Fall 2011 School

We are getting ready to start our new school year . . . in a couple weeks, but I'm feeling excited - our books arrived today, I spent the weekend getting notebooks ready and putting together a schedule - so I thought I'd share our {tentative} plans. 

Curriculum:

Devotional- We are continuing to read the New Testament using Penny Gardner's Storied Scriptures and The Book of Virtues.  I've decided to have A and N start a Scripture Study notebook where they will be making narrations of what we study and keeping any other pertinent papers.  

 Math - Math-U-See Gamma

 Handwriting Without Tears - Finishing up Cursive Handwriting and moving into the Cursive Success

. 

Literature - We will be adding Shakespeare and Plutarch this year, reading from the Milestone's and Ambleside Online's Year 5 suggested reading lists, and from our many poetry books. The plan is to do a lot more concert reading, something I learned about from the Milestone's Academy founder, so I tried to get enough copies of the books for each of us to have our own, or N and I will share. 

Science & Nature Study - Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 and experiment kit from Rainbow Resource, with a little supplementing from the Zoology Coloring Book.  Nature Study will be from the Handbook of Nature Study blog. 

 History & Geography - We will continue with The Story of the World (SOTW) Volume One: Ancient Times. I was able to get a great deal on the curriculum guide with some student pages so we will supplement with some notebook pages and activities, in addition to mapping, keeping a timeline, and narrations.  

Art & Music - We will continue using the Harmony Fine Arts (HFA) & Music lessons for Ancient Art and the Orchestra. On Fridays we will be doing art projects - pastels, watercolors, etc.

 Foreign Language - I am trying to add this in, but I've tried in the past and its always fallen to the side, so we'll see what happens this year.  We used to do a lot of sign language so I thought that would be easy to add to our schedule with Signing Time and Pick Me Up! From Songs for Learning Signs. My husband speaks Brazilian Portuguese so we are going to start learning some songs from Putamayo Kids Brazilian Playground.  They have a Teacher's Guide with song lyrics and translations. 

Preschool for O & J - These two want to do their own school work so much!! They have their own totes, notebooks, and pencil boxes, and are always asking for their own pages of school work. Despite my aversion toworksheet-like school, I decided to give Rod & Staff's ABC books a try.  We'll also be doing math games, art projects, and reading from the Before Five In A Row, Milestone's Year 0, and Ambleside Year 0 booklists. 

Organization:

 For each school subject, A and O have a notebook with tabs inside separating each sub-subject.  For each subject they will have notebook pages to write or draw their narrations on. 

 All their notebooks and other workbooks are kept in their totes. I have a couple more totes where I keep all the current books we are using together. 

Schedule:

This is a picture of the planner I've made to keep us on track.  On the left axis are the days of the week, and along the top are the different subjects. As we complete assignments I mark them with a highlighter to show they are done.

Monday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Shakespeare
Chapter book read aloud (RA)
Science
HFA - Art Lesson
Portuguese

Tuesday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Plutarch
RA
Nature Study
SOTW
Sign Language

Wednesday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Shakespeare
RA
Science
HFA - Music Lesson
Portuguese

Thursday
Devotional
Math
Handwriting
Shakespeare
RA
Nature Study
SOTW/Timeline
Sign Language

Friday
Devotional
Math Games
Handwriting
RA
Art Projects

Each day has the same general pattern -

Day starts around 7am - wake up & do personal scripture study
Get dressed, hair, etc.
Breakfast & clean up
Bedroom chores
Devotional, math, handwriting, personal reading - I work with O & J while A & N do their work
One or two more subjects, depending on time and attention spans
Morning break - we usually head outside to ride bikes or other PE type activity, and then come in for a quick snack
One or two more subjects, depending on time and attention spans
Lunch & Clean up
Family Work - folding laundry or cleaning zones in the house
Finish school work - done by 2pm at the latest
Free afternoons
Dinner & Clean up
Bedtime

Activities:

We are going to be doing swimming lessons for the fall.  A is doing Scouts and First Lego League. N does Acticity Days (a church group for girls 8-11) and possibly an art class. We'll have weekly activities with our homeschool group through September and then we'll do monthly activities through winter.  I'm in charge of our young women's church sports for our ward which will mean weekly games and possibly practices.  I've had talks with a few friends for a fall hiking group, but we'll see if it really happens. I'm trying to cut back on activities, but it doesn't really feel like that's going to happen!!!