FiveJs
Friday, July 4, 2008

Curriculum Plan for 2008-2009

My list of curriculum to use for the next school year has evolved slowly over the last couple months. But I think—and I mean, I think—that the following list is the plan we're at least going to begin with next year, meaning August/September. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind about using a particular curriculum based on how the kids are responding to it.

This next school year I will have a sixth grade boy (Jaden), a fourth grade girl (Jerah), and a first grade girl (Joely). It will be the first time that I'll have to deal with formally working with three students at the same time since we did Joely's kindergarten year in a very laid back manner. This worked well for both her and me, and she still learned everything she needed to learn. But now that she's in first grade, I'm going to be requiring a little more of her (and of myself).

Our school week consists of four days of full-blown "school" and one day (Wednesday) that is more laid back and mainly dedicated to courses outside the "core" of the three R's such as music, art, logic, etc. The reason Wednesdays are that way for us is due to our spending Wednesday afternoons at homeschool club. Because of this already disrupted schedule, we just decided to make Wednesday mornings a little less structured as well. It also gives us a nice "break" in the middle of the week.

So here's the plan. Curricula marked with a single * will be done by Jaden and Jerah together. Those items marked with a double ** will be done by all three children simultaneously. Although the list seems lengthy, we don't necessarily work on each book/subject every single day.

Jaden, sixth grade boy:

  • Math: My goal this year is to introduce some pre-Algebra and geometry concepts, and then do a lot of review and application of the concepts he already knows. He completed Saxon 76 last year (we went through it very quickly since most of the concepts he had already learned in the Key to… books), so there's not a lot in the way of new concepts that he's in need of for his sixth grade year. We'll be drawing from several different resources for math. I'll also be referring to Maximum Math, by Kathryn Stout, to help guide me in choosing concepts he needs to work on. Of course, we won't be doing all the books at the same time; we'll just be using them all as resources since we aren't using a single pre-packaged graded curriculum.
  • Language Arts:
  • Foreign Language: *Latina Christiana II (we finished level I last year)
  • Science: We'll (attempt to) go through each Apologia book in about 13 weeks. We'll also go through next summer to finish them. I'd like to be able to finish all the Apologia books so Jaden can start a full-blown 7th grade science curriculum next year (2009-2010).
    • **Exploring Creation with Zoology 1, 2 & 3
    • **Exploring Creation with Astronomy
  • Logic:
    • Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural (Jaden finished Building Thinking Skills Book 2 last year)
    • *Brain Games—we'll be doing these on Wednesday, which is dubbed "Game Day" since we'll be playing board games as a family for "school time." Of course, the choice of the games will be mine, but they will be games in which the kids can practice various skills (like Boggle, Monopoly, Pictionary, Yahtzee, etc.)
  • History/Social Studies/Geography:
  • Bible: *Bible Drill through our church
  • Art & Music:
    • Guitar lessons with Dad
    • **Meet the Great Composers I (we started this last year, and the kids really enjoyed it)
    • **Drawing lessons with Mom (Wednesdays)
    • **Artist study with library books (Wednesdays)
  • PE:
    • Daily walking for 30 minutes as a family during lunchtime
    • Semi-organized PE class every other week with our local homeschool club

Jerah, fourth grade girl:

  • Math: Jerah has completed Saxon 5/4 and Math U See Delta. I've chosen not to use a graded curriculum this year, so we're going to focus on specific topics and do a lot of review and reinforcement. I'll be referring to Maximum Math for Jerah as well.
  • Language Arts: Jerah has aspirations to be an author when she grows up, so I'm going to be exploiting this interest and we will focus a lot on writing.
  • Foreign Language: *Latina Christiana II (we finished level I last year)
  • Science: We'll (attempt to) go through each Apologia book in about 13 weeks. We'll also go through next summer to finish them. I'd like to be able to finish all the Apologia books so Jaden can start a full-blown 7th grade science curriculum next year (2009-2010).
    • **Exploring Creation with Zoology 1, 2 & 3
    • **Exploring Creation with Astronomy
  • Logic:
  • History/Social Studies/Geography:
  • Bible: *Bible Drill through our church
  • Art & Music:
    • Piano lessons with Mom
    • **Meet the Great Composers I (we started this last year, and the kids really enjoyed it)
    • **Drawing lessons with Mom (Wednesdays)
    • **Artist study with library books (Wednesdays)
  • PE:
    • Daily walking for 30 minutes as a family during lunchtime
    • Semi-organized PE class every other week with our local homeschool club

Joely, first grade girl:

  • Math: We'll be doing a lot of hand-on activities. We used Math U See Primer last year, but I to do things on our own this upcoming year. I'll be drawing from the following resources.
  • Language Arts:
    • Explode the Code
    • Ruth Beechick-style dictation/copywork/grammar/writing exercises
    • Wordly Wise 3000, Book A (4 days/week)—we also use this for spelling
    • A Reason for Handwriting Book A (4 days/week)—Jaden and Jerah did cursive in this series this last year, and their penmanship greatly improved.

    • Daily writing in a personal journal (4 days/week)
    • Reading aloud with Mom for 30 minutes a day (with phonics lessons "on the fly"
  • Science: We'll (attempt to) go through each Apologia book in about 13 weeks. We'll also go through next summer to finish them. I'd like to be able to finish all the Apologia books so Jaden can start a full-blown 7th grade science curriculum next year (2009-2010).
    • **Exploring Creation with Zoology 1, 2 & 3
    • **Exploring Creation with Astronomy
  • History/Social Studies/Geography:
  • Art & Music:
    • **Meet the Great Composers I (we started this last year, and the kids really enjoyed it)
    • **Drawing lessons with Mom (Wednesdays)
    • **Artist study with library books (Wednesdays)
  • PE:
    • Daily walking for 30 minutes as a family during lunchtime (although Joely will probably still be riding in the jogging stroller until she can keep up with us)
    • Semi-organized PE class every other week with our local homeschool club
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