Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Two Weeks Worth and our Summer Plans!

Over the last two weeks, we finished more of our subjects. Celeste and I also worked a lot on her phonics, reading practice, and grammar. Andre did a few lessons in his Teaching Textbooks 7 and Adrienne is working hard at finishing her Math. She had started her Pre-Algebra Teaching Textbooks in January. She gave herself her birthday as a deadline, this means she is doing Math six days a week in order to finish.

We finished our World Geography study last week with Antarctica and a World Review. This curriculum worked really well for us this year and I am looking forward to using it again in combination with Barb's Geography Plans next year.

We also finished our Science study. I can't say we loved learning about physics this year, but we did it!

We spent more time outside over the last two weeks, even did some unplanned nature study (see the "ducks and (dead) mudpuppy" post).

Adrienne and Andre spent last weekend with their Air Cadets Squadron for a Field Training Exercice weekend. They did a lot of different outdoor activities, canoeing, hiking, absailing, and more. They were not allowed to bring any electronics or cameras, so I don't have any photos to share.

Andre finished his short season of floorball. This was his first time and he enjoyed it, even if his particular team lost. He wants to participate again and practice more.

Tomorrow, we start our Summer break! We will continue to do some "school work", mostly Math and reading/phonics because I have learned over the years that my children need this, even if it is just two or three times a week. When we take a long break without any math practice, it is difficult for them to get back to it! We are also going to study a little history through our break.

Here are our plans:

Adrienne: Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra: Monday-Saturday until finished (she has about 25 lessons left).

Andre: Teaching Textbooks 7:  Mondays & Thursdays

Celeste: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, First Language Lessons, and Elson Readers: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays.

Together: Prehistoric Times. I started writing our plans to share with you. You can find them below the main blog title in the tabs.  I will keep adding to that post as we go along.

We are planning on starting our new school year August 15. This may change, we will see! I am also working on adding links to our 2011-2011 curriculum list found in the tabs below the main blog title. I hope to be finished by Friday.

If you would like to read more weekly wrap up posts, you can visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Plans!

Every year, I start looking ahead to our next "school year" around March. I do enjoy this planning but sometimes it gets to be a little overwhelming. There are more and more choices every year for homeschoolers out there and it's also a time to review what has worked for us and what hasn't, for curriculum and styles too. 

When asked what style of homeschooling we follow, I answer "eclectic". We are truly eclectic.

We use some classical education ideas. The Well Trained Mind was the first homeschool book I read and could relate to.

We also add some Charlotte Mason ideas to the mix, especially for art and music appreciation, shorter lessons and time spent in nature.

We have also done unit studies and lapbooking.

As much as I mention these philosophies, I have always listened to my heart when it comes to homeschooling my three children. I have learned a lot through the years! I think this comes through in various ways:

• I choose to follow my children's interests and give them freedom to explore them. 
• We don't follow a specific schedule because it never really worked for us. I prefer to have goals in place and so do my children. They like to know what is expected of them and then follow their own schedule. That can change from day to day. 
• I follow their pace. If it takes Celeste a little longer to learn how to read, then that is just fine. We take the time, as much as it is needed. If Andre is able to "fly" through his math lessons and still retain what he is learning, then fine. He knows how he learns. I respect that.

About my plans, I chose a mixture of curriculum again this year. I have a wide age and abilities range in just three children, their ages are almost 14, 12, and 7. I try to combine them as much as possible for certain subjects. Adrienne, my oldest, has asked me to let her do more independent work this coming year, and not just for her regular subjects. She wanted to do science, history, and a foreign language on her own. I agreed with her but we are all still doing the same rotation, which means that we are all studying Biology this year and Ancient History. Keeping on the same rotation will be helpful when doing read alouds, movies or even fieldtrips for the whole family. 

I will be adding all our choices with links to the 2011-12 tab at the top of this blog shortly. For now, here is a quick list for you:

Adrienne ~ "Grade 9":

Math: Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Grammar: Gage Language Power Gr. 9
Writing & Literature: Lightning Lit 8
Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots B
Spelling: Sequential Spelling
Poetry: IEW Poetry Memorization

Science: Oak Meadow High School Biology
Health & Fitness: Various websites + library books + notebooking + logging her fitness goals and achievements

World History: History of the Ancient World + notebooking

Art & Music Appreciation and Practice: Harmony Art Mom Grade 9 plans + keyboard practice (learn 5 new pieces)

Foreign Language: Oxford Take Off in Spanish

Civics (Canadian Government, Politics and Current Events): Canadians and Their Government Resource Guide + Parliament of Canada Teacher Kit + News on Internet and Newspapers.

Career Planning: What Colour is Your Parachute for Teens


Andre ~ "Grade 7":

Math: Teaching Textbooks 7

Grammar: Gage Language Power Gr. 7
Writing Literature: Lightning Lit 7
Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots A
Spelling: Sequential Spelling
Handwriting: Italics F
Poetry: IEW Poetry Memorization

Science: "Aristotle Leads the Way" Story of Science + notebooking - he will also tag along with Celeste's science for experiments and readings


World History: Ancient Times, Logic Stage from Classical House of Learning Literature


Art & Music Appreciation: Harmony Art Mom plans "Ancient Art and the Orchestra - Middle School Level" + recorder practice (learn 5 new pieces)

Foreign Language: ?

Celeste ~ "Grade 2":

Math: Saxon Math Grade 2


Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind (continuing from previous year)
Writing: Writing with Ease Level 1
Phonics: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading + Explode the Code 2 (continuing from previous year)
Spelling: Natural Speller
Handwriting: Italics C + Draw Write Now 8
Poetry: IEW Poetry Memorization


Science: REAL Science Odyssey Life Level 1


World History: Ancient Times, Grammar Stage from Classical House of Learning Literature


Art Music Appreciation: Harmony Art Mom's plans with Andre

Together:


Nature Study: Barb's Nature Challenges + Natural Science Through the Seasons (Canadian)

World Geography and Cultures: Harmony Art Mom's Geography Plans + Mapping the World by Heart

Art Practice: my own plans using Usborne Introduction to Art + Discovering Great Artists.


We are all looking forward to these choices. Adrienne was very involved in the choices this year and I appreciated her help and feedback. We also decided to invest in a microscope for our homeschool and we are all looking forward to it arriving and exploring with it!



As I mentioned at the begining of this post, I will add links and all our choices to the tab "2011-12" at the top of the blog shortly.

Planning for 2010-11 :: Canadian History

Here is a proof that I am not perfect!

In all my planning, I completely forgot that the kids and I had talked about covering Canadian History this coming year, or at least for part of the year.
I adjusted our plan now. We have about 10 lessons left in our History Odyssey Middle Ages, the section on Europe in the Renaissance from this past year and we'll finish that in August.

As soon as those are done, we will be doing a unit study on New World Explorers from Homeschooling in the Woods (that has been collecting dust and waiting to be used). This should be a lot of fun!

We will then start our study of Canadian History. We had studied a little bit of Canadian history three years ago, learning up to the Vikings. I think it will be best to do a review and then continue on from there.

We are using The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn as our spine, along with the Spirit of Canada by Barbara Hehner. I found a school textbook a while ago, at a thrift store, called Canada The Story of Our Heritage Grade 7 and I might use this as an extra reference, for some of the discussion questions, or illustrations.

To keep myself organized and for activities and extra reading suggestions, I have the Modern History Through Canadian Eyes by Heather Penner .

We will follow a simple plan. I will be reading aloud from the Story of Canada and the Spirit of Canada to all 3 kids, then we might do some map work, activity, or some research (internet quest or other). Celeste won't be expected to do any written work for this, it will be a light introduction for her. Adrienne and Andre will be expected to do a bit more.

I am still working out how far in history we will do until we resume our world history. I haven't decided yet if we will try to cover both world and our country's history at the same time or do them seperate. If you have suggestions/opinions, please leave me a comment. I appreciate it!

We are planning on doing history three times a week. In the past, we have followed (loosely sometimes) a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. I think this year we might change and do our history from Monday to Thursday, along with our science in the afternoons, leaving Fridays for Art and Music Appreciation and Nature Study.

Planning for 2010-11 :: Writing, Art & Music Appreciation

I haven't received everything for our writing curriculum yet, but here is my plan.
This past year, Adrienne and I have been using the Write Source 2000 as a reference for her writing assignments.
The history curriculum that we use, History Odyssey, has many writing assignments and Andre and Adrienne do a few of these per month. Most of these are biographies, research papers, narration, or even some opinion papers (one was which middle ages time period occupation would you like?).  We will continue with the same format this year.
I did add one more writing curriculum for Adrienne, the Jensen's Format Writing. We will probably take two years to complete this. Once I receive it, I will be able to plan out her year. She is starting grade 8 this coming year, and I want her to be completely confortable with writing essays. You can read a quick review of this program here .

For Andre, along with the history assignments, I will start using Story Starters this year. I have used this in the past with Adrienne, and I think it is a much more interesting way to get our writing done than a regular curriculum or textbook. You can read a review for this book here . Celeste will be starting oral narration with this too, using the black and white illustrations as a starting point. I will write them down for her or type them.

I try to keep writing assignments fun and interesting. I know that my children write better and more without even thinking about it if they are inspired by the assignment.
I see the Writing Source 2000 and the Jensen's Format Writing as tools to help us with writing, not as curriculum.

We will be using Sequential Spelling for the first time this year.
Celeste will continue with the Explode the Code workbooks. Since those include handwriting practice, I didn't order any extra for now. 

Art and music appreciation. It is always something I want to include in our homeschooling, but we haven't been consistent. We do get around to do some, but it has only been once in a while in the past.
This year, I decided to purchase a plan from Harmony Fine Art. I chose the Grade Seven plan, even though none of my children are in that grade, because it mirrors the time period that we are studying in history.
I have looked at this plan and already I am so pleased with it. It is simple and has 3 different options on how to use it. I can adjust it so that it can be used with all 3 of my children. I am really looking forward to this!



Once I am finished sharing all my plans for 2010-11, I might do a post where I talk about our schedule and how we fit it all in.

Planning for 2010-11 :: Math, Grammar, and Reading

I am continuing on with sharing my plans for our next homeschool year from this post.  Adrienne used Teaching Textbooks for the first time this past school year and it worked very well for us. Andre will be switching from Singapore Math to Teaching Textbooks this year and he is looking forward to it! Celeste will be starting formal math instructions with Miquon Math. I am looking forward to teaching her math using this curriculum. I hope it will be a good match for us.

For Grammar, Andre and Adrienne have been using Growing with Grammar. We will continue with this program because it works.

For Reading, I will have to split this topic into two sections.

First is the practice of Reading Aloud. I believe this is an important skill, and I have required reading aloud practice from Adrienne and Andre since we started homeschooling five years ago. We have used many different texts for this practice, sometimes just picture books from the library that happened to be in our basket, other times readers, textbooks from other subjects, or small sections from novels. We started using the Elson Readers two years ago, and have enjoyed them, so we will continue on with them. Adrienne and Andre haven't quite finished the two books that we already have, so we will work on these.

Celeste, who is continuing with learning how to read using the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, will be using the Elson Readers Primer for extra practice. She likes to read other books besides her practice lessons but sometimes it is difficult to find easy readers at our local library that are to her level. I think this will be a better match for her.

The second part of Reading is literature. I asked Adrienne and Andre to come up with a list of books they wish to read for this coming year. We viewed some online book lists, and looked at our bookshelves as well. Andre pulled out his Dangerous Book for Boys and pointed out the book list at the back to me. The only request I had is that they chose some "classics". Here are their lists below.

Something new that we will be adding this year to our Reading is a commonplace book for each of the children, and for myself. I found the idea from Harmony Art Mom's blog. It is based on Charlotte Mason, and I think it will be a great way to record their reading and a wonderful new way to narrate. We have used narration in the past for many subjects as well as for literature. For us it works great. We even have our own narration cube, a great little helper! These commonplace books can be filled with written narration, drawings, quotes, opinions or reflections.

We haven't written down a list of the books that I will be reading aloud, but these are more for fun. I do know that we want to continue reading Peter and the Starcatchers (Peter and the Sword of Mercy) and the next Percy Jackson (The Titan's Curse).

Next time, I will share our writing plans, art and music appreciation.

Planning for 2010-11 :: History and Science

I have been planning for next school year for the last few weeks. I like reading other homeschool moms plans, so I thought I would share ours. This might take a couple of posts.

We are taking 1 month off, July, and will be starting our school year in August. I find that taking 2 full months off is too long for us. I talked to each one of my children about this and it was agreed to take one month off in the summer,  and take extra breaks during the school year. We take a few weeks off in December, and some long weekends too.

This coming year, I will have 3 school-age children. Celeste is 6, so she would be entering grade 1 in the regular school system. Andre is 11, grade 6. Adrienne will be 13 in a couple of weeks, so grade 8. Because we homeschool, I don't follow these grades too close. I tend to pay more attention to their abilities and knowledge, so some subjects might be higher than their actual grade level, others right on, and some a little lower than grade level if some catch up work needs to be done. That is one of the advantages of homeschooling, tailoring to each child. We also like to do some subjects together, and we do this for history, science, world geography, nature study, and art & music appreciation.

This little notebook (a present from one of my quilting swap buddies!) is where I keep all my notes for the upcoming school year. I like to write things out, always have...even though I could use the computer, I still prefer the old paper and pencil way. We are eclectic homeschoolers and I like to use a variety of curriculum. I use a few ideas from the Well Trained Mind classical education style, mostly for history and science. The chronological way of studying history has always made sense to me, so we are continuing on with it. We are almost finished Medieval times, and will be studying the Renaissance/Early Modern times. We will continue using History Odyssey level 2 from Pandia Press as a guideline.

Here is a small chart that I did to figure out which rotation of time period for history would work best for all of us. I wanted to make sure that no child would end up with a time period missing. This might have become an issue for Adrienne, since she only has a few years left. Following the Well Trained Mind way, there are 4 time periods for history:

Ancients (5000BC-400AD), Medieval (4001600), Renaissance/Early Modern (1600-1850), Modern (1850-present).

Using the History Odyssey as a guideline, we can study the same time period together. Celeste will be doing a light introduction, using the Usborne History Encyclopedia as a spine, while Adrienne and Andre will be using the level 2 guide with the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia as the main spine. We have really enjoyed learning history together using History Odyssey this past year. It includes writing assignments, along with lots of map work, time line work, and a lot of literature.

For science this coming year, we will not be using an actual curriculum. I am putting it together. I am following the cycle suggested in the Well Trained Mind again. We covered Chemistry using Noeo Homeschool Science this past year and while we were pleased with it, we knew we wanted to do something different this year.

The classical science rotation covers four main science fields, one per year, and repeats over the three stages of classical education (grammar, logic, rhetoric). Those four fields are biology, earth science and astronomy, chemistry, physics.

This coming year, we will be learning about physics. I am following the Well Trained Mind and keeping our study experiment-focused. We will still be keeping a notebook for lab notes on our experiments and definitions. We will start our year with the Physics Workshop from Thames & Kosmos. I have had a chance to look through the guide that came with the box and it has so much information, not just instructions on how to do the experiments. We will also be looking up corresponding pages in our Usborne Science Encyclopedia and using the suggested internet links from it.

Celeste will be participating with us, and I will be using the First Encyclopedia of Science as her spine.

We will be using a few smaller experiments kits later on the year, but this should keep us busy for a while!

For both subjects, history and science, we will be using our local library to supplement with reading. 

I enjoy planning out our year, and it is necessary. Trying to pull things out only that day or a couple days before just doesn't work for us. While we will be taking a break in july, I will be figuring out a daily schedule for us. I also have started going through the science and art & music appreciation topics and matching up library books or internet links. It might sound like a lot of work, but it has never felt like work to me because I love it!