Let's Talk: Planning for NEXT year

@Tristan, my son is pretty much doing it on his own (we’re going over his work today, we have a “meeting” once a week, or so) but I like it very much from what I’ve seen. I’ll know more later 🙂 He’s using Windows to the World for literary analysis and I love it. I think the author of Power in…has a lit analysis program (and many other publishers) and we may have used that if I hadn’t already ordered and really liked Windows to the World.  Whatever he doesn’t finish this year, he’ll finish up next with those two programs.

It’s so sad that I’ll be planning his last year soon. He’s ready, which I guess is what happens and what you want to happen, but it’s still sad. I keep asking him for one more year but he’s not going for it. LOL

ugg, I tried to cut and paste and things went bad.  I’ll try again later

I loved reading these literature selections for an older student of American History!

I thought I had next year pretty well planned, but I’m at a loss about what to do for LA. I was thinking of using LLATL, but even though I like certain aspects of it, I’m realizing it’s not quite what I want. I’d like to go a more CM route, but even though that seems so simple, when I start trying to plan the specifics, I find myself going in circles, uncertain of what to use. I need open and go, do it myself ends up being doesn’t get done. I have one kid using spelling you see and liking it. I’m hoping the ‘chunking’ will help her, she has a hard time visualizing words. I had bought it for both kids, but then ended up using LLATL with my oldest. This week I’m having him use SUS since I have it and am no longer sure I want to use LLATL. It’s easy, it’s open and go. I’m hoping that the switch from LLATL to SUS will give us time to work on written narrations once a week. BUT I’m not sure I want to continue with SUS next year. I’d like their copy work to be in cursive, which SUS is not. They both need to have that cursive model to continue working on their cursive. Right now I’m leaning towards ELTL simply for the ease of having vertical cursive copy work pre done for me. Having done one level of SUS (jack and Jill), I could probably continue the chunking with any copy work we use.

Also, I thought I was set for math. MUS for all! I even picked up a copy of MUS primer textbook and DVD for my 5yo. Then realized it was going to cost me $42 for the workbook, including tax and shipping. In the meantime a copy of right start level A, second edition teachers manual and first edition worksheets came my way. I was going to go with MUS primer, just to keep things simple, but now I have this that I know my little guy would do better with and it’s free. Sooo… I’m going to give it a shot. I figure I’ll try it for the rest of this year. If it doesn’t work out, in the fall I put him in alpha. If it’s going fine, I can spread level A over next year, his official kindergarten year, too. That way it doesn’t have to be done every day. Past that I’m not planning. He could either go into alpha in first grade, or it’ll be going so well (and the baby will be turning 4 by then, which makes a big difference not having a little one) that I will stick with it. As I  have been looking it over, I’m thinking if I keep it laid back and include the 2yo in the play/lessons, then it could go really well.

Hello all! I am completely new to the Charlotte Mason world. My boys and I (I have 3) are anxious and excited to start next school year with Charlotte Mason.

As I am reading everyone’s responses, I feel like what I thought I knew thus far about my next year’s schedule is bare to none. If there are any moms who can offer any kind of help or some walk through or some collaboration with setting up a “curriculum” would be much appreciated and welcome.

I do, though, have  a very basic idea of what my boys and I will be doing. But it just doesn’t seem as detailed as everyone else’s. Advice…? Please?

I finally found a Latin program.  🙂  We’ll be going with Visual Latin.  It counts as a Latin 1 credit, yet I think I’ll be able to use it with the younger DC as well.  I may have my 9th grader go through it at a fast pace though.

@Rachel,

which online course are you using for literature?

I thought it would be fun to revisit the plans that we all made in January and see how much has changed since then! My plans have changed quite a bit.

We will still be doing Math U See Algebra but I think I’ve changed plans for every other subject!

We are doing Apologia Biology and Classical Astronomy this year instead of Physical Science. I am just planning on switching back and forth whenever we feel the need for a change. We’ve already started both of these and are enjoying each one very much!

For our history studies I’ve decided to use Sweet Land of Liberty by Charles Coffin as our spine instead of Stobaugh’s history text. I still plan on using many of the books I listed for history. I may pare down a bit as a few of the books are very long and very detailed. I just finished reading John Adams by Catherine Drinker Bowen and it was very detailed and oh so good! It took me a long time to get through but I’m so glad I persevered and finished it!

I’m not sure about our artist study. We are in the middle of studying the picture portfolio for Da Vinci and I’m not sure what we’ll do after that. My daughter started Artistic Pursuits for Senior High book 1 and it covers art appreciation as well as art instruction. I will probably add in more picture portfolios at some point; I’m just not sure which ones. We are really hoping that some new ones will be released soon as we would are tired of studying Middle Age and Renaissance artists and have already covered all of the other selections. On a different note, I am very pleased with Artistic Pursuits. My daughter is enjoying it and doing very well with it so far.

We have been working through a writing curriculum called Hands On Essays for the past couple of months. My daughter ended up skipping most of the videos because she found them a bit childish but the guide has been very helpful. It is exactly what we needed. I wanted something short, sweet and to the point and that is what I got with this program. My daughter is practicing the various types of essays throughout this week and then we will go back to mostly written narrations with an essay thrown in here and there for good measure. I plan on going through this book every year as a quick review.

I have a literature list somewhere but I can’t remember all of it off the top of my head. I know that I am having her read A Tale of Two Cites, The Scarlett Pimpernel, Little Men or Little Women, and several more that I can’t remember at the moment. She will use a Boomerang literature guide as she reads through A Tale of Two Cities.

We have been using Visual Latin for a few months now and it is going really well. Both of us are very pleased with this program. I plan on using it in conjunction with Lingua Latina for her high school foreign language credits.

We are using a course that I found free online that is an overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelations for Bible study. I found it on kindle for 99 cents and bought that version for ease of use. It was written about 100 years ago and we are liking it a lot. We are also using the GOAL method in our personal Bible reading. We are still loving the SCM scripture memory system!

We have been using Simply Spelling for copywork, dictation and brief grammar instruction for over a year now and I plan on continuing until we have completed the entire program. I think my daughter will finish it this year if things go as planned. Many students won’t need to continue copywork into highschool but my daughter wants to continue so that is our plan.

Hymn study and composer study have fallen by the wayside. Nature study as well. We listen to hymns, sing hymns and my daughter plays hymns but we don’t study them formally. The same goes for classical music except for the singing part. 😉 We enjoy nature, take lots of nature walks and consult our field guides regularly but we aren’t keeping nature notebooks.

We just finished studying Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I may count that as our Shakespeare for 9th grade and hold off until 10th before studying another play.

I was planning on continuing with Plutarch but I’ve been thinking lately about switching Plutarch out for missionary biographies. My thinking is that I am more concerned with helping my child to focus on being a good  citizen of God’s kingdom rather than man’s. Any person whose goal is to be fit for Heaven will certainly meet goals to be fit for any nation. I know that it is only Christ’s sacrifice that truly makes us fit for Heaven. I guess I am thinking along the lines of sanctification. I am thinking missionary biographies and biographies of great men and women of God might be a good choice instead of Plutarch. It’s so hard to fit everything in and I want to make sure that I am prioritizing according to God’s will and not my own (or even Charlotte Mason’s!).

We are using SCM’s Visits To series for geography and plan on continuing with them. We like them very much.

My daughter also takes weekly piano lessons and practices daily.

How have your plans changed since January?