Monday, June 6, 2011

2011-2012 Homeschool Plan

I love planning for the new homeschool year. Sometimes I wish I could be a homeschool consultant, recommending curricula that would work be a good fit for a particular family. Yet I highly doubt I’d find many clients, since planning seems to be one of the favorite activities of all homeschool moms! It must be the thrill of starting fresh. For us it will be a fresh start with some familiar materials.

We loved Adventures in My Father’s World. We loved, loved, loved MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures. So it only makes sense that we will . . . NOT be using MFW for ancient history! It was a hard decision for sure, but in the end simplicity won out. I already own all four volumes of The Story of the World, activity guides for the first three years, and all four sets of CDs. Plus, we really enjoyed the years we used SOTW. I just couldn’t justify the expense of switching to My Father’s World, especially when there would still be things I’d skip. So, it’s a bittersweet good-bye to MFW, but perhaps we’ll be back in the future.
If this is your first time visiting my blog, let me give some brief background information. I homeschool my two younger kids (Ryne - almost 12 and Grace - 8), while my 13 year-old (Anna) attends a Christian classical school three days a week. She studies at home the other two days, so it still feels a little like when she was a homeschooler too. My son has autism, which greatly influences the choices I make in homeschooling materials. We follow a classical model, with some Charlotte Mason influences.

Here's what we have planned for the 2011 – 2012 school year:

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times with Activity Guide and extra literature selectionsVeritas Press History Cards
BIBLE

The Child's Story Bible - by using the reading schedule found at Paula's Archives I can tie our Bible reading into our history studies
Continued memorization of Colossians as a family
Bible Sound-Off (Ryne) -- a collection of NT verses and facts compiled by Anna's 6th grade teacher
Sunday School lessons and memorization

I'm still eyeing the series God's Great Covenant, but am worried that with Sunday School lessons it would be too much.

LANGUAGE ARTS

All About Spelling (Ryne will start Level 3 and Grace will continue with Level 2)
Copywork & dictation
Rod and Staff English (Ryne - continuing with grade 5)

MATH

We continue math through the summer, so I think Grace will finish her current book and Ryne will be close to finishing his book. Therefore, these are just guesses of what books we will use this year.

Occasional activities from Family Math or other resources

SCIENCE

Exploring Creation Zoology series -- we're working on Flying Creatures this summer and if that goes well, we might just save science for summer next year too.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE


ART

Still trying to decide . . .


MUSIC

Piano lessons
Music flashcards
At least two musical events such as the symphony or a musical - a BHA tradition!
Singing Made Easy (although I still haven't found the lost CD!)

MEMORY

Review past memory work

I'm considering using the Classical Conversations Memory Cycle 1, but I'm trying to figure out how to make it work with the memory work we've already done. I may come up with my own plan.

OTHER

Typing
Extracurricular activities such as swim and ballet


There you have it! I'm excited about the new year, but right now I'm enjoying our summer break. I'll spend June wrapping up details from last year (putting together notebooks with samples of their school work, cleaning out files, etc.). In July I will start with the heavy-duty planning, buying Anna's books for school (and any last-minute supplies for us), and setting up our filing system for the year. We won't be taking a family vacation in August this year, so I'm tentatively thinking about starting school in mid-August.

This post is linked to The Great Curriculum Reveal 2011 co-hosted by Dawn at Olive Plants and Heather at Kingdom Arrows. Dawn is celebrating the event with a great give-away, and Heather is hosting the link-up, so be sure to visit them both this week.




Happy Homeschool Planning!

3 comments:

  1. oohh- Drawing with Children-Nature style!! It gives you a whole semester:)

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  2. Great plan! Thanks for participating.

    Similar story for us with SOTW. I really, really like Hist Revealed, but it requires more time than we have to devote to it.

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  3. So nice to get back to your blog - I haven't even had time to read any in a few MONTHS! :-(

    Looks likeyou are using a few of the same things we are. I love SOTW but am using it only as a part of our Sonlight history (just couldn't give up SL this year as we head back into the Ancients). We had fun with Artistic Pursuits (goodness don't I wish I had time to blog their work!) and look forward to using it this year as well! We are starting Mind Benders and Latin for Children A (this one terrifies me for some reason - I am clueless!). We are also using the Zoology 1 Flying Creatures - the kids are excited about the Notebooking Journal) ad we are starting on piano lessons!

    Question for you: We are starting with IEW Student Writing Intensive Level B (for both 3rd & 5th grader) this year. I have never used IEW before. What is the difference btwn this SWI and the Ancient Histor Based Writing Lessons? I'd love to be teaching writing that corresponds w/ their ancient history lessons...

    We will be starting July25th since I want to be finished by May next spring. What a busy year ahead! But I agree - the planning is the best part!
    Andrea

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