We got the more information about the curriculum this week in the mail and now my son is excited. Yay!
The school has an academic core that doesn't change year to year. This includes reading, writing, math, and keyboarding. There is a sequence and the students work through it at their own pace. The science/cultural curriculum changes every year and the whole school (PK-6) studies the same focus areas with increasing depth. I think it is on a four year rotation. Each month there is a new focus for science and cultural. Each week the K students are given 10-15 academic goals that are mainly from the core academic areas with a few from the science/cultural. These are different for each student and they have have to complete 2-3 each day. Once the goals are complete, the student can work on whatever subject they want.
We got the science/cultural curriculum for the year this week and it includes many areas of special interest for my son.
When he was in Pre K, he would either know the science material before it was presented or learn it faster than his classmates. Then he was stuck doing more of the same for the rest of the month. Or just working on weaker areas (like handwriting) the whole time which made him not like school very much.
The teacher's plan is to increase the depth available to him in his interest areas so he stays motivated. Basically, "finish your handwriting assignment so you can work on the 12 piece head, arms, legs, feet type human body puzzle" doesn't work as well as "finish your handwriting assignment so you can assemble a 3D skull model".
