Let's Talk: Planning for NEXT year

My plans have definitely changed!  I recently read through Latin-Centered Curriculum and feel really drawn toward it for several reasons.  It definitely fits my vision for high school.

Daily Lessons:

• Math: Still sticking with MUS
• Latin: Prima Latina for 1st & 4th graders, Visual Latin for 6th & 9th
• Literature: Farmer Boy, The Hobbit, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Paddington, Heidi, The 21 Balloons, The Bronze Bow, Poetry for the Grammar Stage (Memoria Press).  We’ll also be reading through MP’s 3rd grade read aloud books at a later time in the day.  It is a mix of picture & chapter books, so it should be a great for the wide range of DC I have.
• Language Arts: Still working on grammar, we’ll be adding Classical Composition for 4th and up.  Writing is one area where I’m deviating quite a bit from CM.
• piano lessons/practice

Weekly Lessons:

• Bible: A Bible History (Lutheran resource that includes a story, catechism review, Bible verse, and hymn for each week).
• History: States & Captials study (50 States & Where to Find Them), American history (Guerber’s Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Republic), D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths & Famous Men of Greece (9th grader will be using FM on her own).  FM wasn’t a good fit for us this year, but I want to give it another try.  I think it might go better as an independent read than a read aloud.  We’ll be doing notebook pages instead of the Memoria Press student workbooks, although I will be teaching a bit from the teacher guides.
• Science: Physics 101 DVDs for our “spine”.  CKE Physics for 6th and under, Apologia Physical Science for 9th grader (completing 1/2 the modules and using Physics 101 PDF/experiments for the rest)
• Morning Basket (I’ll probably rotate these items throughout the year and we’ll probably schedule these at lunch time): Outdoor Secrets, Harmony Fine Arts, chalk pastels.com lessons, LDTR for Children, As You Like It, Peril & Peace, Paper Sloyd & Compass Drawing

For my 1st grader:  She’ll be a bit more “on her own”, which should give her more play time.  She’s going to use MUS Alpha, McGuffey 1st reader alternated with HOD’s Emerging Reader Set, R&S Spelling & Penmanship for 2nd grade, CLP’s Bible Nuggets, Memoria Press’ 1st Grade Enrichment (this is similar to FIAR, but seems more “open & go”), and Prima Latina with the 4th grader.

Toddler: I picked up MP’s Preschool book, which looks great for his age!  Each week has a board book along with some activities.  It looks very age appropriate and should give him some things to do while the others are doing school.  Plus, I don’t have to search Pinterest for ideas of how to keep him busy!

Melanie, you could read the missionary book on the Sabbath if it is too much through the week.  I read these and Ivan stories by Myrna Grant or Patricia St. John books as special read aloud on the Sabbath.

Wings2fly-Thanks for the suggestion!

It’s funny to go back and read my plans and see how much has changed in so short a time. 😀

We are trying several new programs right now. We are doing a trial run with Tablet Class Algebra at Rachel’s recommendation-Thanks Rachel! I love Math U See but would like a bit more hand holding with higher level maths. I’m waiting to see if TC is the answer but so far we are loving it! The explanations are clear and detailed and really give us a can do feeling towards high school math. At the end of the video lessons, we both feel like we understand the lesson well. At the end of a Math U See Algebra lesson, we just feel like we might understand it partially. There is so much more to TB than Math U See. There are video lessons every day or every other day, depending on how you schedule the program. The videos are much longer and more detailed than Math U See as well. I am still a huge Math U See fan and it will always be my choice for K-8th but I’m just not so sure about high school. We will see how I feel at the end of our free trial month with TC.

My daughter has wanted to learn Japanese for a long time now but I haven’t wanted to make the investment in case she tires of it too quickly. Yesterday I found a free online high school Japanese program that is video based. It also teaches Japanese culture. We are trying that out and my daughter is really liking it so far. I can pull up the name if anyone is interested. I can’t remember it off hand-Georgia something or other.

We have switched back to Truthquest for history. I am still using many of the same history books as part of the Age of Revolution guide.

We are still using Apologia Biology along with Classical Astronomy. My daughter has now expressed an interest in marine biology so we have added that into our science rotation as well. We are using a free online video based program, a book called The Seaside Naturalist, the Ocean book from AIG, and a sea life nature guide. If my daughter still wants to delve deeper after completing these resources, I’ll buy the Apologia Marine Biology text for next year. If not, I will incorporate her studies into her biology credit and skip some of the Apologia Biology book.

I’ve also added a religious reading slot to our schedule and that is where I plug missionary biographies and nonfiction religious readings. So far my daughter has read The Little Woman by Gladys Aylward and is currently reading More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. Both have been wonderful.

We are continuing with Shakespeare and Plutarch but we have worked them into a weekly time slot in which we rotate some of the riches. So far we have completed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Leonardo Da Vinci picture portfolio for this portion of our studies. Next week we will begin a life from Plutarch.

I’ve also added in a living science book reading once a week. Right now my daughter is reading When Science Fails by John Hudson Tiner.

We’ve begun using Warren Wiersbe’s Be series for Bible studies and they are really helping us to think deeply about the scriptures and to spend more time in each chapter. I highly recommend them for high school students and adults. I pick them up when they are on sale for kindle for free or $0.99-$1.99.