Curriculum: MONDAYS: PRACTICAL LIFE Watch your child learn several self-helping tasks so he or she may become a strong and independent person. ‘Show me how I may do it myself’ is BIG around here! We learn to care for our body and our environment, also covering: • Nutrition • How our Body Works • Exercise/Movement • Sewing • Conscious Ecology Including: Practical life jobs, spooning, pouring, tweezing manipulatives and more. Great for fine motor development, hand and eye coordination and accuracy.   TUESDAYS: SENSORIAL Our senses put us in touch with our environment; they put us in touch with our world. The more highly developed the senses become, the more impressions they take in. The more impressions that are taken in, the more food they bring to the mind, and thus, the broader the base of the mind. Also, the more impressions brought in, the more curiosity is aroused and the wider the field of interest becomes. The order rotates in these studies: • Spiders (web weavers) • Spiders (wandering) • Ants • Butterflies and Moths • Bees and Wasps • Dragonflies and Sow bugs • Worms and Snails • Oceans (fish, sea stars, shellfish) • Oceans (marine mammals) • Special: Dinosaurs • Mammals (herbivores) • Mammals (carnivores) • Mammals (omnivores) • Birds (land) • Birds (water) • Birds (raptors) • Reptiles (snakes & lizards) • Reptiles (turtles) • Amphibians (frogs, salamanders) Wildcare Nature Program, an animal program - introduced by me with the help from guest naturalists, Terwilliger Nature Kits, Nature Van (mobile science lab) and field trips. (NOTE: We need parent volunteers in this area!)   We incorporate Anusara Yoga into our program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Anusara (a-nu-sar-a), means “flowing with Grace,” “going with the flow,” “following your heart.” WEDNESDAYS: CULTURAL Every individual must at some point in his life, step outside of himself, as it were, and recognize himself in relationship to the world and universe. It is essential that we include in our education subjects other than the three R’s; subjects such as music, art, geography, biology and anthropology. We call this area “People of the World”. Granted, these are young children, but we can sow the seeds of interest, which will germinate and grow with each child more fully according to his/ her own personality. We must provide an environment which contains key experiences to ALL aspects of life, from which he/she can choose according to his/her own inclination. And which will aid him/her in exploration of any part of our world and society. We present topics in this order: Land and water Continents/globe Transportation North America South America Europe Africa Asia Antarctica Space/Planets Fundamental Needs of Man Monthly: • Composer • Artists • Experiments throughout the year Flags of the countries throughout!   THURSDAYS: LANGUAGE One of the tendencies of man is to communicate. We need to communicate. The way in which we learn to communicate to others allows us to express who we are. The richer our language, the richer our self-expression. Covering: • Vocabulary • Stories • Song • Poems • Recognizing Signs • Letter Identification and sounds • Formulating Words • Reading • Writing Yes, reading does come sooner than the ability to write - most of the time that is! French is our chosen second language, which is taught every Monday- Friday. This not only connects us to another culture, but also will enhance our children’s ability in the future to speak secondary languages.   FRIDAYS: MATH Mathematics can be and indeed is great fun. To calculate is one of our basic tendencies. Miscalculations, as we have all learned, can be dangerous. We have to learn how to calculate all the time in everyday life. We are not born with the ability. Calculation is a natural learning and continuous process. We use it every day in minor details such as calculating if we should run to catch a bus or how far to bend our knees without a bump, or stand up without bumping our heads on an open cabinet door. Our life is indeed a series of calculations. Including: • Exactness—exercises in practical life bringing to points of consciousness that bring the mind to exactness. • Discrimination of dimensions—to recognize similarities and discriminate differences in paring exercises. Discriminating differences precisely, not vaguely, is developed by doing grading exercises. • Logical sequences—you must have logical order to proceed or there is chaos. Practical life materials and sensorial materials help in this area. • Basic Terms • Group of exercises to teach 1—10: Quantity, name, symbol and sequence. • Decimal Group—The concept and process of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions—(kindergarten). • Counting Groups—counting to 1000, teaching names and numbers • Tables and groups—memorizing different combinations after having experienced them. • Passage to Abstraction Also, music is very mathematical and it helps to stimulate and enhance the mathematical mind— proven by research. We play classical music throughout most of our days! Note: Our math apparatus are self-correcting didactics. We explore matter in a very easy, hands-on concrete fashion. Remember: Concrete before Abstract!