Preparing Our Homeschooling Curriculum

When we decided to start homeschooling, I read - a LOT!!!  There are all manner of homeschooling resources out there, and it is quite daunting to be honest, to try sifting through them all.  I want to follow the Australian National Curriculum as much as possible, so that if/when Nicky goes back to school, he won't be "behind" or have "gaps" in his knowledge base.  I also want to incorporate therapies to help his ASD - speech and social, and occupational therapy.

So our subject list is as follows:

English
Maths
Science
History
Art
Speech and Social
Occupational Therapy
Other (either catch up time, or alternate interests, or "whatever")

I considered including Physical Education, however there's not much point in teaching him to play sports before his body has the required muscle tone to play without injury.  I also thought about including Information Technology, however he is on the computer and iPad so much now, that he doesn't need extra time, and he is naturally interested, so picks things up along the way naturally.  When he is older, we will look at teaching him programming languages etc, but for now, I think he covers it enough himself.

I'd like to add another language, however am not sure of how to approach this yet, so for now, it's still a thought in progress.

English Curriculum

At the moment, we are doing one unit (two pages) of Spelling Works per week.  Every day we try to read a chapter of a book (Magic School Bus at the moment, as well as Zac Power), although as his reading level is adequate, and he hates reading, if he's having a bad day we will skip it.  I also get him to read aloud at every other opportunity (for instance, when working on his maths text).  We have a handwriting practice book, and once a week, he completes a journal in a scrapbook of the weeks events (which he also draws a picture in).

Two books we haven't started yet, however will once we get better at scheduling, are No Boring Practice Please! Funny Fairy Tale Grammar, and Boost English.

Australian Primary Dictionary
First Dictionary

Maths Curriculum

We are working from iMaths - both the text and the student tracker book.  We also supplement this with the Junior Illustrated Maths Dictionary.

Science

Thus far, we haven't done much, however I have a few books that we'll be working with.  I am currently looking at the Australian Curriculum to see which topics to cover, and will devise activities from there.

Blake's Science Guide
The Little Brainwaves investigate... Human Body

History

In much the same way as will happen with Science, I am following the Australian Curriculum.  At the moment, we are working on Timelines (Australian Curriculum - ACHHS065 and ACHHS066).  I also have My Place with which to discover history in Australia.

Art

We will be doing the usual "arty" things.  Before each session, I will look at the QLD Ways of Working to see if there are any points I should be covering - for example, when painting, we will be talking about colour mixing, and experimenting with making our own colours.

Speech and Social

For these lessons, once a week we revise the previous weeks Secret Agent Society workbook section.  Nicky has just completed this course, so we are doing it again at home.  We also work on the "Home Missions" every day.  While he is attending speech therapy, we also revise his work with his speech therapist for the week.

Occupational Therapy

We do Occupational Therapy nearly every day - 20 mins of Gross Motor and 20 minutes of Fine Motor.  Gross Motor includes things like jumping on the trampoline, Yoga, and Wii Fit.  Fine Motor includes things like handwriting, Playdoh, and Lego.

Other

To supplement Nicky's education to provide an encompassing view of the world, I am also using the following texts.  As time goes on, I'll make our own resources, and come up with alternate plans, but for now, this is what we have.

Sport
Australian Special Days
Developing Your Thinking Skills
School World Atlas


I also bought Hai! 1 Nice To Meet You, however as I lived in Japan for a while, when they spell Romaji  -  Roomaji  - I'm not filled with confidence...  But hey, perhaps it's a start, and I can get a tutor for him later to clarify such things.

Note - the links shown here are not necessarily where I purchased these books, and are included to illustrate only, not endorse.