May we do a: What are your plans for next year post?

Hi Des,

Our school year starts Sept. 1 and goes through the end of May.  We are required 180 days here in Mass.  We have a completely different summer schedule in which we put together our portfolio (presented to superintendent in August) as well as pursue a “multiplicity of interests.” 

I hope you and your family love going totally CM!

Richele

Hi Des,

  I have just started planning our next school year.  We do schooling year round starting in Sept. and going right through the summer.  We just take breaks when we need to for health and life reasons.  It works well for us but because I know that I will be busy through the summer with schooling still, I like to get a jump on planning for the next year.  So I start in the spring and if I need to take my time I know I have most of the summer to tweak things if needed.  So, this is not “official” yet but these are my plans so far.  Oh, I’ll be doing grades 1-3 starting in the fall.

  Family work:

 Bible/Hist/Geog.-Josh-Malachi;Ancient Greece;Middle East

Science- one of the elem. science coarses from Apologia/living books correlating to coarse material

Spanish- El Espanol Facil!

Canadian Studies- study history chronologically starting from “the Vikings” and also using the “Dear Canada” and the “Our Canadian Girl” books as well as other picture books from the library.

Scripture Memory- Scripture memory pack #2 from SCM guide

Literature- Module 2 from SCM. with a few revisions for books we have already read.

Poetry- read poems as part of our bedtime/literature time as a family from the book “Favorite Poems Old and New”

Picture Study- have not decided which artists to study yet.  Work on 3-6 artists for the year

Music study- have not decided which composers to study yet.  Work on 3-6 composers for the year

Nature study- lots of outside time, observation assignments, taking pictures and making albums as well as making entries into nature notebooks

Individual work:

grade 3 dd- copywork everyday ( not sure yet if this will be from misc. books or from specific copywork books)

               – Eng.for the Thoughtful Child book 2

               – Right Start Math level D ( she may need to still finish up level C at the beginning of the year first)

               – Handicrafts; needlpoint, beading, scrapbooking

               – ballet classes

gr 1-2 ds  – Copywork everyday either from SCM copywork pages or from specific copywork book

              –  Right Start Math level A ( he will probably zoom through this so he will also start level b right after)

              –  Reading lessons everyday with supplemental phonics worksheets (just because he loves them)

              –  pathway readers for grade 1

              –  Tae Kwan Doe and one sport of his choosing.  probably baseball or soccer.

              –  Handicrafts; not sure what to get him to work on yet.

Well, that’s about it I think.  Like I said these are prone to “tweaking” and as you can see I still am not sure about some specifics.  HTH’s 

  happy schooling!

 -Miranda

I’m glad this question was asked because it will give me an opportunity to actually write down what I’ve got in my head. Our school year begins the day after Labor Day in Sept. and goes until we finish. Texas has virtually no homeschool laws, but ps requires 180 days, so I try to stick with that. We are on 135 right now, and do school yearround. I estimate that we will finish this year by the end of July and hopefully take the full month of August off! We are currently taking a break because we are moving.

6yo–1st grade:

Math: Continue Math U See’s Alpha

Reading: various living book selections (he wants to try to read Charlotte’s Web by himself, so we’ll see how that goes), and Pathway Readers

Copywork

History: Module 1-Gen. thru Deut. and Ancient Egypt

Geography: Ancient Egypt, plus learning the world’s continents and oceans and beginning the U.S. map

Grammar: continue w/ English for the Thoughtful Child, vol. 1

5yo–Kindergarten:

Reading: We will attempt to finish Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons…we are taking an indefinite break from it right now.

Math: playing with older brother’s MUS blocks

Family:

Science: 106 Days, nature study

Literature: Black Beauty, Little House series, and other selections

Bible: Memorize no more than 36 verses, daily Bible reading

Poetry: Lewis Carroll, memorize at least 6 poems

Composer Study: undecided, but will probably follow the curriculum guide

Picture Study: same as composer study

Various handicrafts, including card-making, watercolors, sewing, etc.

Personal Development: Prudence and the Millers, A Child’s Book of Character Building and other wholesome stories

I hesitate to post things since my oldest two are sort of “out there” choosing a lot of what they do themselves.  I feel like I fail the “CM Purist” test.  LOL  But we feel strongly that they are preparing themselves for their own paths in life. 

Anyway.  16yo boy, high school junior:

Pre-Calculus and Calculus, Math-U-See, possibly transitioning to community college course in the spring

Physics, Apologia, and living book reading list

Latin–Book IV, Latin in the Christian Trivium; French–vol. III, Breaking the French Barrier; community college Spanish courses, Italian books and Indonesian computer CD

American Literature series, Total Language Plus

Self-designed American Government course–self-chosen reading list

Self-designed Linguistics course, using Teaching Company DVD’s and reading list

Continuing piano and organ studies

He is choosing his own devotional books this year, too, and hasn’t told me what they are going to be

14yo boy, high school freshman:

Geometry, Math-U-See

Biology, Apologia, and living book reading list

Latin, Latin in the Christian Trivium Book IV, and Swahili, hopefully livemocha.com OR if it’s not ready yet, a set of computer CD’s

Total Language Plus guides for The Trumpeter of Krakow, Animal Farm, Treasure Island and The Hiding Place

Medieval History, self-chosen materials including a Teaching Company video course and self-chosen living book list

Geography, finishing Richard Halliburton’s Complete Book of Marvels and mapwork

He is finishing the Uncle Eric books this coming year–I think he has 3 left to read, and listening to audio CD’s on lives of great economists (Teaching Company again!) for Economics/Personal Development

Drafting course, Insight Technical Education

He is also choosing his own devotional books, although I gave him a pile to pick from.  🙂 

10yo boy, 5th grade (this should look more “normal”!)

Math-U-See Epsilon

God’s Design for Science:  Earth Science series (weather, astronomy, earth science

Total Language Plus guides:  The Sign of the Beaver, Charlotte’s Web, Ben and Me, The Cricket in Times Square, plus free reading list from Module 5 and AO

Spanish for Children vol. 1

Kon-Tiki for geography, plus mapwork

Module 5 for history with Guerber books as spines and a few books added in from AO

All together, we do: 

Shakespeare (Julius Caesar this year)  Plutarch:  two lives plus comparison (not chosen yet) Artist (module 4) composer (module 4) nature study, morning devotions, hymns, folk music, and poetry–I think we are going to do Longfellow for the youngest guy, and begin a chronological survey of English poetry for the two high schoolers (we’ll do this all together, just part will be aimed at the big boys and part at the little one)

Whew!  I’m tired already.  LOL

This will be our first year homeschooling and I’m excited to say that we’ll be going SCM all the way!  
I’ve been absorbing as much as I can on this site, and at the same time I’m reading Home Education.  I’m about ready to start purchasing our books and getting things in order…

I’ll be homeschooling our dd with yr. 1 starting, hopefully, in July.  As for my ds, age 5 in Aug., I’m not too sure yet….he may be tagging along, playing outside, etc.

So here is what we’ll be doing for dd 1st grade…

Math:  Math U See, Alpha

Science: 106 Days of Creation

Reading: various living books and readers

Copy work: possible doing some Handwriting Without Tears (this is an area that needs some work!   ) 

Grammar:  English for the Thoughtful Child

Personal Dev.:  Childs Book of Character

History/Bible/Geography: SCM Module 1

Scripture Memory: we’ll continue to use this INCREDIBLE SCM method!

Literature:  SCM selections as well as others that interest us

Poetry:  SCM selections

Nature Study:  need to do more research here – feeling a little overwhelmed about this!!!

Picture Study:  SCM artist list, plus create an artist study book

Music Study:  Listen to music in car and talk read about composers a little

Hymn Study:  Need to find out what the book is titled that I want to use (my mom has a great one!)

Spanish:  *I* might be getting rosetta stone and then helping the kids to learn…we’ll see…

OK – now that I’ve written it all out, man does it seem like a lot!  I guess I just need to remember that we won’t be doing everything every day….

I already have the seminar dvds, and I just bought the planning dvd and book, so that should help…  

Megan

We have only homeschooling for 6 months now, and up until now my 2 oldest were doing SOS and my youngest on LifePacs.

Im extremely grateful to have found the SCM website through The Well Trained Mind forums. I started out changing over to the “classical” style, but I found CM, and read and read and decided this was the route for us. I like her style not being watered down, but in the same breath allowing a child to be a child.

I especially love the word “twaddle”! I love what it means, and I love to say it! People often look at mean strange and then I get to explain it! Great conversation starter!!

Anyhow, we are pretty much going down the line with the SCM curriculum guide that Sonya, has so graciously given for free use. We may change a bit here and there, as some books arent always in print, or available but for the most part they are.

We will be starting with Module 1, all that ties in with it, and then everything you see under grades 3rd, 7th and 8th.

Im so excited, we have been recieving curriculum almost daily!! I love how fast and efficient the SCM website is! I recieved my order in no time!!

I have the all day seminar books and DVDs, and the curriculum guide and DVD. I plan on making this weekend an all day SCM marathon, and then get everything completely planned in the days following. Im so excited!!