My Mini Shopping Spree

My haul

What a day! We haven't spent so much money in I don't know when. First we went and purchased our second Cali King bed. We are going to have the hugest bed ever, with two Cali Kings together. We have children who equate sleeping in their own beds (let alone their own rooms) with child abuse and torture. Since we have a huge bedroom, and a new baby on the way, we decided to just give up and get ready to have 5 people sleeping in a ginourmous bed. I can't wait until it is delivered tomorrow.

After bed shopping we went out to lunch and went shopping for new bed linens. We struck out at T.J. Maxx (no Cali King stuff), but at Tuesday Morning they had a great $300 sheet set on clearance for $80, and with today's 50% off clearance sale we got it for $40. Sweet! We also picked up a couple of mattress pads at good prices. I just love Tuesday Morning. And I often find the neatest educational toys there at great prices.

Then we got home and found a surprise gift of $100 in the mail. Yay! So Grandma and I drove out to Lakeshore to buy a few items I've had my eye on. We picked out a microscope, place value blocks, place value practice board, a magnetic fractions set with board, addition flashcards, a pack of phony money, a small hourglass (minuteglass?), a prism, and a map of the solar system with planet descriptions and decorations. For some extra money I got a laminating machine too! I am so excited. I have I pile of things I have wanted to laminate, so I can't wait to try it out! We had such a fun day shopping; it so rarely happens on our budget.

Secular First Grade Curricula 2013

Our Chinese curriculum choice: My First Chinese Words

**UPDATE** I've made a few changes since we finished our kindergarten level work and moved into the first grade work. I discovered The Logic of English Essentials curriculum and I love it! I am using it on my Chinese husband to improve his English reading skill as well as on the kiddo who is an emerging reader! So I have completely changed the way we were approaching phonics and reading for first grade. You can see some stuff is crossed out--we're not using it any more. And new stuff is marked with an asterisk (*).

So here's our new curriculum, to finish the end of kindergarten and continue through first grade. Yay! I'm so proud that I put together my first curriculum by myself. No more K12, "online public school" rules and regs. All the curriculum is secular. I decided we'll be homeschooling year-round, since last summer he was so bored. It is so hot here in the summer and we can't go outside anyway, so we might as well enjoy the air conditioning and learn stuff. Then we'll take a nice long break in the cool season when we can actually enjoy doing stuff outdoors. We've started already with this (except a few bits I haven't bought yet); and we found we are finishing school in 2 1/2-3 hours. It's just right! We don't use all these materials every day, but we switch it up and have some variety. Some subjects, like art and science, we're doing once a week. I'm really happy that we can do this!

Phonics/Reading/Spelling

Handwriting
Handwriting Without Tears, 1st grade (yellow book)

Math

Math Mammoth, 1st grade

Assorted manipulatives: base 10 blocks, snap cubes, school money

Literature/History
Build Your Library Curriculum, 1st grade

Science
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2 (ebook)

Art

Home Art Studio DVD: Kindergarten

Mandarin Chinese

My First Chinese Words Curriculum (We purchased the subscription to the online component,
workbooks, games, and flashcards)

Fun Fun Elmo (Mandarin YouTube videos from the makers of Sesame Street)

Spanish

Salsa  (Free Spanish videos from Georgia PBS)

Spanish flashcards that I make myself

Multi-Subject
Brain Quest Workbook, grade 1