newbie questions

I think your plans look great! Just remember, at that age, less really is more.  A couple things I noticed:

• Many new CMers tend to view the subjects like poetry, picture study, composer study, and hymns as optional or “we’ll do it if there’s time”. I understand the season of life you’re in, but I also want to encourage you to make the time for these subjects. They are the fun parts of your day that can break up the more rigorous subjects. I love to do a picture study after a heavy math or science lesson because it just lightens things up. Five minutes is all it takes!
• Is your dd reading? If Explode the Code hasn’t brought her to the level of being able to read short picture books (think Little Bear, Frog and Toad, etc.), then 100 Easy Lessons would be great for you. If she’s ready to move on from reading lessons to actual reading, I’d suggest you scheduling some books like I mentioned. If she’s a good reader or is working on building her confidence, she (and you) might find 100 Easy Lessons to be a bit tedious.

I think you could do either history option that you mentioned. Personally, we started w/ SCM Module 1 (Ancient Egypt), but I don’t see why starting with American isn’t a good option. If you’re wanting something she and you might really enjoy, consider not following a “curriculum” at all, but just getting some really good, living books for your time period and have some daily reading and narrating time. I think you could have a successful history year that everyone enjoys by finding a stack of books and working your way through them chronologically, without a set plan to follow. That doesn’t have to be difficult. 

Here are some titles that I think you could just read and have her narrate and nothing else (pulling from my TQ guide here):

• Leif the Lucky by D’Aulaires
• Columbus by D’Aulaires
• A Lion to Guard Us by Bulla
• Pocahontas by D’Aulaires
• Meet the Pilgrim Fathers and Meet the North American Indians by Elizabeth Payne
• Sarah Morton’s Day, Samuel Eaton’s Day, Tapenum’s Day all by Kate Waters
• Mouse on the Mayflower (film)
• John Billington: Friend of Squanto by Bulla
• Thirteen Colonies by Dennis Fradin
• Wooden Shoes in America by Maloy & Dalgliesh
• Finding Providence by Avi
• Pirates! by Gail Gibbon
• Our Colonial Year by Cheryl Harness
• Colonial Times from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman
• The Courage of Sarah Noble by Dalgliesh
• Little House series 
• Paul Revere: Son of Liberty by Brandt
• Six Silver Spoons by Janet Lowrey
• Adam and the Golden Cock by Dalgliesh
• Hatmaker’s Sign
• Flag for our Country by Eve Spencer
• Bugle, A Puppy in Old Yorktown
• George Washington by D’Aulaires
• George Washington by Mike Venezia
• John Adams by Mike Venezia
• Benjamin Franklin by D’Aulaires
• Thomas Jefferson’s Feast by Frank Murphy
• One Nation Under God: A Book for Little Patriots by Amelia Hamilton
• We The People by Peter Spier
• Sarah Whitcher’s Story by Elizabeth Yates

If I could go back and do my children’s first year again, I personally would have just read books and not followed a specific curriculum. I learned later on that I really over-planned their first year, when I really should have just been enjoying it!

Hope that helps!

Lindsey

My kids are 7, 4 and 2. It gets easier! I totally agree with pp about waiting on Apologia science. We have done living books and nature study, including the CLP Nature Reader and Burgess books, and my DS7 knows more than me! LOL! We are finishing up the Burgess Animal book now and we read a chapter or portion, narrate, then watch some youtube videos to see the animal in action. We are also going to do Outdoor Secrets and companion later this year, which is another option for you if you feel like you need something more formal.

For keeping your 3 yo occupied, I do “table time” with my 2 year old while I am doing readings with the other two. I made a weekly schedule and put it on the fridge so my oldest gets out whatever activity is scheduled for the day and she sits in her highchair occupied while I read. We have another reading session later and for that one I give her a toy on a blanket to play with while we read.

I also agree about doing the “extras” as part of your day. Many people just have one each day of the week, and that has worked well for us. We do a poem daily, but then on Mondays we do picture study, Tuesday/Thursday Bible drill, Wednesday character study, and Friday map drill (new this year for 2nd grade). We listen to our composer (Mozart) while we eat lunch, and at some point we’ll read a little about him (maybe). Last year for picture study we read through the Katie books by James Mayhew and my kids LOVED them! They have been asking to get them from the library again to read just for fun. They are picture books about a little girl who visits art museums and interacts with the paintings.

In my humble opinion, doing the fine art things are more important (and SO easy) at this age than doing a hardcore history program. Last year I just read through some american history biographies with DS (Leif Erikson, Columbus, etc). This year we are doing TQ AHFYS1 but very lightly.