Planning the Upcoming School Year

Posted by Cindy on July 27, 2009

After a nice LONG summer break, we’re starting back for the 2009-10 school year next week!  I can’t believe I’ll be teaching 7th and 4th grades this year – and we can’t forget the 2 1/2 year old who will continue to wreak havoc daily! 

Here’s the basic daily plan – which hasn’t changed much from last year:

• Dressed/Bedroom Chores
• Breakfast/Bible
• Daily Chores
• Math
• Language Arts
• Unit Study
• Free Time for outdoors/handicrafts/hobbies
• Reading Break

Curriculum plans are (as always) subject to change, but here’s the projected list.  Remember, I never teach from all these materials everyday, or even every week for that matter.  These are just resources that we’ll use at some point or another. 

7th Grade

Math/Logic

• Saxon Algebra 1/2
• Mind Benders Grades 7-12
• Introductory Logic
• The Thinking Toolbox: Thirty-five Lessons That Will Build Your Reasoning Skills
• Other problems solving projects will come from various sources

Language Arts

• Easy Grammar
• Spelling Power
• Words on the Vine
• Vocabulary from Classical Roots
• Daily Paragraph Editing
• Writing will be tied into unit studies and other real-life events
• Some reading will be assigned to go along with unit studies, some reading will be free choice
• No formal handwriting practice this year

4th Grade

Math/Logic

• Saxon Math 5/4
• Mind Benders Grades 3-6+ Book A3: Deductive Thinking Skills
• I have lots of other problem solving books that we will pull activities from here and there, too.

Language Arts

• Language 3
• Conquering Cursive
• Spelling Power, Fourth Edition
• Spell Quizzer
• Writing is the same as 7th grade
• Reading is the same as 7th grade

Bible/Devotions

• Bible Topics – Daniel, Jonah, Ruth, Romans, Psalms, Proverbs
• Possible Bible/Character/Devotion Missionary Studies include:

How to Study Your Bible for Kids

Journeys of Faithfulness: Stories for the Heart for Faithful Girls

The Squire and the Scroll with Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll

Princess & the Kiss: A Story of God’s Gift of Purity with Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss

Beautiful Girlhood

Bible Games Packet that reinforces books of the Bible, divisions of the Bible, Bible research skills and more.  I bought this at a Bible outlet store that was going out of business a few years ago.  The game boards and pieces are all just paper tear-outs.  Since I’ve already prepared all the games, I can’t find the title of the product anywhere.  It was originally published by Standard Publishing, but I’ve had no luck finding it on their site either.  It’s a wonderful resource!  If I find out the title and it’s still available anywhere, I’ll be sure to post it.

Bruchko

George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans

Bartholomew’s Passage: A Family Story for Advent

Hero Tales, vol. 1: A Family Treasury of True Stories from the Lives of Christian Heroes

Unit Studies

This is the fourth year in our four-year history/science cycle.  We will be working on modern history and physics.  I’ll post plans as each unit comes along.  For now, here are the tentative unit lists.

History/Geography

• US Geography
• Statue of Liberty and Other National Monuments
• US Government
• US Presidents
• Inventors
• 1900-2010 History – This will be our biggest unit!
• World Geography

Science

• Energy – Heat & Electricity
• Light, Color & Sound
• Magnets
• Simple Machines and Work

Nature Study

We’ll use various ideas from the NaturExplorer units once (or more) a week.  I’ll be posting many of those ideas here and at Shining Dawn Books.

Artist and Composer Study

August – Cezanne, Chopin

September – Rousseau, Vivaldi

October – Rodin, Gershwin

November – Gauguin, Ellington

January – Toulouse-Lautrec, Schubert

February – Seurat, Berloiz

March – Russell, Schumann

April – Matisee, Brahms

May – Kandinsky, Stravinsky

I’ll be sure to post lots about our daily lessons and happenings through the school year!  Have a super 2009-10!

(You can find our current studies along with the resources I’m using in the sidebars.)

What Will We Do Over Summer Break?

Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2007

I call it summer break because we put aside the normal daily work load, but the summer is far from a break from learning.  We have so much fun, though, that I have been able to disguise the learning part so far!

Mom is “off duty” for the most part, but I always have a stash of planned out activities.  I try to give them something planned by me everyday – an art project, a science experiment, a trip to the library, maybe even a math page to keep the skills up.   For the rest of the day, I try to provide them with lots of neat ideas to keep themselves busy.  I don’t demand that they do the extra things.  If they want to hang out in the kiddie pool the rest of the day, that’s fine by me.  But most days, I hear the words, “I’m Bored!” too many times.  So here’s a list of some of the things I have available to them:

Art - a stash of idea books, some old Abeka Art books I found at a curriculum sale, and lots of materials

watercolors, tissue paper, glue, markers, colored pencils, foam shapes, foam sheets, pipe cleaners, clay, play dough, chalk, pastels, oil pastels, tempera paints, lots of paper types, fun scissors, scrapbooking materials, old magazines, crayons, rulers, googly eyes, pom pom balls, sponges, rubber stamps…………

Crafts – I keep on hand (for Mahayla mostly), books on knitting, crocheting and sewing with all the materials for these, lots of beads, and the occaisional cheapo craft set from the dollar store or WalMart.

Science experiment books – I’ve run across many of these at yard sales.  My kids love to try experiments on their own!

Science craft books – these are fun.  They include projects like making bird feeders, windchimes, water microscopes…………I found most of these at yard sales, too.

Nature study – We have a bag packed and ready for them to take off on their own nature walks/hunts.  We live on a farm, so they have a tad bit of freedom in this area.  In the bag we keep things like a hand-held microscope, baggies for collections, colored pencils and drawing paper, magnifying glass, Fandex field guides, sunscreen……………….

Library trips – We do what I call “free reading” during the summer.  Books that have nothing to do with some sort of unit we’re studying or checklist we need to check off.  The kids both pile up their stacks to take home and we just sit around and read, read, read all summer.  The trampoline is a great place for reading, by the way.

Field Trips – I like to just get up and go a lot during the summer.  We are blessed with many educational day trip destinations in Central KY!

I try to keep up with daily Bible reading to them.   Like I mentioned before, I still throw in the occasional math worksheet.  The kids like to buy and work through the fun dollar store workbooks, so I’ll pull those out some days.  Rainy days are good for computer games.  I don’t let them have too much “free time” on the computer during the school year, so I don’t feel bad allowing more in the summer.

I also make and print out a 100 Things To Do If I’m Bored list.  I’ve found several on the internet that I paste into a Word Document, then tweak to fit our family.  Do an internet search.  The lists have great ideas!

One thing my children have come up with that yours might enjoy – they’ve created spy journals.  The spy journals are just steno pads.  They have the most fun creating secret codes, spying on Dad or Papaw and writing down what they’ve seen, meeting in secret hideouts to discuss a mission……Hey, it’s creative thinking and writing practice!!  I love it!

Summer is not a time to slack from chores!  They continue to have assigned chores daily.  I love summer break!!  Twelve days to go!