In some way our homeschool is taking a wildly different direction this year and in many ways it is very much the same.
The main differences for this year are:
First, Austin and Nyah are enrolled with My Tech High, an online charter school. They are both required to take 4 courses through My Tech High & it's affiliates. We were able to choose classes based on their interests and abilities, and based on what MyTech High offers.
Austin is doing ALEKS for math, Computer Literacy through e2020, Intro to Robotics through My Tech High, and Beautiful Feet's Medieval History.
Nyah is doing Teaching Textbooks & DreamBox for math (I love love LOVE Teaching Textbooks - first year EVER Nyah and I are not fighting about math), Digital Media Foundations & Brainpop through My Tech High, art classes through our local rec center, and Beautiful Feet's History of the Horse.
Second, our family has joined a new commonwealth school in our area which is in it's first year - Southwest Commonwealth. Our kids are involved in the junior clubs - these are clubs we've previously done in our homeschool community, but are now doing through the commonwealth. I'm also a co-advisor for one of the clubs, and Kurt & I are participating in a monthly book club for the parents.
Austin is in Knights of Freedom and will be reading biographies of John Smith, Squanto, and William Bradford. Nyah is in Young Stateswoman and will be reading biographies of Pocahontas and Sacajawea, and Indian Captive: The story of Mary Jemison. Olivia is in Liberty Girls and I will be reading the American Girl Kaya books with her.
Third, I have 2 new students! Olivia is Kindergarten age and Jolie can't stand to be left out. They have been asking for demanding school work of their own. So, we have a circle time where we sing children's songs & do fingerplays, go through the calendar, and record the weather.
I have them making Alphabet books so I can make sure they recognize all their letters - they are using journals which are half-blank and half-lined. They put letter stickers on the top, practice writing the letters below, and then we look through magazines for the letter, cut & glue them onto the page. We'll move on to using Alpha-Phonics (and maybe Reading the Easy Way) when we finish the alphabet.
For math we are using Progress in Mathematics Kindergarten teacher's guide and workbook - a friend gave it to me and it's easy, with lots of games and hands-on activities. We also do some speech activities, mostly for Olivia, but its good for Jolie, too.
We are learning fairy tales - Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc. Each week I check out 3 or 4 versions of the same story to read together. Then we do an activity- acting it out, making puppets, etc. When we're done working together (and I need to work with Austin & Nyah) they spend time with busy-bags and other activities I have set aside for them to do during school time.
However, overall our homeschool looks very much the same as it always has- we get up, have breakfast, have devotional, and get started with school work. Monday through Thursday are spent working on the subjects I've listed above. On Fridays we have devotional, go over grammar, play madlibs, go over Scouts & Faith in God, do our composer study and nature study lessons, have end of the week meetings, email our weekly reports to MyTech High, and end with a picnic lunch at the park with homeschool friends.
Other resources for this year:
Devotional- We are using this Book of Mormon study guide, The 21 Rules of this House, and Prudence & the Millers (which I'm having to pre-read and edit this more than the other Miller books we've used).
Grammar - Simply Grammar and MadLibs
Composer Study - A coloring book of Great Composers: Bach to Berlioz. In the past we've used & loved Harmony Fine Arts art & music plans, but Austin & Nyah both have art tied in with their beautiful feet history guides, so we're trying something different this year. We focus on one composer each month - the coloring book include a short biography of the composers which we read together, we listen to cd's of the composer's music from the library, and that's it.
Nature Study - We are doing the challenges on the Handbook of Nature Study Blog. I'm hopeful I'll be better at posting the challenges on the blog this year.
And that's an over view of our school this year. If you have questions about anything - how we do something or whatever - ask away!
