal Video There is also an Arrow (Ages 11-12), Boomerang (ages 13-14), and Slingshot (Ages 15-18) each with their own age appropriate booklists. Click here for $10 OFF Brave Writer Purchase |
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| History Curriculum: The Mystery of History Volume 1 We are diving into Ancient Times this year using The Mystery of History as our spine. We will study Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient China, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire. We will utilize maps, hands on activities, living books, timelines, and use our imaginations to make History come alive! During read alouds we will use a method called narration. I love this definition of narration from Simply Charlotte Mason: “In simple terms, narration is telling back in your own words what you just read or heard. It’s a wonderful evaluation tool that requires much thinking and assimilating on the student’s part.” You can read more about the different forms of narration here. There is so much we will not be able to cover and if you want to follow along at home The Mystery of History Volume 1: Ancient Times or The Story of the World Volume 1 would work as well. This curriculum tells History from a Christian perspective including bible stories and secular events on one timeline. We will be communicating to you weekly and monthly on what we will be covering. I know we will all learn alot this year. |
| Science Curriculum: Noeo Chemistry 1 We are trying something new for Science this year. As much as we loved our nature study curriculum, we were looking for something that had more hands on science and more science experiments. Noeo combines actual science with genuine fun by integrating experiments and living books into a comprehensive course of study. Chemistry 1 starts with the basics of the atom and builds step-by-step to more complex material like chemical reactions. This curriculums could be purchased and used at home as well. You can purchase the Instructor’s Guide and experiment kit and check the books out from the library for a cheaper option. We will let you know what lessons we plan on covering at The Orchard so you know what to cover at home. You could also choose to do a Nature Study like Exploring Nature with Children or Treehouse Nature Study at home instead. |
| Communication you can expect from us: We send out monthly newsletters with previews of what topics we will be covering in each subject throughout the month and weekly recap emails of what was covered at Orchard the previous week. Sometimes we include optional recommendations to extend the learning at home. |
It is going to be a great year!
Kate & The Orchard Team
What a super fun year! Love it!
Love that you added the science component ! Sounds like a great year!