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.

Preparing Hearts for His Glory - Day 1

Today was Samuel's first day of Preparing Hearts for His Glory. We really enjoyed learning about spiritual warfare and the shield of faith. He is working on making a shield of faith and a coat of arms. When it is complete I will post a picture of it. We also learned about the Arctic Tundra today. Below you will find a picture of his tracing of the Arctic Tundra and his drawing of several things from Creation.

Books Read by Samuel in 2007-2008

A Cricket in Times Square
A Lion to Guard Us
Along Came a Dog
Jed Smith, Trailblazer
Little Pear
Mary of Plymouth
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Owls in the Family
Story of the Wright Brothers and Their Sister

Books Read by Curtis in 2007-2008

Along Came a Dog
Beggar's Bible
Black Gold
Five Children and It
Journey to Jo'burg
Martha of California
Mary Poppins
Misty of Chincoteague
Silver for General Washington
Strawberry Girl
The Cricket in Times Square
The Railway Children
Twenty and Ten

2008-2009 Fifth Grade Curriculum

Curtis' 5th Grade Curriculum - 2008-2009

Bible
Studying God's Word - Finish Book E
Window on the World (Weekly)
Hymn Study

Math
A Beka Arithmetic 5

Studied Dictation
Spelling Wisdom - Book 2 (1st half) (2x/wk)

Spelling
Sequential Spelling Book 1 and Book 2 (1st half) (Daily)

English
Rodff Engish 4 and 5 (We will finish up 4 and move on to 5)

Written Narrations
History (1x/wk)
Science (x/wk)

Poetry
Poems for Memorization by Rod and Staff - Memorize 3 - 5 poems

Vocabulary/Foreign Language
Vocabulary from the Classical Roots - 5
Lively Latin I (Plan to finish Level I and we may start Level II)

Reading
BJU Reading 5
History Reading
Literature Books

History
All American History II
Biblioplan: America and the World 1850 to present

Geography
A Child's Geography I

Science
BJU Science 5

Natural History
CLP Nature Reader 5
Paddletail the Beaver and His Neighbors
Burgess Animal Book for Children

Music
History of Classical Music
Meet the Great Composers
Hymn Study

Art
Art Pac 5

Electives
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Type It

LOGIC
Perplexors
Mind Benders

Just a Note!

This blog has definitely not been a daily journal, but I shall try to continue posting various things in regards to our school year as I have the time. I am working on my curriculum for next year and should soon be posting what we will be doing next year.

Curtis Doing Math

School will Resume on Monday!

Christmas break is about over. It will be time come Monday to get back into the swing of things as far as school goes. I guess I had better get busy with planning.