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 -

• Reason for Spelling    
• Explode the Code    
• Copy work books from Queens Homeschool Supplies    
• My Book About Me by Dr. Seuss    
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive    
• Goldilocks will be using Bob Books, Hooked on Phonics and Phonics games for reading.    
• Little Red Riding Hood will finish up 100 Easy Lessons and move into early readers.    
• Tom Sawyer will build on his well-established phonics with harder early readers and beginning chapter books.

Math  -

• Horizon Math 
•  Family Math for Young Children    
• Lots of living math books and games

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 Eyck -  1385? - 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 Leagues,  and 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 -
 

• Speech for Tom Sawyer and Goldilocks    
• Tomatis for Tom Sawyer    
• The Out of Sync Child Has Fun - Games    
• Helping The Child Who Doesn't Fit In - Games and activities to work on impulse control and spatial relations.

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