2010-2011 Curriculum Plans

My self-challenge for this school year is to use as many of the resources we already have on hand or items we can get from the library. This has turned out to be much easier that I first thought it would be. Also, with a new baby (1 month old today!), we will be slowly working back to our full-time schedule. We have been doing history for a couple weeks now, next week we will add in math, and so on.

We homeschool using the Charlotte Mason style and I get curriculum ideas from Ambleside Online, Milestone's Academy (LDS Charlotte Mason curriculum), Simply Charlotte Mason, and other homeschoolers, and then weave all those together with resources I feel will work best for our family.

Scripture Study- We are using the Discover the Scriptures: Old Testament Grades 1-3 for Old Testament Stories through the end of this year. I was worried Old Testament Grades 4-7 would be too challenging, but have since decided Grades 1-3 is too simple for my kids. We read the scripture stories when A & N were around 3-4 years old and have been reading directly from the scriptures since then. In 2011 we will begin Discover the Life of Christ and then follow with Discover the Acts of the Apostles.

Character Building- The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennet, A Story to Tell: The Classic Book of Virtues for Children, Teaching Your Children Joy and Teaching Your Children Values by Linda & Richard Eyre, and Friend magazine.

Copywork- The kids will be practicing their handwriting through the writing they do in other subjects like Scripture Study, Science and History. There are also lots of free online resources for copywork, such as the Yahoo!Group LDSCopywork and Homeschool Freebie of the Day.

Grammar- We will be using Milestones: English for the LDS Child Level A (free download) or First Language Lessons. We won't be completely using either program - just reading through the grammar exercises together.

Math- We are currently working through Math-U-See's Beta . We have been going at a very slow pace with math to make sure they are mastering the skills before we move on.

Literature- We will be making selections from the Milestone's Academy Year 4 or Ambleside Online's Year 4 suggested chapter books.

Poetry- I have a variety of anthologies we will read from, such as The Oxford Book of Story Poems and Sing a Song of Popcorn. I also like to pick poems that go with what we are studying in other subjects. For example, we are studying the American Revolution now, and we read Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to go along with that event.

Shakespeare- I've picked 4 plays that we will be learning about this year: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, As You Like It, and The Winter's Tale. We read from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit and Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. I also like to find a few picture books from the library that help give the kids an idea of how the plays look. And we like to watch Shakespeare: The Animated Tales, a DVD series we can get through our library (See a Squidoo lens here).

History- Right now my kids are in love with PBS's Liberty Kids TV show. Its available on Netflix Instant Watch. There is also a website here. We watch the shows, the kids narrate by drawing pictures in their history journals or verbally to me, and we put important people and events on a timeline poster. I also add in things here and there as it seems important, like Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow or Patrick Henry's speech.

When we finish with this we will continue reading The Story of the World Volume 2 where we left off last year, narrating, journaling, and keeping a timeline as we go. We will also be reading some biographies and historical fiction- D'Aulaire's George Washington, and any others as they come up/occur to me. I like to check the Simply Charlotte Mason History Module details for suggestions.

My kids also participate in Liberty Girls and Knights of Freedom - book clubs that read historical fiction (American Girl- Josefina, and The Childhood of Famous Americans- ???) and do related activities at club meetings twice a month.

Geography- My kids have a great interest in the Oregon Trail right now so I have been trying to find a book for us to read and map as we go, but haven't found just the right one yet. If I don't find one we will read Minn of the Mississippi and make maps of the turtle's journey.

Nature Study/Science- I am excited to get back to doing Handbook of Nature Study's weekly challenges. We will probably jump in with current challenges, and then slowly work on the ones we have missed the last month or so. For Science we will be doing Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I decided to splurge for this subject this year and purchase the Notebooking Journal and a science kit too.

Composer Study- I haven't decided if we are going to do composers this year- if we do it will be Handel, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, & someone else. We have been listening to Stories in Music: Peter and the Wolf, which the kids have enjoyed. We've read a couple versions of the story from the library, listened to a couple different versions, and watched a couple different cartoons. So we might do some more of this CD series, like The Sorcerer's Apprentice and The Story of Swan Lake. We'll see.

Artist Study- A friend in our homeschool group has decided to host an Artist Study class this semester that my kids are going to try out. The artist she has chosen is Renoir. I like to purchase Taschen Portfolio's for Artist Study, but there isn't one for Renoir, so I am going to purchase a 2011 Calendar to supplement the class. I know there are past calendars that are cheaper, but I'm getting this one because none of the pictures are nudes (personal preference). I'm also going to get one for Degas- 2011 Calendar. I haven't decided who else we will study this year.

I know this seems like a lot, but most subjects are only done one or two times a week, and we stick with Charlotte Mason's idea of short lessons, 15-20 minutes for each subject.

We are taking a break

On July 1st we welcomed a beautiful new baby into our family (who is suddenly crying in the other room so this will be short!) I am taking the rest of July off to rest, recover, recuperate, and find a "new normal" for our family.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!!

Interesting Articles

A couple articles I've recently read that are very thought provoking -

Misery Loves Company and Wants to be Passed Down



The Public Schools' Parents Guice to Homeschool Parents

Spring Series #10 - Ants

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Spring Series #10 - Ants

ANTS! ANTS! ANTS!
We spent part of a morning reading from our nature guides and from the Handbook of Nature Study. The kids also worked on their nature journals. We have had many ant sightings over the last couple weeks.

This past week there were a couple swarms of ants in our yard-
We have also been finding Carpenter Ants in our yard-
On a walk we found some red ants-
On a different walk we stopped to feed some ducks first - I love how "feeding the ducks" also means cramming as much popcorn as possible in their own mouths :)

After the ducks we continued our search for ants and found these brown ants.

Getting a closer look-

Journal pages - I printed off a chart of the ant life cycle and a diagram of the ant's anatomy for them to put into their journals.

N's-

A's-

Then we found this lovely Carpenter Ant in our house - the summer invasions have begun!!

Spring Series #9 - Earthworms

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Spring Series #9 - Invertebrates Study: Earthworms

We have had so much fun this week catching up with the challenges. We really love doing these and I've decided we are going to come up with a way for us to spend more time on Nature Study next year. There are lots of challenges that we haven't done yet (10-43), so maybe we'll make a long-term catching up project out of them.

Over the holiday weekend my girls and I went for a walk in Idaho while it was raining. They were amazed at the number of worms on the sidewalk and tried rescuing them for a while (tossing them into the grass so they wouldn't end up dried out on the sidewalk), but soon realized there were just too many. For the younger two it was the first time they dared to touch and hold worms - they were very brave!

Today we visited Squirmin' Herman and then headed to our backyard to make a Worm Jar. We layered dirt, sand, and uncooked oatmeal - oh the questions!! Why sand? I thought worms don't like sand! Why oatmeal? Will they really eat it? What if it dries out?

Then it was time to dig!! We found almost all the worms in the part of our yard that was still really wet from the sprinklers and in the shade. I don't know if this really makes a difference, but we talked about how it might.

The first worm we found - we tried to identify all the different parts.

We found two worms in the process of mating. Nothing like first-hand experience to really cement what you read about!

Lots of different sizes!

My daughter put this tiny one on her finger.

Inside we filled out the first notebook page I found in Homeschool Creations Earthworm Challenge post - Thank you for sharing!

And then we made a dark paper cover to put on our jar and placed it on the counter where it will spend the next couple weeks.

We had so much fun being outside and learning about these favorite creatures. We do love the Outdoor Hour Challenges - Thank you so much Barb!!!

Spring Series #8 - Reptiles: Snakes

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Spring Series #8 - Reptiles: Snakes

This morning we discussed several snakes that are found in our area - we used the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Reptile page. I also learned that there are 6 different species of rattlesnakes in Utah - I love learning new things! Then we focused on Garter snakes and I read from the Handbook of Nature Study. My kids have seen live garter snakes in our neighborhood a few times (which I didn't know about until they shared their stories with me this morning :) ). Afterwards we headed to a local pet store to look at their snakes. In addition to several other breeds, we were excited to see a garter snake.

When we came home I had the kids narrate their experiences to me and I wrote this in their nature journals. They chose to color pictures instead of drawing their own, so we printed some out from Enchanted Learning-Snakes. I was a little disappointed at how the pictures are so much alike, and not really like the individual species, but they worked.

N picked the Bull Snake.

A picked the rattlesnake

We also watched part of a video about Garter Snakes I remembered seeing on PBS - Parental Warning: the first 2 minutes are about the garter snakes hibernating together and swarming out in the spring, however, be aware that the remainder of the video is about their mating habits. It shows a live birth around 4:15.

Spring Series #7 - Mammal Study: Cats

Outdoor Hour Challenges - Spring Series #7 - Mammal Study: Cats

Even though I grew up with cats, I am now horribly allergic. We spent Memorial Day weekend at my parents' home, who have 2 cats. But my allergies make it hard enough to stay there without intentionally searching for the cats, who are usually hiding from my kids and our dog anyways.

Over the weekend we had some new neighbors move into the empty house behind us. For a day or so I could hear a kitten in their backyard meowing, but I thought it was trying to get used to a new home or they wanted it to stay outside. To my surprise, and the surprise of my new neighbors who don't have any pets, they found 4 kittens several weeks old in the backyard - the mom is a stray. A couple of them had fallen into a window well, resulting in the meowing for help. Another neighbor was able to take them until they can be adopted into families and she let us come visit.

While I did wish very much that we could take one of these sweet kittens home with us, after about 15 minutes I needed to leave and go home and change all my clothes and wash up really good. Its very sad :(

At home my older kids did a page in their nature journal and I shared some parts I had highlighted in the Handbook of Nature Study on cats.

Other recent outdoor adventures:

We have had several sightings of a male Lazuli Bunting on our back porch. We hope to get a picture soon.

Many of the flowers in our yard are starting to bloom - the Columbine plants are especially beautiful and vibrant.

In Idaho we spent some time at the river feeding the birds.

The wildflowers on a nearby trail are starting to bloom - the kids are always so happy to see the daisies!

With the new season we also get to see some not-so-welcome guests returning, including the black widows.