A new year: A new plan

As I said before: I love Advent. The waiting. The new missals at church for my children to wreck. The new candles to enjoy. The newness. The anticipation. The plans.

This year, I decided to reevaluate our homeschool plan a bit earlier than I usually do. I usually think and change things over our Christmas/New Year's break for the secular new year. This time, I really needed to start changing things earlier. I really, really, really didn't like my science and history/geography choices.

I had decided we were going to finish Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere for History/Geography. I just couldn't get into it this year. Which is really strange, because we all enjoyed it 5 years ago with Catherine and last year was a ball doing the first few locations.

And Science: bleck. We were doing Sonlight's Core C: Geology, Meteorology and Mechanical Technology. Um, I like it a few years ago when I did it with Nathaniel and Isabel. This year - oh my, I couldn't stand it! I kept waiting to learn about something in the title; we kept reading about animals and the human body. So not what I wanted to do. (and yes, my children's education is all-about-me.)

After some discussion, and the realization that after 13 years of education at home, I had only spent a fraction of this year's budget (mostly on the Physics book for Catherine) I was going to get a new science program.

Nathaniel is doing the Apologia General Science program. We like it. Catherine had done it a few years ago and we enjoyed it. I decided to look at the elementary sciences. We chose to start with Astronomy.

WEEHAA! We are having a ball! And since I had so much of the budget, I splurged and got the project package as well. For a whole $70 I got everything (and I mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!) we need to do all the projects in the book. I think all I have to provide is water- it even comes with things like tape, pencils, markers, measuring tape, scissors etc. Very cool and so worth the money.

The furthest planets
A Balloon Solar System suggested as the project for Lesson 1

The Sun and the closets planets



3 models of the solar system hanging in the living room

 

I gave the littles the option of going back and starting Ancient History again or to finish our American History which we ended at the end of World War 1 two years ago. The consensus was to finish American History (I think the fact that we would be reading the Usborne World Wars book was the deciding factor - we LOVE this book.) Since this is a small percentage of the Core, we will be doing a unit on Canada, and possible South America at the end of the year as well.

All in all, I think we are having quite a good year, so far. With these 2 changes, everyone is generally happy with our educational choices and we are learning quite a bit so far. Now to see how this new year will be!

More Planning: High School

Catherine is a junior this year.

Wow - had to pause and re-read that sentence!

She is a very busy young lady and the plans for this year will make her even busier!

Literature:

This year she will be working on American Literature with the Sonlight Core 400 package. The list of books looks quite interesting and varied. Should be fun - I hope! We will also be continuing on with Spelling Power. Mostly for review, she is an awesome, intuitive speller.

History:

That means Catherine will be studying American Government and Civics this year. Given that we did American History last year, this will be a good next step. Not to mention that with an election coming up next year, it will be an interesting time to cover Gov't and Civics.

Math:

She will be continuing on with Saxon Algebra 1. The goal is to finish this and begin on Geometry to catch up to where she thinks she needs to be.

Science:

She will be working on Prentice Hall's Chemistry using the Kolbe syllabus. One of the things I like about PH is the online Lab, which is enough to qualify for a lab credit, without stressing us out! As she is not going to focus on anything that needs intensive science, this works well for us.

Religion/Catechism:

Ah, the sticking point right now in the planning process. I am not really sure what direction to go in this year. I will probably drag things off the shelf and have conversations with her about various books. She was asked to go back to our church's Confirmation Program (which she completed last Spring) and be a peer leader for the next class. A wonderful indication of what our priest thinks of her, but I am not sure she wants to do that. She is still praying about that one.

Foreign Language:

The application is in at the local Community College for her to take Elementary Portuguese 101 starting in September! She attended Portuguese school for 4 years when she was younger (remember the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding - same thing, only Portuguese!) and she can understand quite a bit of what is said to her in Portuguese, but she really wants to get better - and I am so not Portuguese (a wannabe, maybe!) We tried to do Portuguese here last year, and it really didn't go well - not that I can't teach it, it just got lost in the busy-ness of life here. This plan will work much better, and she will get college credit at the same time!

Extras:

I know, extras, who needs extras? More than likely I will get her to join us in art and music - just because it is fun! She will also be taking a Driver's Ed class and she is looking for a job for her spare time (yes, you can read that with sarcasm!)

Should be fun, interesting year!

Planning: The Big Kids!

I am looking forward to this year.

I have been busy planning away. I am not sure we will accomplish it all, but I know we will accomplish nothing if I at least don't start with a plan.....

So here goes:

Nathaniel is almost 12, 6th grade!

Isabel is 9, 4th grade, and
Julianne is 7, 2nd grade: First Holy Communion year!

Things have been sorta planned in the past. But haphazard happens!

History/Geography:

We will be exploring the Eastern Hemisphere with Sonlight. This is the very first core I bought from Sonlight. Catherine did it a few years ago. I am looking forward to going through it again with the littles.

Science:

We will be studying Anatomy and Nutrition. I plan to use CHC's My Temple of the Holy Spirit as a great jumping point for Anatomy. Again, this is one of the first things I used when I began homeschooling 12 years ago (gasp!). I will also be using Intellego Unit Studies' Life Science: Human Body program. I picked this up at the local Homeschool Conference this past June. It looked really interesting; we shall see!

For Nutrition we will be studying the daily food recommendations. My plan is to have each one eventually plan a week's worth of meals and snacks, along with comparison shopping within the budget. I am hoping this works out well and they can start taking over some of the meal planning around here!

I am sure we will also be studying lots of animals and other science-y stuff to go along with our history and geography.

Language Arts:

Nathaniel and Isabel will be using Rod and Staffs English 4. I think this will be sufficient with the writing assignments to be done for History.

Julianne will be finishing MCP Phonics B.

We will also be working with Karen Andreola's Simply Grammar

Religion/Catechism:

I am planning to have the children read their grades' Faith and Life book. We will also be working on the Baltimore Catechism together.

I am also looking to do more celebrating the liturgical year stuff, I love to see what others are doing and hope to incorporate more this year. I am also hoping to complete some of the Catholic Lapbooks I have. We have done a couple and I am hoping to get more done this year. The littles liked doing the ones on The Year for Priests and the one for St Paul.

Extras:

Yeah - extras. The plan:

Art: we need to finish the M is for Masterpiece book. We all enjoyed working projects to go with each letter. Definitely a priority this year.

Music: I am hoping to do something with classical music. I have Beautiful Feet's History of Classical Music with all the resources. If nothing else, I hope to get through all the Music Masters CD's I have.

 

They are great for trips in the car!

 

 Isabel and Julianne have requested to work on Beautiful Feet's History of the Horse study. Horses are a passion for my girls, so I am hoping to get this scheduled at least once a week to give them something they truly enjoy working on.

I need to put the finishing touches on the plan for Catherine - she is in a class all by herself!

The Plan - Pre-School

I am in the process of planning our next year at home for school.

I always make a plan.

It usually turns into the wish list and the reality is much less than the plan.

But - I think I will still plan big - maybe this year we will get more done than last year! I have an idea of what we will be doing - now to get the smaller pictures from the big picture!

The 'easiest' to plan, by far, is Lucas. Honestly, the main reason is because I know I can not do anything with him for school - so if the plan fails it is OK! (sorta)

PRE-SCHOOL:

Lucas turned 4 in February. That means he is still technically pre-school.

I think he will definitely be doing Kindergarten work by the end of the year!

I am hoping to concentrate on letters and numbers with Lucas this year. The plan is for him to be able to recognize and write all the letters as well as the numbers to 20. He is well on his way - the joy of being the youngest of 6 and thinking he is the twin to his older brother!

We are going to keep doing the teddy bear / uno card matching.
 

from Jan - he loves doing this!

 Lucas really loves doing the matching and this is something only he does. I even got him his own muffin tin, in orange, (they didn't have red) at the discount store.

I got this cool looking pre-school activity unit:

I started printing and laminating. I think Lucas will love this - really, what's not to love? Tools, construction stuff - all good for my boy!

He will join us in our trip around the Eastern Hemisphere - just because he won't let us leave him behind!

I am hoping to have him continue with our letter study. I am not sure we will do the complete 'Alphabet Path' as designed by Mrs Foss (which is a bummer as I absolutely love this!) - he is so not into fairies! But the letter crafts we have done in the past will be fun to get finished.


B is for Bumble Bee!



A is for Alligator!



D - Dinosaur
E - Elephant

(I would hate for all that cutting, gathering, and compiling to go to waste!) We actually got up to the letter G last year.

Really. Pitiful!

But I am hoping to work on the letters with Lucas and try to tie it into what we will be doing with the older bunch: Eastern Hemisphere, Anatomy and Nutrition (more about those subjects in a later post.)

Overall, Lucas will have some interesting, I think, things to work on and hopefully it will give me some time to do one-on-one with my older bunch as well.

Now to finalize the plans for the older folks!

Home School Planning: Some Extras

For the past 10 years, I have planned to incorporate Music and Art into the curriculum. As with many things around here - reality is much different than theory. I have purchased many things over the past years and am hoping to actually use some of them this year.

This year is the year of ART - we will be using Sleeping Bear Press' 'M is for Masterpiece' as our spine. For each letter, I have planned an art project related to the letter's subject. After our first go through, we will go through the book again and will concentrate on the artists and types of art and will use the book for an art appreciation starter course.

Along with that we will be using Mommy, It's a Renoir, mostly for fun and getting familiar with famous paintings. I finally got the folders for steps 1 - 5 completed and set up on the art shelves.

I also found, for the art shelves, Baby Einstein's ABC's of Art picture cards. They are 8x8 cards with a beautiful picture on each card. I have also added some oversized art picture books for the littles to look through during the year as well.

I am hoping this will add some very much needed fun to our school week.

Home School Planning: 3rd and 5th Grades

We will be continuing with resources we have used before:

for History we will be using Sonight 4 - 2nd yr American History.

For Science we will be using Sonlight 4 - Electricity and Magnetism (always fun for Dad!)

Both Nathaniel and Isabel will be studying catechism and religion using Faith and Life and Baltimore Catechism.

We will continue our State scrapbook (an idea I shamelessly stole from Jessica at Shower of Roses)

Language Arts is always a challenge for me so we will be using the Sonlight LA plans which are included in their History plans. I am hoping to get more writing done this year - we need it!

Home School Planning: Pre-School and First Grade

The plans for Julianne and Lucas are to meander  Along the Alphabet Path with some small changes and additions for us. I do not think I could express enough what a wonderful resource Elizabeth has provided for us rather planning challenged moms. We will be following the adventures of Flower Fairies and saints. Each week or so, we will explore a letter. We will be looking at a location and studying a person and an animal or wo. We will be making an alphabet book using this cool idea for letters Crafty ABC's and coloring some wooden letters. We will also be learning our Sign Language letters and, hopefully some words to go with the letters. I am also planning to swipe some great ideas from Jessica at Shower of Roses, especially those plans which entail cooking and liturgical events.

Juliianne will also be working on MCP Math A and MCP Phonics A as well as Faith and Life 1 for her Catechism.

I am hoping that by planning all of this out for the next 2 months or so will give me a head start that my planning theory will actually result in school reality. We shall see.