Christmas in July

Oh, it is that time of year again. School curriculum is starting to arrive! I love opening all the boxes and looking at all our materials. I love organizing and putting everything away. I love all the planning and prepping. It really is like Christmas. This year we have decided to stick with K12 . Isaac will be doing 1st grade. Most of his new materials arrived the other day. I am so excited about some of the fun stuff we will be doing this year. I thought I would share some of the fun stuff we get to use. Please excuse the blurry pictures.

Art: They sent oil pastels, tempera paints, clay, paintbrushes, paper, prints, and come look with me books. Isaac is so excited to have art class since we didn't do it for Kindergarten.

Music:  I am very curious to see what I think of the music program. I have heard mixed reviews from other parents. This seems like it is the least liked of all the subjects.

Science: This picture turned out really bad, but there is a lot of stuff that came in the science kit. There are some fun books, worksheets, seeds, a compass, thermometer, magnifying glass, feathers, graduated cylinder, a scale, and some other fun stuff.

Math: Lesson book, workbook, shapes, Base 10 kit, snap cubes, place value mat.

Language arts: lots of fun readers, Junior reader workbooks, lesson worksheets, and I don't have handwriting in the picture. They send you handwriting without tears books and paper. 

History: Most of the lessons for this are online, but this is one of Isaac's fave subjects. I don't have some of the CDs that are included in the kit in the picture.

Phonics: There is actually more in the kit than is shown in the picture, but a lot of the readers and such are put away. The tile kit is a fun way for kids to work on spelling and sounding out words. 

I decided to try K12 last year mostly because it was free. I wanted to see what it was and maybe get a few ideas. Once we started using the materials we realized it was a good fit for us. I like the traditional schoolwork feel. Isaac loves the computer aspect. I like having a checklist of what we need to know each year. It takes some of the self doubt out of the equation. I love the fact that all the lesson planning is done for me. There is minimal prep work involved, and my kids can move ahead at their own pace. The staff at K12 have been great. Isaac loved having a teacher he got to talk to on the phone. This has been a great fit for us. 

I do supplement a few things. We like to include Bible as a subject. I also have added extra handwriting and spelling work since we seem to move through those types of workbooks extra quick.  

So, that is our plan for the coming year. Any one else getting ready for the school year to begin?