2012 - 2013 Curricular Plans

It's the beginning of a new homeschool year, and I just returned from a homeschool convention in Houston where I was able to attend sessions by Susan Wise Bauer {love} and see all kinds of new products in the vendor hall.  For those of you wondering what this Midwestern mom was doing at a convention in Houston, you'll have to tune in later this week for that story.  The point of me mentioning the conference in this post is to let you know I'm on a homeschool high right now.  Anything is possible.  This will be the best year yet.  

Follow?  What that really means is this: Read through my plans, knowing that reality will soon set in and one or more things on this list will get neglected or even dumped.  

Actually, I have been trying to be more realistic in my planning this year.  Besides attending almost every SWB session, I heard Diana Johnson speak and she voiced so succinctly what I have already learned the hard way.

This thinking greatly influenced some of my choices this year, especially science.  As much as I love the beautiful Apologia elementary science books and the accompanying notebook journals, we never get them done and I feel like a failure.  So we're going back to a curriculum we enjoyed and were more successful with, even though it means going back to a black and white textbook that is not as detailed as the Apologia books.  That's what supplemental books are for, right?  In fact, we may use one of the Apologia books to fill in some gaps.

My choices were also influenced by a book I read earlier this year, Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism by Temple Grandin and Kate Duffy.  A recurring theme of the book is that individuals on the autism spectrum need to find a skill they enjoy and become experts at it.  You'll probably be able to tell how this influenced my homeschool planning as you get to the bottom my list.  Our extras will focus less on the things I thought made our homeschooling wonderful (nature and composer studies) and more on practical skills that might help my son find a job someday.  I'm sure the new additions will be wonderful too, but they are a tad out of my comfort zone.

One thing we will not be giving up, however, is our read-aloud time.  After her session on literary analysis, I spoke to SWB, about how much reading we do for history and other subjects, expecting her to say maybe we should cut back a little.  Or maybe deep down I asked her because I knew she wouldn't be phased in the least and just encourage me to keep on reading and reading and reading, which is exactly what she did. ; )  

Enough with the reasons for my choices and on with the nitty-gritty; this is what we have planned for our school year:

BLUE HOUSE ACADEMY 

Grace (4th Grade) and Ryne (7th Grade, autism)

(Forgive me, but to save time I'm only linking the lesser-known materials.  Please let me know if you need additional information about anything I've listed.)

BIBLE

Devotions using some of the suggested reading schedules in the NKJV Early Reader's Bible (despite the title, we've found this Bible version to be very helpful for the elementary and middle school years)

Bible Sound-Off (a memorization program of verses and Bible facts, compiled by Anna's 6th grade teacher)

Catechism memorization and instruction through church

Sunday School memory verses and take-home lessons

Church history (incorporated with history)


HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY

Story of the World 2: The Middle Ages (with Activity Guide and separate test booklet)

Favorites from our previous SOTW 2 reading list, plus some new finds

Timeline book

Veritas Press history cards

Classical Conversations style of geography instruction (the helpful article I used to link for this has been taken down; I'll try to find a new one)

Map Skills for Today 4 (Grace)

Intermediate Geography & Map Skills (Ryne)


LANGUAGE ARTS

All About Spelling 4 & 5

IEW - All Things Fun & Fascinating

Copywork, Dictation & Narration using the WWE model 

Michael Clay Thompson (almost finished with the whole Island level, but after that we will just do Grammar Town, Practice Town, and Sentence Town)

First Language Lessons 4 (Grace)

Analytical Grammar (Ryne)

Oral reading (CLP Nature Reader 4 - Grace; CLP The Story of Inventions - Ryne)

Editor in Chief A1 & A2

Outlining (Ryne)


MATH/LOGIC

Math U See Gamma & Delta (Grace)

Math U See Epsilon & Zeta (Ryne)

Challenging Word Problems (Grace)

Daily drill (flashcards, Quartermile, timed tests)

Mind Benders A4 & B1

Following Directions (Ryne)


SCIENCE

Christian Kids Explore Biology


FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Latin for Children A (finish) & B

Rosetta Stone French (Grace - her request, but it will just be for fun)


FINE ARTS

Beginning Drawing with Thomas Kincade (a program we've had around for awhile, so I may change my mind on this)

Piano lessons (this is dependent upon my finding a new teacher; our previous teacher had to quit because of a family illness)

At least two musical events, such as the symphony -- a BHA tradition!


COMPUTERS/TECHNOLOGY

Typing Instructor Platinum

Kids Coder Series (Ryne)

Scotto's Place Essential Office Applications


Whew!  That should just about cover it.   Feel free to ask me any questions, share your experiences with anything on my list, or leave a link to your homeschool plans.

Happy Homeschooling!




P.S. I'm linking this post to the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop.  Come, join the fun!

Peaches

Don't be fooled by these pictures.  Our summer has not been filled with lazy days, picking and eating peaches.  But it has been a fun, full summer with many memories to treasure.  


One of those memories is our first ever peach crop.  The girls have been eating two or three (or even four) a day and I froze some so we can make Pioneer Woman's heavenly peach crisp with maple cream sauce.  We would have made it already, but Anna is refraining from sugar until the summer track season is done, so it would have been cruel to make peach crisp while she can't eat it.


I'm planning on participating in the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop, so hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a more regular basis next week.


Hope you are enjoying your summer!

Silly Bird

Miss me?  I'm not sure how I managed to let two months slip by without posting.  Such is life in the springtime, I guess.  Busy, busy, busy.  Unlike previous years, however, I managed to stay sane most days.  I said no to quite a few things, and that made a huge difference.  Homeschooling was pretty much my main focus February through May, so just about everything else fell by the wayside. We are now on our summer break, although the plan is to still work on a few things over the summer.  


There is so much to tell, but I'll have to tackle that in pieces over the next few weeks, assuming I get back to blogging regularly.  I just got back from a trip to Denver a few days ago, and now I'm leaving to go back again for a few more days to tend to a family situation (Marc and the kids will stay here).  So blogging might not be a reality this week.


But in the meantime, I thought I'd share my latest bird watching adventure.  For the record, I really stink at bird watching, but I'm still fascinated.  Because we live on the edge of the woods, we have a steady stream of feathered friends visiting the Blue House.  The cardinals, blue jays, and woodpeckers are year-round pals and are always beautiful to look at, but we love it when we see someone new.


Like this fellow.

I'm assuming he's a fellow, because it seems like with birds the males are usually the prettiest and this one seems to know he/she is pretty.

I've looked through our birding books and online, yet I cannot figure out what kind of bird it is.  I've even emailed Dawn who is a bird watching superstar.  Or at least I think I've emailed her -- my computer is acting a little wonky this week so maybe my email is floating in cyberspace.  This post is getting a little wonky too, soooo let's get back to my bird friend.

He's/She's on a mission.  It's a doomed mission, but he/she doesn't seem to care.  He/she is determined to get in my house.  For two days he's/she's been flying into the windows on the back of our house.  Again and again and again and again.  And I'm getting tired of saying he/she again and again and again, so let's just say it's a he.


I keep telling him it's not going to work, but then he chatters back to me, saying he's not giving up.

Fine, I say.  But I'm just telling ya, I know how this goes.  I've had many a day like this.  You think you're being persistent, but you're really just being stubborn.  You keep trying to do things your way, because (of course) it's the right way.  Turns out, it's rare anything good comes out of it, and you just end up with a headache.  I don't think he believed me, because at this moment he is still bashing himself into the window.

Whatever.  Hopefully he will have learned his lesson by the time I return from Denver.


Anything interesting happening with your summer so far?


Update: Thanks to some teamwork between my pastor and my husband, it has been determined that our mystery bird is probably a first-year male summer tanager.  I told you I stink at bird watching!