Curriculum

How ironic, but embarrassingly enough, *SO* like me: not one day after typing in those '09-'10 plans below, I ditched almost all of them and ordered Oak Meadow for everyone, with TT math instead of OM math. We'll still do the Alphabet Path over the summer, but I'm going to keep it geared down and focused on the littles, instead of trying to get everyone to go along in some way.

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It's fun to come back to this old post and see just how much or little I actually stuck with the plan. :)

2009-2010 Curriculum Plans

A combination of Sonlight Core 5 and Serendipity's World Tour, adding in some Galloping the Globe and much of my own library gleaning - for all students: Rose (6th), Skye (4th) and Jane (1st). We're going Waldorfy/Charlotte Mason-y this year, with much of art and language arts co-inciding with whatever main topic we are considering ...copywork, original essays, and illustrations of stories we read. So this covers history/geography, language arts, and art, and even some science.

The rest of science will be from Exploring Creation with Botany from Apologia.

Math will be Teaching Textbooks 6 (going on 7) for Rose, 4 and then 5 for Skye, and Jane is actually doing 4 for fun (!) and I'll be teaching her lessons from Right Start B and C (to make sure we're not missing the "whys" of stuff.

I have Oak Meadow 1st grade coming for some more ideas for the little ones.

For the summer of 2009 we are doing Serendipity's Along the Alphabet Path morphed by what I can get at our library plus the few volumes we own.

2008-2009 Curriculum Plans

Sonlight Core 4 and Sonlight 4 Language Arts, as is, following the instructors guide as much as possible, as history, grammar, writing, and reading for Rose (11 in Nov.) and Skye (9 in Nov.). This is a departure for us as I usually buck the IGs within two weeks. "The Plan" is to follow them this year, because it's good enough, and it will prevent me from running fruitlessly after "the perfect" all year.

All About Spelling for Rose and Jane this year. This will also be Jane's phonics as it's enough for this natural reader/speller right now. For handwriting Jane will be tracing and copying her spelling words using Startwrite software. Skye will stick with Sequential Spelling because she is also a natural speller and it's just enough "umph" without being totally boring and "test driven" (i.e. learn these words for the test, then forget them the day after).

Jane will continue to read books as she is able. She is a great reader for her age. No plan or textbooks necessary right now.

Exploring Creation With Astronomy for Rose and Skye, and Jane (5) and Batty (3) when they want to listen and explore with us. If we finish this up early, I also have Astronomy for Every Kid which we can enjoy together.

Math: Teaching Textbooks 6 for Rose. Right Start D for Skye, and A for Jane.

On the plan for religion is reading through Seton's Religion 4 and the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism No. 1. I really need to beef up the plans in this area, though. We are not "unschooling" this enough. I want to visit and revisit events of the liturgical year as the underpinnings of our life. We've only been pecking at it here and there :( . My fault.

Physical Education - Roller Skating lessons for Rose through our local Rec Center. Also through the rec center will be soccer for both Skye and Jane (for the first time!). For all four girls, a private homeschool gym class that runs once a week during the fall and spring.

Private art lessons (with my mom, LOL, but hey, she did go to art school as did my dad who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree) for all of them. Plus Rose and Skye often take how-to-draw books out of the library. We study artists on the sly pretty much - I'll take out a coffee table book with certain works to look at, or I'll have something on my laptops desktop, or we'll look at our Dover art cards together. There's enough art-talk in the family that they are not lacking in this area.

Music? Ugh. Dabbling - we have recorders and recorder books, a keyboard and piano books, and classical music CDs and tapes everywhere. I would like to do a little more leading in this area, but it's one thing that always gets dropped when things get crazy here. We definitely "unschool" this enough to get by, but I would like to do more.

Now, if I could only figure out how to handle my wild 3 yo and a soon to be walking (and getting into everything) infant, life would be heavenly! ;-)

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2007-2008 Curriculum (a.k.a. things we've used, things we're using, and things I hope we'll get to this year)

Right Start Math -Level D for Rosalind, C for Skye, A for Jane when she feels like it

90% of the booklist from Sonlight 3 and 4 for history and reading for both Rosalind and Skye

Science, geography, math, language arts are being partially covered by Evan Moor's Take it to Your Seat series.

For P.E. The girls take a local class in fall and spring; also swimming in summer and soccer (Skye)

Religion is covered in daily living - praying, talking about the liturgical year, reading saint stories, and this year they are both signed up for CCD (and the fact that my 4th grader watched Frosty the Snowman there last week confirms what I already knew - it's pretty much just babysitting!)

We are also slowly using:

Simply Grammar
Considering God's Creation
Startwrite

...and lots of day to day living: talking, artwork, cooking, cleaning, talking, reading, talking, playing, and talking!

also see posts labeled: Epiphany Prep School (for Wayward Girls) and Crisis Mode Curriculum

(this post will be edited as the year progresses)