Our First Week of School

We have completed our first week of school for 2009-2010. I started with my oldest three children this week and will add in my fourth one next week. It has gone really well all things considered.

This year we plan to take more scheduled breaks than we have done in the past. I believe this will be a great help to all in striving to do their best for a set period of time with the knowledge that a week break will be coming before long.

Curtis is really enjoying his history mixture of Mystery of History I and Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ program along with Diana Waring's audios.

Samuel is progressing in Latin really well. I am endeavoring to learn it alongside him. Languages have never been my forte. I even changed majors in College opting for Speech rather than a second year of Spanish. Jeff has spent the last few months really working with Samuel in Math and he has improved vastly.

Alex continues to love Math and Reading. He is also really enjoying doing a Fifty State Study. We are going in the order that they came into the Union. So this week our focus has been Delaware. Here again we have used a mixture of items with which to learn. My two favorite items are the Olde World Style United States and World Maps along with notebook pages that I purchased from Homeschool In the Woods and the free state study information from School Express.

Briana will begin on Monday if all goes as planned.

As I type Jeff is sitting here reading David Copperfield to the oldest four kids. They are really enjoying the story. Jeff also did Life of Fred: Fractions with the boys on Monday. Check out the samples if you have time. They are as entertaining as they are educational

Until next time,

2009-2010 School Year

After posting in regards to a traditional versus a balanced school calendar, I thought I would share my tenative calendar for our upcoming school year. The one nice thing about homeschooling is that if necessary this calendar can be changed. I try to get in at least 10 field trip days over the course of the school year during our break times. If I do that I will be able to finish by the 11th of June instead of the 25th. And if that ends up being the case I may skip the late spring break and finish by the 4th of June instead. I only count on 170 of the 180 days for actual school work. So I plan accordingly when scheduling out the course work for the year.

I know I tend to start our school year early, but we almost always take our family vacation in September after kids are back in school and vacation spots are less crowded and discounted.

Week 1 - August 10 - 14
Week 2 - August 17 - 21
Week 3 - August 24 - 28
Week 4 - August 31 - Sept. 1; Sept. 16 - 18
Family Vacation - September 2 - September 15
Week 5 - Sept. 21 - 25
Week 6 - Sept. 28 - Oct. 2
Week 7 - October 5 - 9
Week 8 - October 12 - 16
Fall Break - October 19 - 23
Week 9 - October 26 - 30 (End of 1st Quarter)
Week 10 - November 2 - 6
Week 11 - November 9 - 13
Week 12 - November 16 - 20
Thanksgiving Break - November 23 - 27
Week 13 - November 30 - December 4
Week 14 - December 7 - 11
Week 15 - December 14 -15; Jan. 6 - 8
Christmas Break - December 16 - January 5
Week 16 - January 11 - 15
Week 17 - January 18 - 22
Week 18 - January 25 - 29 (End of 2nd Quarter or 1st Semester)
Week 19 - February 1 - 5
Week 20 - February 8 - 12
Mid-Winter Break - February 15 - 19
Week 21 - February 22 - 26
Week 22 - March 1 - 5
Week 23 - March 8 - 12
Week 24 - March 15 - 19
Week 25 - March 22 - 26
Week 26 - March 29 - April 2 (End of 3rd Quarter)
Spring Break April 5 - April 9
Week 27 - April 12 - 16
Week 28 - April 19 - 23
Week 29 - April 26 - 30
Week 30 - May 3 - 7
Week 31 - May 10 - 14
Week 32 - May 17 - 21
Week 33 - May 24; June 1 - 4
Late Spring Break - May 25 - 31
Week 34 - June 7 - 11
Week 35 - June 14 - 18
Week 36 - June 21 - 25 (End of 4th Quarter or 2nd Semester)

Traditional School Calendar versus Balanced Calendar

Tonight in my surfing, I found a breakdown of a traditional calendar versus a balanced calendar for a school year. The balanced calendar makes so much more sense to me. As I set up my calendar for this upcoming school year, I believe I will endeavor to align my calendar more to the balanced side rather than the traditional. Just in case you are interested and for my future reference, here is the link to the comparison of these two calendars. I print out my school calendar from Donna Young's website.

Happy planning!

Julissa - K4 - 2009-2010

I am still trying to decide what to use with Julissa. If she was the only one I had to school, I would use BJU's new Footsteps for Fours program. But because I have four that come before her, I am still contemplating what to do with her this year. Below are the possibilities that I am considering.

ABeka K4

BJU Footsteps for Fours

Before Five In A Row

Rod and Staff ABC Series


Picture Book Ideas

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/book-themes.htm

Picture Book Preschool

http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/prek.html

1000 Good Book List

Simply Charlotte Mason's book list for 3 - 5 year olds

Briana - First Grade - 2009-2010

BIBLE
101 Favorite Stories from the Bible

MATH
Abeka Arithmetic 1

LANGUAGE ARTS
First Language Lessons 1
The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease
ABeka Phonics 1
ABeka Spelling 1
New American Cursive

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
Abeka History 1
BJU Heritage Studies 1
Daily Geography 1

SCIENCE
ABeka Science 1
BJU Science 1
CLP Nature Reader 1

MUSIC
Instrument Lessons (possibly)
Classical Music (Listening)

ELECTIVES
Home Economics

Alexander - Third Grade - 2009-2010

Below is the curriculum being considered for Alexander for third grade.
BIBLE
Egermeier's Bible Story Book - 1947 copyright (OT) - COMPLETE

MATH
A Beka Arithmetic 3
Math Facts Practice

SCIENCE
BJUP Science 3 - COMPLETE
A Beka Health 3 - COMPLETE
Christian Liberty Nature Reader 3

LANGUAGE ARTS
Rod and Staff English 3
A Beka Spelling 3
BJU Handwriting 3 - COMPLETE
BJU Reading 3 - COMPLETE
Read and Think Skill Sheets 3 (A Beka) - COMPLETE
Ambleside Online - Finish Year 1 and do Year 2 (Literature)
Spelling Wisdom 1a (dictation)

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
BJUP Heritage Studies 2 (Finish) - COMPLETE
BJUP Heritage Studies 3 COMPLETE

with additional biographies and historical fiction
Rand McNally Schoolhouse Intermediate Geography and Map Activities
Fifty State Study (over 3rd and 4th grades)

ELECTIVES
Music
Young Scholar's Guide to Composers

Art
Draw and Write Through History: Pilgrims, Pirates and Patriots

Samuel - Fifth Grade - 2009-2010

Below is the curriculum being considered for Samuel for fifth grade.
BIBLE
Rod and Staff Bible 5 - COMPLETE
Victor Journey Through the Bible - Scheduled section COMPLETE
Windows on the World

MATH
ABeka Arithmetic 5
Math Facts Practice

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Lively Latin I

SCIENCE
BJU Science 6
Exploring Planet Earth - Tiner - COMPLETE
Christian Liberty Nature Reader 5

LANGUAGE ARTS
Rod and Staff English 5
BJU Reading 5 - COMPLETE
Adventures in Nature (Abeka)
Read and Think Skill Sheets 5 (Abeka)
Literature List
Spelling Wisdom 2A (dictation)
Megawords 1 - COMPLETE
Sequential Spelling
Vocabulary from the Classical Roots 5

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
BJUP Heritage Studies 4 (Finish) - COMPLETE
BJUP Heritage Studies 5 - COMPLETE
with additional biographies and historical fiction

ELECTIVES
Logic
Mind Benders A1 - A4
Building Thinking Skills 2
Perplexors Basic and A
Art
Draw and Write Through History
Music
Young Scholar's Guide to Composers

Curtis - Sixth Grade - 2009-2010

Below is the curriculum being considered for Curtis for sixth grade.
BIBLE
Rod and Staff Bible - COMPLETE
Victor Journey Through the Bible - Scheduled Section - COMPLETE
Windows on the World (M)

MATH
ABeka Arithmetic 6 (Daily)
Life of Fred: Fractions (M)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE (Daily)
Getting Started with Latin (finish)
Lively Latin II
Getting Started with Spanish (?)
In reevaluating Curtis' work load for this coming year, I think we are going to put Spanish on hold until his 7th and 8th grade year. I am going to let him get a little more Latin under his belt umcomplicated by the study of another lanugage.

SCIENCE
BJU Science 6 (Daily)
Exploring the History of Medicine - Tiner (Th.) - COMPLETE
The Story Book of Science - Jean Henri Fabre (T)

LANGUAGE ARTS
Rod and Staff English (Daily)
BJU Reading 6 (Daily) - COMPLETE
Adventures in Greatness (Abeka) (M)
Read and Think Skill Sheets 6 (Abeka) (W) - COMPLETE
Literature List (Daily)
Writing Strands (M W)
Spelling Wisdom 2B (dictation) (T Th.)
Megawords 1 - COMPLETE
Sequential Spelling ? (M T Th. F)
Vocabulary from the Classical Roots 6 (Daily)

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY (Daily)
Creation to Christ (Using the history part of this in combo with things below)
Mystery of History I
The Story of the Ancient World - Christine Miller - COMPLETE
Famous Men of Greece
The Story of the Greeks
A Child's Geography 2

I am still working on finding the right combination for history for him. He is my child that loves History so he tends to do more than my other children in that field.

ELECTIVES
Logic
Fallacy Detective (T)
Building Thinking Skills 3 Verbal (M W F)
Art
Draw and Write Through History (F)
Music
Young Scholar's Guide to Composers (Th) *

*We plan to spend the next three years using this program. It is intended to be covered in one year but we don't really have that amount of time this year to dedicate to it. We will cover the first part of the lesson on Thursday and then listen to the music selections several more times during the next week while doing some other course of work.

Things to Accomplish Before 2009-2010 School Year

We are still trying to finish up the current school year. I hope to be done by the 9th of July. Then I must get things ready to begin the next school year. I am going to list out the things I really need to get accomplished in the next six weeks.

1. Finalize curricula choices for each child.

2. Purchase any needed curricula.

3. Organize School Shelves

4. Purge any unnecessary materials from school shelves and sell.

5. Make a daily schedule.

6. Make a Supplies list

7. Purchase supplies.

8. Put together my planner

9. Input assignments/lesson plans into Edu-Track.

10. Create portfolio for each child for this past year.

Homeschool Tracking Software

The last week or two, I have spent time doing trial runs scheduling lessons using three different homeschool tracking programs. The three that I tried were Homeschool Tracker, Homeschool SkedTrack(which is online only), and Edu-Track. While I found Homeschool SkedTrack easy to use, it wasn't able to do all the things that I wanted it to do. I have tried Homeschool Tracker two different years and have never succeeded in successfully setting it up. Sometimes I think that my brain works on entirely different wavelength than this piece of software. I definitely feel the odd man out as it seems from my reading on homeschool boards that many people use this software successfully. Obviously, by now you realize that I have gone with Edu-Track. I have lessons scheduled for the rest of the school year for my oldest two children and plan to input lessons for my third child this weekend. It is nice to be able to just print out a daily assignment sheet for each child. I used to spend a lot of time every week preparing, by hand, individual weekly assignment sheets for each child. This will definitely save me time. I plan to use my time this summer inputting lessons for each child for the next school year, thus enabling me to have more time during the school year to spend teaching. Now for those that use all ABeka or all Bob Jones this isn't probably as necessary. But for one who uses quite a variety of curricula, I feel that it becomes rather necessary. I am also hoping that it will help to cut back on the piles of paperwork that seem to come with homeschooling.