Our Journey Westward » plans

Planning the Upcoming School Year

Cindy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:21:24 +0000

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.)

Christmas School Plans

Cindy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:05:53 +0000

School is slowing down a bit for the next three weeks. (Yay! – Shhh, don’t tell my kids I just cheered about that!) Besides all the real-life skills that come with writing Christmas cards, baking cookies, budgeting for gifts, crafting and such, I’m planning to keep some “real” school alive with the following:

Among anytime readings from the books on my sidebar, I think we’re going to purposefully read a daily chapter from

then

I’m excited about our Bible/unit study – The Names of Jesus from Easy Fun School (which was FREE!) I’ll be sure to post about the notebooks the kids create in a few weeks.

We’re ditching most of the regular math schedule for a geometry unit from AIMS called

We’ll also be keeping up with weekly artist (various nativity scenes) and composer (Handel) studies. I’ll post more about those plans soon.

And that about does it for planned school time this Christmas season. I hope you’re able to take a break from the normal to enjoy something a little different this December. Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy your children and the joy and excitement that comes with this time of year. They’re only little once!

Aaahh…A Schedule

Cindy — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:37:00 +0000

School is just about up and running again and schedules are getting back on track. I sure love the freedom that summer brings, but I’m always ready to get back on schedule. School schedules, chore schedules, weekly engagement schedules. Somehow, life is just calmer when it’s scheduled (around here anyway.)

Here’s a rough sketch of this year’s daily schedule and school routines.

Breakfast
Praise, Prayer, Bible
Chores
School Work
Lunch
Free time for big kids while mom gets little man down for nap
While little man naps – read alouds and/or game time
Free time for big kids to explore nature, handicrafts, projects, play, cooking….

School time is shaping up to look something like this:

Mahayla

Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri

Bible w/all Bible study Bible study Bible study Bible w/all

Saxon Saxon Problem solving Saxon Problem solving

Spelling Nature Study Spelling Spelling Spelling test

Journal Artist Tea Writing Blog Foreign lang

Grammar Lap Club meeting Grammar Grammar

Typing

30 min reading 30 min reading 30 min reading 30 min reading 30 min reading

Piano Piano Piano Piano Piano

History History Chemistry History

Caleb

Bible w/all Bible study Bible study Bible study Bible w/all

Math Math Math Math Math

Phonics/Read Read Alone Phonics/Read Phonics/Read Read Aloud

Spelling Nature Study Spelling Spelling Spelling Test

Journal Artist Tea Cursive copywork Cursive copywork Foreign lang

Grammar Club meeting Grammar Grammar

Piano Typing Piano

History History Chemistry History

You can see many of our curriculum choices here. We will do the following subjects together as a family:

Some Bible
Nature Study
Artist Tea
History
Chemistry

Our small county homeschool group already meets for Creation Club and 4-H. Since both groups already meet on Tuesdays, we decided to add two more clubs to round out the month. We’ll have a club four Tuesday afternoons a month. The other clubs will vary between art, chemistry, a book of the month club and play dates thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and I got the wonderful idea to dedicate a morning to nature and art (integrating other subjects) from my beautiful friend, Melissa. Our Tuesdays should turn out to be wonderfully rich and exciting.

2008-09 Overall Plans

Cindy — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:50:00 +0000

School will be starting up again soon! We’ll probably wait until the rest of the garden has been harvested and canned/frozen, but the serious planning is well underway already. Following is our overall plan for the year.

Bible

Since working through the Old, then New Testaments over the last two years, I think we’re going to branch off into various devotionals and kid-friendly Bible studies this year. Some of which will include both kiddos, while some will be separate. A couple will be completed as part of our kid/youth group studies at church, too. These are just to get us started. I haven’t decided exactly where we’re headed after these are finished.

Science and History

This year’s science cycle is chemistry. Besides a once a month chemistry club that a friend is going to host, we will work our way through:

Of course, nature study will continue at least weekly, too.

History

Our history cycle is Early American History. The plan is to get through as many of the units below as possible and pick up where we leave off as we head into Modern American History next year. I’ll be posting detailed unit plans as we get to them.

Explorers
Native Americans
Pilgrims
Colonial America
Revolutionary War (and other significant wars – French Indian, 1812)
Pioneers/Westward Expansion
Salvery/Underground Railroad
Civil War

I’m also considering buying the The Story of the World Vol. 3 CD’s for our listening pleasure. (And to keep up with world history of the time period.)

Mahayla – 6th Grade

Math

And various logic activities.

Grammar

Spelling

Writing

We’re continuing the blog, journal, field trip journal, writing prompts and newsletters. We’ll also be adding things here and there from:

Reading

With each unit, she will be assigned at least one book. Otherwise, I never have to worry about her reading and comprehending. In fact, I often have to ask her to stop reading so she can get other things done!

Handwriting/Typing

Handwriting and typing will be practiced thoroughly through writing assignments. Within each unit, there will be some copywork, and at least weekly, she will practice keyboard skills at Nimble Fingers.

Caleb – 3rd Grade

Math

Various logic activities

Reading/Phonics

Spelling

Writing

We will continue with the journal, field trip journal, writing prompts and newsletters.

Grammar

Handwriting/Keyboarding

Cursive practice worksheets

Nimble Fingers

Other Things That Will Be Tackled At Least Weekly

Art/Artist Study

Adventures in Art – an out of print book I found at a used curriculum sale

Artist Studies

Music

Paid piano lessons for Mahayla

Composer Studies

Foreign Language

We don’t hit this hard, but here are some resources I at least plan to pull out once in a while.

Home Skills, Homestead Skills & Handicrafts

Keepers At Home group

Indoor and outdoor chores

Weekly cooking responsibilities

Serving others

4-H Club

I know this looks like A LOT, but remember I don’t do everything from every curriculum, nor do I teach everything every day! Life is education!!! I’ll be keeping you posted on our school year and I wish you a very blessed, productive and smooth school year at your house!