School planning 2010/11

In between all the unpacking, I've been thinking about our upcoming school year, which we are planning to begin tomorrow. I wanted to do a lot of the same things as last year, but I wanted to change some things, too.

Normally, I spend weeks and week thinking and praying and reading books and blogs to help me work it all out, but I haven't had time this year. I usually spend hours printing out papers and going through each book so I'm well prepared. But I have had bits of time here and there to work on it all and, actually, for me, it's relaxing to sit down with my papers and planner and think about it and look at my books.

Anna is trying to finish up high school this year. She only needs about 5 credits and we think she can finish by May.

Most of Abby, Thomas, and Carrie's school work will be the same as last year: same math (different level, of course), same English/spelling/writing. Abby is moving up to Beyond Five in a Row. Thomas will do the science part of another Beyond FIAR book, Thomas Edison. Abby will have the same history, but Thomas and Carrie are changing to TruthQuest, too. I started using my Kathryn Stout Science Scope again last year with Thomas and Abby and we'll do the human body to start off this year.

Some things are going to be different, though.

Carrie is moving up to Apologia general science and time will tell if using a textbook will work out well for her. She's going to be reading Beautiful in God's Eyes and Ordinary Women and Their Extraordinary God for Bible class. Our home ec will center around planning birthdays and decorating cakes, reading hospitality books, and etiquette. We are still very interested in combining concepts from Thomas Jefferson Education and Charlotte Mason learning, so we will continue to also read classic literature together and discuss it. We'll finish The Hiding Place to begin our year. She is starting world/American history, which will be a three year course, using TruthQuest. And for Algebra I we'll be using Math Relief, which we used with several other kids and enjoyed. (OK, the kids say that enjoyed would not be the word they would use in reference to algebra!)

Thomas likes to read real books instead of readers, so we're going to read Swiss Family Robinson and discuss it as we go along. He's going to be studying the middle ages for history and I've ordered some books and borrowed Story of the World Volume 2 for the spine. We like TruthQuest a lot because we learn so much from reading real books aloud instead of using a dry textbook, which only hits the high spots of history.

Abby will be reading Pollyanna and discussing it with me. We'll be doing a unit about Helen Keller, which is exciting because we've moved near her birthplace. I want to work on her household skills and cooking since she's soon going to be 8 years old.

I have several things in mind that I want to try, but know that they may take some tweeking and rearranging of the schedule to make them work.

• I want to add a bit of quiet time every day for Thomas and Abby. I would like this time to be for personal Bible reading and prayer time, using a modified ACTS system with them, as well as time for silent reading. The whole family needs this, since most of the noise generated comes from them.
• We have been lazy about memorizing scripture for the past couple of years and I want to reinstate that. This is the part that's going to take some schedule adjusting, since it takes a chunk of time to work on it.
• I want to have Focus Time several times a week with both kids, for at least 30 minutes. My thought is to spend some time individually with each one, just talking about whatever they want to talk about or reading together and praying with each one. I'll admit it: I'm terribly distracted by household happenings and don't always listen when they tell me stuff. I spend all day with them, but not always focused on what is interesting to them.

Arts Week and Read Aloud Week will continue for the 3rd year, since they are such a huge success.

Well, that's about it. I always start off with grand plans and high hopes and great excitement. Some things have to be put off until another year, some things simply don't work, some things are great and I wonder why I haven't always done them. I'm asking God to lead me and help me have the right priorities, as I try to disciple our children and begin our 25th year of homeschooling.

Lapbooks and Notebooks. Oh, My!

School is starting to wind down here. We've learned so much this year!

For Thomas' science, I pulled out all the science lessons in Beyond Five in a Row's Neil Armstrong. I have sadly neglected the solar system, and I thought he would enjoy learning about it. We made a lapbook, and he enjoyed doing that.

(Can I just say that he read several articles on the NASA website to use for the project, which made me very happy, since he was late in learning to read. I have to say that his reading has really taken off this year and he has also read several chapter books on his own! But I digress.)

We finished the book and lessons yesterday, finished the lapbook, and I surprised him with some astronaut's food: a freeze-dried ice cream sandwich. He was thrilled, to say the least!

Carrie worked so hard on Around the World in 180 Days and a unit study Rachel wrote for her based on Around the World in 80 Days. She finished the geography unit several weeks ago and finished the unit study yesterday. Along the way, she kept a notebook, which was very well done, I must say. She also made a notebook for How to be a Lady by Harvey Newcomb, which she used for Bible/character.




Abby and I are rowing our last FIAR book, Miss Rumphius. We're making a lapbook, too, and will take some photos when we're finished.

Countdown to School Year 09-10!

I've been busily working on the last of my school planning this week, ready to begin our 24th year of homeschooling next week.

Here's what I've done, in hopes that it will help you in your planning, too.

1. Wrote out my planbook for 6 weeks, in pencil. ;)
2. Found some books to use for readers for Thomas, copied off his Easy Grammar and Daily Gram pages, looked over his unit studies to familiarize myself with the first few chapters. Copied his writing assignments for the first 6 weeks. I bought these last year and they are very helpful to me. Bought a nice notebook for him to use for his ACTS prayertime and put that in his schoolbox along with his new math book.
   
3. Planned 6 weeks of Five in a Row and made activity plans and library lists, so I can just zoom into the library and zoom back out (love that online catalog!) Organized Abby's school box with her new reader, new math book, and Bible story book for narration. Threw in some new pencils and erasers and looked over her history. Printed off her handwriting here. This is also a good site for handwriting pages and I may use this later after she's learned to form the letters using the big cursive pages from Donna Young.
   
4. I had the bright idea of making a shelf for all of Abby's books for TruthQuest history, Thomas' readers, Anna's Beautiful Feet history books, and Thomas' unit study go-alongs. I didn't have any more shelf room, so I pulled out the first few FIAR books and the go-alongs and put them into an available drawer in my night stand, all divided up. Wish I had another book shelf, but, alas.....
5. Copied Carrie's Around the World in 180 Days geography pages and put them, along with some punched colored paper into a notebook. We've bought cloth to make a cover, which we will do during Arts Week, along with a cover for her Bible notebook. She's going to also do a unit study using Around the World in 80 Days and will make minit books, etc. to glue onto the colored paper in the geo notebook. I also fixed her Bible notebook with bright colored cardstock and bought some pretty scrapbook stickers for it. She will write quotes from her book, How to be a Lady, and will write in Bible verses to go with each chapter. I pulled out her Easy Grammar, Daily Grams, math, and copied her writing assignments. She made pretty folders for each child for my desk to hold worksheets until we're ready to use them.
6. At the convention, I bought a Dover stained glass coloring book, a Dover jousts and tournament coloring book, and cool Coat of Arms book, all to go with Thomas' unit using The Door in the Wall. I also picked up How to Draw Pirates, just for fun. All these things were from the Rainbow booth.
7. I started mapping out our first Arts Week. We will study Mozart for our music appreciation and Georgia O'Keefe and Henri Rousseau for art. We will do a bit of baking with Thomas, Carrie, and Abby, and sewing with Carrie and Anna.
8. Emily has pretty much started her new year already, but I planned out her writing unit and we have to make a decision about math. Anna's writing is planned and she knows what she's doing for the other subjects. They both work independently and keep up with their own books, so there's not much work for me to do to get them ready to start school.
   

All that's left is a trip to Hobby Lobby sometime in the near future, an order for Creation and World magazines, and the purchase of a Bible with bigger print for Thomas.

Ready, set, GO!

Good Things I've Done This Week

1. Deep cleaned the kitchen (haven't gotten to the oven yet, though), the girls' room, and the living room.

2. Helped Rachel write a unit study using The Door in the Wall. We're pretty excited about using this with Thomas! Pulled out a couple of art studies to go with it and made a file to keep all of the materials together.

3. Pulled out all the books for Carrie's geo unit study, Thomas' Door in the Wall unit, Anna's Beautiful Feet American history, and Abby's TruthQuest History. Re-arranged the bookshelves to fit all these together on two shelves.

4. Finally got around to making a couple of appointments for the kids. I hate making phone calls, so this usually stays on my daytimer to-do list for several weeks.

5. Started back my Bible study. I have to admit I've been off track for several months, what with the holidays, my Lenten Bible readings, and another book I've been reading. But the study that feeds my soul the most is one my husband and I developed a long time ago.

I first choose one verse. That's right ONE verse. I have a worksheet that works on the same premise as Five in a Row. On day one, I write the verse and figure out the context (CIE= Context Is Everything). For day two I find the parallel passages. My Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible has the parallel passages marked, so that's pretty easy. The third day has a place to write down all the key words and meanings, which I get from either my Strong's Concordance or my Old/New Testament lexicon. The work for the fourth day is a background analysis using a Bible encyclopedia. Then I usually combine the 5th and 6th day and write an interpretation and application, using all my research. Then I think about how I would communicate this information to someone else.

6. Started reading B is for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood to Abby, which is great fun!

Home Ec Ideas

Actually, I doubt that anyone calls it Home Ec anymore. But I'm pretty old and I still do. :)

I've been thinking about what I'd like to do for the girls' home ec next year and thought I'd throw out some ideas for you to think about, too, if you're interested.

First and foremost at our house is cooking because we love to cook and eat! I start the little girls out on baking with a simple mix, like Jiffy Mix. Then we move to baking bigger things like cakes with a mix and quick bread and cookies from scratch together. After that, the kids (boys, too, as I have time, but the poor boys don't get nearly as much kitchen time around here as the girls, just because of sheer numbers! lol) move to helping with breakfast and then become in charge of a day or two of breakfast every week. Every day the kids make the main breakfast food from scratch, such as muffins or biscuits or pancakes or several other things and I do bacon and eggs. They usually stay on breakfast for several years, but work on other things at the same time, too.

All along we're working on our baking skills and around 7th grade, we delve into cake decorating by planning and baking a birthday cake for everyone. We've made the spectrum from simple cupcakes with sprinkles to a pool cake that took 3 days to make and used Chicklets for the pool tiles, Jello for the pool water, Fruit Stripe gum for floats and bear cookies with swimsuits on around the pool. We've made a tiered anniversary cake and a small wedding cake. And Rachel even had a cake business for a couple of years.

After perfecting breakfast, the girls move to cooking lunch, which is our main meal, and making bread. My goal is that by the time they finish high school, they should be able to cook for a family and run a kitchen with no problem.

Since we are all short in stature, clothes always need to be hemmed. I like for the girls and boys to learn to sew on a button and hem, if needed. All the girls have learned at least a little sewing, starting with some sort of teach-yourself-to-sew book. Katie and Carrie actually enjoy it and have gone on to make several garments beyond ones we've made for school. We make pajamas, summer shorts, and skirts usually, as well as craft items, curtains, and table runners. We aren't terribly skilled, but I want the girls to have enough elementary knowledge to be able to go to a high level later if they need to for economy's sake after they are married and have children.

Managing a home, learning to manage money, and managing time are all important skills and the girls are required to read some books about those subjects during high school. Since my books are all old and probably out of print, I won't list any, but there are lots of good books available that cover those areas. We make a grocery store price book as a project sometime during high school, too, and the girls help me plan meals, make grocery lists, find bargains, and shop. The girls help me extensively around the house and learn many home management skills this way. And when they are 16, they must begin buying their own clothes, pay for 1/2 their braces and work toward paying their own car insurance, so they have to figure out ways to make money, hopefully by having their own business. My goal is for each girl to have some sort of skill they could use to supplement their husband's income while staying home with their children.

Hospitality is not a suggestion, but a commandment from God for leaders in the church. We read books about hospitality and ettiquette as part of home ec. Then we practice by having company.

We try to keep a clean house and as a part of that the girls read Speed Cleaning. The kids progress up through cleaning jobs so that by the time they finish high school they can clean anything, do laundry, and iron.

All these skills have paid off, both for the kids at home and my adult sons who are now able to help their wives by doing laundry, ironing their own clothes, cleaning house, and cooking meals. When I was expecting Thomas and Abby, Katie and Joshua had to buy groceries a few times to without my help and they basically ran the house for awhile. I know that my daughters-in-love appreciate what their husbands have learned and I have confidence that when the girls and Thomas get married, they will know some basic things about keeping house.

Daily Routine

During the school year, our day begins pretty early.

It's important to me to have some quiet time before the day begins, so I usually get up around 5:30 AM. I do my Bible study and prayer time and shower. A couple of the children like to get up very early, too, to have personal time or start on school work while it's quiet. The children, except Abby and Thomas, get up at 6. We have family Bible time and then one person starts breakfast while one gets in the shower and the others go back to their quiet time. After breakfast, we study our Proverbs verse and pray. Sometimes we work on some scripture memory. Then everyone begins morning chores and gets dressed.

Around 9 AM, we start our book work. Those who can, work independently until their turn with me. I usually begin with the youngest and get her work out of the way so she can go and practice fiddle and play or listen to a book on tape. While she's working on her independent work, I work with Thomas, who has (hopefully) finished math. I usually finish with his 3Rs before time to cook lunch and he goes to practice fiddle. Sometimes I have a few minutes to work with Carrie, but I usually get to her after lunch.

A couple of the children have after-lunch chores and do those before starting schoolwork again. After lunch, I finish up with Carrie, do FIAR with Abby, and history and science with Carrie and Thomas, check papers and see how the older girls are coming along, finishing up around 3:30 or 4:00. My high schoolers set their own schedule, so they may work on into the evening if they aren't finished with the day's work. Even though it looks like every child works from 9-4, actually it's ME who's busy that long - the younger kids have breaks to do other things while they are waiting for me to do the next thing with them.

I fix my planbook so that most of the children can mark off subjects are they complete them and a quick glance shows me what has been accomplished. I like to plan for the week, instead of for each day, so we can be more flexible with which subjects get done which day. This especially helps on days when we have interruptions so the whole schedule isn't down the drain. We usually start with math every morning, then follow with reading/language/spelling, etc. I like to read history, science, and FIAR after lunch.

A few years ago, I tried a timed schedule, but that simply doesn't work for us. We have too many other things in life that happen everyday - sometimes unexpectedly, and having a certain amount of time for each thing made me feel very stressed. We are much happier with a good routine and only the time set for getting up, family Bible, school time, lunch, night chores, and bedtime.

Oh, one hint that has helped me tremendously. If there's something you're forgetting to do or have trouble getting in every day, hook it to something that's always consistent. For several years, I couldn't seem to ever get to Bible with the kids, but when I hooked it to breakfast, which we never skip, it became very easy to be consistent with it.

The Process of Planning

I'm posting this because someone asked....

Here's the process I use to plan our school year.

• At the end of the calendar year, I start thinking about what I like that we're using and what needs to be changed. I start making a list of what I would like to use with each child and looking at catalogs/internet.
• When school is out for the year, I re-read some homeschooling books and do some research on the internet. This is when I start seriously praying.
  
• I clean out the school boxes and the bookshelves and sometimes find things I've forgotten I had. :)
  
• I make a list of books to buy and school supplies we'll need.
• I made a page for each child, listing what I'm using, my goals, and notes to myself. This fits into a section of my DayTimer. I also have a page of encouraging quotes and articles which I've copied and pasted to re-read during the year when I need a pick-me-up.
  
• Start purchasing books and supplies.
  
• Clean out my desk, where I have file folders for each child's daily paperwork. Clean out the supply drawer. I bundle up all each child's work and label it with the grade and year, along with the grade sheets I turn in for my school file and my planbook pages (I keep the whole thing for a year, then keep a few samples from each grade until the child graduates).
• Make a list of composers, artists, and sewing projects and make a page for my Daytimer.
  
• Look through the math books, plan which units I want to use in IEW, figure out about 4 FIAR books to begin with, look at our science and history, planning it out if necessary, put together a plan for some subjects, like the geography we're putting together for Carrie and the science I have planned for Thomas. Choose readers and figure out Bible for each child. I buy some books that are reproducible (Daily Grams, for one) and I make copies for about a month's worth of work.
• Make a new chore chart and start training the children in their new jobs to cut down on stress at the beginning of school.
• Some years, I use the MOTH schedule grid and Post-It notes to make a grid of everyone's daily work so I can see how I'm going to get it all done in a day. However, our day works better with a regular routine instead of a timed schedule.
  
• Print planbook pages, which my husband designed to fit into my DayTimer. I write down the first month's school plan, then I plan in detail the first week's work. I always have the general plan for 4-6 weeks, then I plan more in detail every week for the next week. Make my library list, using the online card catalog. We usually "ease" into school, starting with either read-alouds or the subjects we like best and then adding a subject or two over the span of the month until we're up to speed.
  
• We do 6 weeks on/2 weeks off, so Week One, Two, Four, and Five are regular schoolwork weeks. Week Three is Arts Week and Week 6 is Read-aloud Week. The elementary and junior high kids have math 3 days per week, language 3 days per week, history and science 2 days per week, Bible and music practice 5 days per week, individual Bible time with me 2 days per week. Currently, we are off on Monday with my husband, who is a pastor. We have school Tuesday through Saturday. Groceries, errands, library, and fiddle lessons are on Thursday. Not everyone goes with me on errands, so the ones left at home work on schoolwork. Tuesday and Wednesday are our "big" school days and most of our work is finished by Friday afternoon. Saturday is a catch-up school day and getting ready for Sunday. Friday or Saturday is housecleaning. The high school students are scheduled for most subjects to be done 4 days per week, with Bible and music practice 5 days. They are self-governed with regards to their schedule.

School Planning and Prayer

I've always prayed for what I'm going to use for school- prayed about general school plans, prayed about how to solve various learning problems, asked God to help me with each child's curriculum.

But last year I became very discontented with the direction school was taking. I spent a lot of time thinking and praying about the whole school thing. I wanted it to be even more of a lifestyle than it is. I wanted to stop doing things just to be doing them and I wanted school time to be more satisfying for all of us. I stole time wherever I could for a few weeks and thought and prayed about what my dreams for each child were. What was my vision for my time with each child? What did I want to be sure we didn't miss doing? What was truly important? What priorities should I have? What was in God's mind about each little person who He's given to us? I prayed and waited for the Holy Spirit to speak to me and I really listened.

The Lord was faithful to speak! I wrote down a short list of dreams for each child and as I look back over them at the end of the year, I see that we did, in fact, enjoy and accomplish almost each thing on the lists. Here's Abby's list from the past year: Plenty of hands-0n learning, read character building stories, have plenty of snuggle time and nature study, appreciate art and music and learn to do more things around the house. Thomas: Continue to work on character, appreciate art and music. Carrie: Sew more and work on her cooking.

While we were on vacation last week, I was able to spend part of each morning praying about a variety of things, among them my goals and dreams for the upcoming year. The Lord spoke several things to me about each child and I'm still thinking about those things, but for each child, I have words of wisdom and ideas from the Lord especially fitted for him or her.

I keep a section in my planner where I make a page for each child and list each subject and what we're going to be using for each. I make little notes to myself to help me remember all those great ideas I come up with over the summer and notes about what I want to remember to do with that child in the future. And I write down my dreams and goals to encourage myself to stay on the path that I feel the Lord has laid out for us.

Praying for our children is so important and there's much, much more to it than simply praying about school. What I'm talking about is just one tiny part. But I want to encourage you to pray about everything, not just the big stuff. It's hard to hear the voice of the Lord in the every day noise, but it's so worth it.

Last school planning post!

OK, I'm sure from the number of comments on the other posts, that everyone out there is just waiting with baited breath for another exciting post about my school plans for each child! This is the LAST ONE! Well.....I might write something about how I do my planning, just because someone asked. But, I assure you, there will be no more long, dull posts with lists of curriculum and musings from me!


Emily is going to be a senior this next year! What an exciting time for her!

We are still figuring out exactly what her year will entail, but right now here's what is planned:

• English: IEW essay unit.
• Science: Advanced biology, studying for and taking the biology CLEP test.
• Government and economics: Clarence Carson's government text and all the Uncle Eric books.
• Math: MUS Geometry, plus study for the algebra CLEP.
• PE/Health: Exercise everyday and help me figure out some healthier foods to feed our family.
• Music: Hopefully, we can find a piano teacher but until then she will work on it on her own and continue playing guitar with the family band.
• Bible: She has enjoyed reading some of David's books, especially since she plans to go into the ministry. She also enjoys helping David with worship planning and conducting services. David will direct her Bible studies again this next year.

Finished!

Plans for Anna

Back from the grocery stores and the library and thought I'd post about Anna today.

Anna will be in 10th grade next year and planning is well under way!

She has enjoyed reading David's books for her Bible this year and will continue on in that vein since he has lots of books she hasn't read yet.

Her English will be to work on another IEW unit and make a science notebook.

She will be finishing American history, using Beautiful Feet's American History for High School. She reads the books, then we either discuss the questions or she write report for some of the more in-depth questions.

For science, we're planning to do Apologia Chemistry and make a notebook instead of taking the tests. I've found that she retains the information better with a notebook than regurgitating the info for a test and then tossing it out of her brain.

She's almost finished with algebra I and will do algebra II, using Math Relief videos. We like those because the teacher explains things so thoroughly.

We will continue to work on her cooking skills (she's learning to cook our main meal, which is lunch and has a couple of days a week to cook breakfast). She needs to learn to sew a bit better and we'll try to fit that into our Arts Week, when Carrie sews, too.

She'll keep on with fiddle lessons and we're hoping to find someone to teach our family Spanish so we can use it for high school credit.

School Planning for Carrie

It's raining here today. We just managed to get the corn and peas planted yesterday afternoon and are hoping they have not washed away.

Today is ironing and working on plans for our vacation next week, a bit of sewing, and a bit of baking. And a little more work on school plans.

I can't believe Carrie has completed 6th grade and will start 7th in July! And in November, I'll have another teen (actually for a couple of days, we'll have *4* teens!).

Carrie and I finished our Beautiful Girlhood notebook and we'll start a new one for How to Be a Lady by Harvey Newcomb. She enjoyed using pretty stickers and paper to make a notebook with favorite quotes from the book and corresponding Bible verses and I'll stock up on some new things for the new notebook.

She also enjoys cooking and sewing and we'll keep those up, moving to cakes next and starting some new sewing projects. We need to add typing and she'll continue with fiddle and psaltery. She'll take on some new household chores, too, to better prepare her to be a wife and mother someday.

For language, we'll stay with Easy Grammar and Daily Grams and IEW. Instead of Sequential Spelling, we'll start English From the Roots Up.

She'll move up to the Zeta book in Math U See.

I'm separating Thomas and her this next year for history and science. I'm planning a big geography/science course using a unit study Rachel is writing using Around the World in 80 Days, Around the World in 180 Days, The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Book by Maggie Hogan, and various books and a BJU textbook. We will be doing the work in Around the World in 180 Days, plus doing research, projects, cooking, maps, and minit books using Around the World in 80 Days. I think she'll enjoy this unit very much.

Rachel and I are still in the midst of working on this project and I have to buy supplies for our notebooks/minit books for geography as well as her character notebook. We need to decide what she'll be sewing first and get the material and notions. Everything else is already planned and I don't have to buy any curriculum for her this year.

I'm looking forward to schooling with my smiley girl!

Science with Thomas

I wanted to talk a little more about my plans for Thomas' science for next year.

I looked at the scope in the back of my Beyond manuals to see which books have the topics we would be most interested in. I've chosen Neil Armstrong and Thomas Edison.

Thomas used Neil Armstrong for a reader last year and enjoyed it because he likes airplanes. We live not too far from NASA in Huntsville, Alabama, and David has been talking about taking him there to visit the museum. And this book includes a lot of astronomy, which we are woefully deficient in.

I've chosen Thomas Edison just because of the sheer volume of science included in this unit study. And it includes a lot of info about electricity, which should be exciting for him.

I went through each unit and decided which science lessons we will try to do. I want to help him create a notebook with illustrations (he loves to draw), minit books, and short writing assignments. We will do experiments in addition to the lessons in the manual and I'll take pictures for his notebook. I looked through the experiment books I already own and found some for each topic and made a list of what we'll need to carry them out, plus I made a list of supplies and books needed for each chapter. Most things can be found at Walmart or our library or are books I already own.

I also have a list of books about different inventors which tie in to a lot of the chapters in Thomas Edison and I'll try to ILL some of these to use for readers. And we may read aloud other nature/science/inventor books, too, during read aloud weeks.

If you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!

School Planning for Thomas

It's raining here - perfect for cooking and working around the house. We are changing our church service time to an hour earlier with Sunday School following, so I need to spend the day getting everything ready. We are having taco salad and cranberry date bars for lunch tomorrow and will do most of the prep today and make the dessert. Katie has peach sorbet mixed up, ready to freeze, and I have David's Blue Bell in the freezer. We cleaned the house yesterday and I ironed earlier in the week, so I thought I might deep clean somewhere today - maybe the small bathroom so we can still have time to pop in a movie this afternoon or read to Abby! I love a rainy day, don't you?

I'm continuing to work on planning for next year.

Thomas has learned so much this past year in 4th grade. I can see much improvement in his reading, which has been such a concern. He learned his multiplication tables, too, and he has enjoyed reading about missionaries as a part of Bible.

This next year he'll be in 5th grade.

For reading, I'm planning to use real books instead of a reader. I have looked at the list of readers for Sonlight and I think we'll start there, since we own some of the books. We'll continue with Explode the Code to help him with phonics. Sequential Spelling is perfect for him because it teaches him to spell based on patterns in words. He has come a long way since we started using it and we'll continue with the program. We will switch to a different level of Daily Grams and perhaps move to a new unit in our Institute for Excellence in Writing program. I'm planning to add Easy Grammar, too.

He'll move up to the Delta book in Math U See and will begin division.

He'll join Abby for another round of TruthQuest American History for Young Students. He loves to be read to and this program is a good fit for our family since it's basically a reading list. Normally, we leave off the writing part, but we may add it for him this year, since he enjoys writing.

Science has always been a problem for me. I've never been able to hit on just the right thing and, frankly, it's not my favorite subject (I'd rather be reading history!). Since Thomas is interested in science, particularly inventors, I've been thinking about how to better teach this subject. I think I've come up with a good plan for him.

I've looked at the manuals for Beyond Five in a Row, which I already own, and have chosen a few books which are strong in the area of science. I'm going to work on a plan where we will read one of the books and do only the science part of the unit. We'll probably start with Thomas Edison. This summer, I'll map out the book and gather the supplemental books and materials I'll need so we'll be ready to go with only a minimum amount of work for me during the school year.

For Bible, he's already told me he wants to read some more missionary books. He has started reading his Bible in the mornings on his own and I'll encourage him to keep a prayer journal by buying a nice one for him to use. This past year we've been learning to pray with the ACTS pattern and I think he can go solo now.

For extras, I'd like to add typing, we'll work on art and music appreciation, he'll continue with drawing lessons on his own, and he'll keep up fiddle lessons.

It's challenging and fun to teach a wiggly, noisy, creative boy!

School Planning for Abby

We've accomplished quite a bit this week: planted more in the garden, deep cleaned the laundry room, Thomas' room, and one of the bathrooms, switched out the winter clothing, and worked on vacation plans and school plans.

One of my favorite activities in the winter and spring - planning for the upcoming school year!

Abby will be in the 2nd grade next year. Where has my baby gone??? She's doing so well with her reading and math. She begs to work on Five in a Row. She loves learning and having school. What a fun student to have!

Here is what I have planned for 2nd grade, so far:

Language Arts: Reading with Pathway readers - she'll be in one of the 2nd grade readers. As a part of reading, I had been planning to use Explode the Code with her, simply because I've been using it with Thomas, but I see she really won't need it. We will work on reading fluently and won't start spelling until 3rd grade, which is my usual plan. I think she'll be able to start on some writing using the Institute for Excellence in Writing program - we'll only work on Units 1 & 2. For handwriting, we'll start cursive using A Reason for Writing, which I already own. And this next year, we'll start some dictation, probably using our current Five in a Row book. Abby has been narrating her Bible stories and we'll probably continue in that vein this upcoming year, since it's something she enjoys doing and I enjoy having a part in.

Math: Math U See Beta. In case I haven't said it before - WE LOVE MUS!!

History: In our home, history is our favorite subject. Thomas has been through the TruthQuest American History for Young Students with Carrie, but he was about Abby's age when he started it, so he'll go through it again with Abby. I'm working on buying the books I don't already own or the library doesn't have and I'm excited about using this read-aloud program with a new student.

Science: The only science we will do is our Five in a Row science lessons. Along with daily living, it's plenty.

Five in a Row is a given. It's so much fun to do this with my youngest daughter! Normally, I don't plan the books far in advance, since I like to choose a book that goes along with whatever is happening at our house at the moment. I'll choose the first couple of books right before school begins and plan out the lessons, activities, and meal and make my shopping list for little supplies we might need.

Bible: I'm planning to continue with Bible stories and character stories. This year we've been using the stories from the Just for Kids Bible, then she colors a picture which I print from Calvary Chapel's website (extensive!), she narrates the story on the back of the paper and we put it into a notebook to make her own Bible story book. We're almost finished with that book and will probably try to use my husband's old Egermeir Bible Story book. We like story books from Rod and Staff for character instruction and own several which we will continue reading daily. In addition to the things I do only with Abby, she takes part in family prayer times, our daily study of Proverbs (we study in depth one verse a day from the chapter corresponding with the date), and scripture memorization.

We will continue with the ever-popular read aloud weeks and fine arts weeks, which includes art and music appreciation. And she'll continue fiddle lessons with sister Rachel, hopefully entering her first competition in October.

At some point during summer vacation, I'll work on the chore chart and she'll get a few more chores. She will continue to learn to cook, too.

The only things on my shopping list for her are the books we'll use for TruthQuest.

While I'm off school, I'll look through the new math book, look at what I want to do for the first few weeks with IEW, TruthQuest, and FIAR, figure out exactly which Bible story book will work best for narration, and read up on dictation, since I haven't done this with Thomas, and plan the first lessons we'll do, clean out her school box and put the new books in, along with some new pencils and erasers and a notebook for dictation, and start planning the year's fine arts weeks. I'll think about what chores to add to her day and think about which things she needs to learn to cook (I'll post about general home ec plans later). I'll make a page for my planner notebook which lists all her subjects and my plans for the year and I'll prepare the new planbook and work on plans for the first month or so.