Sunday, August 2, 2009

School Plans for 2009-2010

We are a homeschool family with four children. Our oldest graduated this past May and our three youngest are in the primary grades. Goldilocks (8) is adopted and has RAD and FASD. She has many learning challenges and keeps me challenged trying to teach her the same thing over and over again without boring her to tears. Tom Sawyer (7) is also adopted and has loads of Sensory and occupational therapy (OT) issues. We are really busy taking him to different therapies. He is also very bright and demands that "school" be done constantly. He is super eager to know everything! Little Red Riding Hood (5) is our youngest. She is a good little learner. However, she would rather be playing with her dolls and practicing being a mommy! During lessons, she often asks whether or not she needs to know this to be a mommy.

We are back to full-time school and all is going well, so far. I am hoping that this year will be smoother and more fun than last year. It feels strange to have a graduate and only have the primary grades to teach. This year I am teaching "only" two grades.  Hooray!! Goldilocks (8) and Little Red Riding Hood (5) will be doing first grade math and language arts and Tom Sawyer (7) will be doing second grade math and language arts. The rest of the subjects will be done with all of them. Also, Tom Sawyer will be doing Latin and cursive on his own, unless anyone else wants to join in.

I want to add in two more Charlotte Mason lessons this year. We will start Nature Journals and studying Shakespeare. We do have a lot of plans and books for this year, but we will not be doing them all at once. We homeschool every day of the year, so it isn't that overwhelming when spread out over an entire year. Here is our school plan.

Language Arts -
Math  -
Literature -

For literature we will be using FIAR books with our support group, chapter books at tea time, and two Shakespeare plays. Here is our list of chapter books so far:   
  • A Bear Called Paddington    
  • Gullivar's Adventures in Lilliput    
  • Five Peppers and How They Grew    
  • The Black Stallion    
  • Page Boy for King Arthur    
  • Emil and The Detectives    
  • The Railway Children    
  • The Family Under the Bridge
History -  
  • Story of The World Vol. 2    
  • Biographies of people during time period    
  • Related books to time period    
  • We are hoping to take a trip to a Renaissance Fair this year
Nature Study -

We will be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock and The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady by Holden to assist us with our Nature Journals. We will also be using the Draw Write Now series.

 Science -

Following a classical education rotation, we are on Earth Science this year. There will be a bit more biology added in as well. We will be doing unit studies that last about two months each.   
  • July/August - Earthquakes and Volcanoes    
  • Sept./Oct. - Oceans and Beach life    
  • Nov. - Glaciers and Artic life    
  • Dec./Jan. - Astronomy    
  • Feb./March - Rain/Snow/Wild Weather    
  • April/May - Geology
Art  -

We will do art similar to science with unit studies. However, we will follow the time periods of our Story of the World studies (SOTW). We will use books for each time period and artist, picture study, and the Draw Write Now series. We will also be doing art classes once a month at the local art museum.   
  • Byzantine art - Mosaics    
  • Gothic Architecture - Gargoyles and stained glass    
  • Giotto - 1266-1337    
  • Jan van Eyck1385? - 1441    
  • Sandro Botticelli - 1444- 1510    
  • Leonardo Da Vinci - 1452-1519    
  • Michelangelo - 1475-1564    
  • Raphael - 1483-1520
Music -

We will be listening to period music to go along with SOTW. We will also be studying the composition of orchestras and a mini-unit study on Peter and the Wolf.

Geography -

We will be using the book series, Legends and Leaguesand Holling Clancy Holling books. 

Foreign Language -  
  • Latin - Song School Latin    
  • Spanish - Spanish/English books on tape
P.E. -
  • Swimming lessons for Tom Sawyer    
  • Horseback riding lessons for Tom Sawyer and Goldilocks    
  • Ballet and Tap dance lessons for Little Red Riding Hood
Character Training -

Of course, character training is going on all the time, and you do not need a book to do it. However, I have found these books to be useful to read aloud and as reference material:
   
  • Managers of Their Chores    
  • The Book of Virtues for Young People - William Bennett    
  • The Brother - Offended Program    
  • Simply Charlotte Mason Presents - Laying Down the Rails
Sensory/OT/Speech therapies -
 
WOW! If you are still with me, you are a real trooper. Well, that is the general plan. I hope you all have a blessed week.

Blessings, Dawn




11 comments:

  1. Yes, I'm still with you, so that must make me a "real trooper." I wouldn't miss anything that you write about your school, looking to glean all that I can.

    I like the books you are using about character - two of those I have, the rest I've never heard of before. I'm going to look into those.

    Have a great week!

    Antoinette

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  2. This is great... thanks for posting! You gave me a couple new ideas :-) I wanted to school all through the year but this year we went on a first family vacation ever, and it put me sort of behind. It was all worth it though! Now, since we haven't had school in awhile, they are *asking* about it continually. It looks like I will start on Aug. 10th, which is also the same starting date as the area public schools.


    I just wanted to let you know, even though I don't post here as often as you, I check out your blog almost DAILY. You post some great, and some helpful stuff here. :-)

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  3. Dawn,

    Sounds like you've done a great job of planning out your year!! It looks like alot of fun!!

    Have a wonderful week!

    Michelle

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  4. Looks like you are all set. I so admire you having graduated one already. I have 6 more years to go for my eldest, God-willing. Thanks for posting your plans which also reminds me I have to start setting up for our fulltime school year, too. We have been homeschooling lightly thru summer.


    All the best blessings =)


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  5. coffeeandconversationAugust 4, 2009 at 5:51 AM

    I just found your blog and I am enjoying reading about your family and homeschool. I think I am going to learn a lot from your writing. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  6. I found your link on THL. It looks like you've laid out a great plan.


    We also incorporate Nature Study and Shakespeare in our homeschool. Shakespeare has become a favorite subject for my children (12, 14, 16). Have you read Wild Days? I read it as I was preparing to begin nature studies with the kids and really enjoyed it.


    Blessings!

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  7. Wow! Looks like you have a great year coming up. Now I need to get organized.

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  8. Thanks for sharing your homeschool plans for the coming year with us. I am going to be starting 100 easy lessons for my almost 5 year old. How did that go? Was it really easy to teach your child to read? I am a little nervous ;-)


    I will also be using Explode the Code, love those workbooks.


    Have a terrific year!!

    Jenn

    http://oursnapshotlife.blogspot.com

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  9. Sounds like a great year ahead! I love your idea to match up art with the time periods from SOTW, I hadn't thought of that!


    Thanks for stopping by my blog, have a great weekend!


    Gina, http://notsorandomstuff.blogspot.com/

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  10. That is certainly a list! I think the pictures are great:)

    God Bless.

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  11. Kristal @ knit1kids4.wordpress.comAugust 9, 2009 at 1:24 PM

    great choices... we use Horizons

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