2008-2009 Plan

I've been away longer then I intended -- real life and all, you know: the school year ended, curriculum was ordered, several out-of-state family members visited, children lost teeth, more curriculum was ordered, we hit 100 degrees F here in AZ, my "baby" turned 3, more curriculum was ordered...

I have a plan for the new year. A great plan. A mostly-purchased-for plan... And yet, my copy of The Latin-Centered Curriculum is on it's way and just last week I brought up to my husband the possibility of putting at least one of our children into a local prep school. So many avenues, so many options, so many choices! A blessing to be sure, but a weighty one, indeed.

As of today the plan for 2008-2009 is as follows:

8th grade
M-F
Math: CLE
English: CLE
Reading: CLE
Social Studies: CLE
Literature: Logic Stage Middle Ages WTM list
M-Th
Writing: Wordsmith
Science: Total Health (Middle School)

6th grade
M-F
Math: MUS Pre-Alg
English: CLE
Reading: CLE
Latin: Lively Latin 2
Science: CLE
Literature: Logic Stage Middle Ages WTM list
M-Th
Writing: Sentence Composing for Middle School
History: Famous Men of the Middle Ages & SOTW 2

3rd grade
M-F
Math: MUS Delta & CWP 3
English: CLE
Reading: CLE
Latin: Minimus
Writing: Happy Scribe and narrations from history OR WT 1
Logic: Building Thinking Skills 1
Literature: Middle Ages (SOTW AG) and FIAR Vol 1 go-alongs
M-Th
Science: Science Through Children's Literature & My Pals are Here 3
History: SOTW 2 & AG

1st grade
M-F
Phonics: OPGTR
Handwriting: HWT
Math: Earlybird 2a & b
Five in a Row, Vol 1

3yo
Tagging along & nipping at everyone's heels
Listening to lots of stories


As a family:
Daily: Homeschool PE
Friday: Artists and Composers from Middle Ages (WTM lists)
Saturday: Phonics of Drawing CD from Masterpiece Art Instruction
One or two weeknights: Mind Benders & Fallacy Detective

I have been refining a list for Artist & Composers -- trying to choose 8 of each from about 400-1600 AD. I might just buy Harmony Fine Arts 5th grade.
My 1st & 3rd graders will do a FIAR co-op with 3 other families every other Monday. I have been looking through the manual and deciding what we'll cover. I used FIAR Vol 1 when my girls were little and am so glad to be able to do it with my boys now! The off Mondays are going to be for library/nature walks (the library backs up to a Riparian Preserve). I signed the 3 older kids up for a 2 week chess class in June and hope to have them all enjoy it so much that they'll continue w/ the homeschool club in the fall. Also my oldest is volunteering at a nearby organic dairy farm one morning a week.

Oh, and when do I plan to start all this? Maybe all the CLE subjects in June and everything else in July...

Got Chemistry?

We're using The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe by Ellen McHenry and loving it! This is a one semester course designed for grades 4-8, but my 2nd grader is tagging along with ease.
As a read aloud, we have The Chemy Called Al by Wendy Isdell. Not especially well written, this book does have an interesting premise: the Land of Science is inhabited by the "former periodics" such as Aurum (Gold) and Kalium (Potassium) in the form of horses.
Here are some websites we've come across:
Chem 4 Kids
Periodic Table in Pictures & Words
Interactive Chemical Elements
The Wooden Periodic Table
Period Table of Comic Books
Wizzy Periodic Table
Fun Brain Period Table
Science is Fun
Periodic Table ADventure
Visual Interpretation of the Elements

I'm going to try to post a little about each of our curriculum choices this year. This will serve as both records for myself (I'm a terrible record keeper!) and as a mini-reviews. I need a review-system. How about paw prints?
The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe gets 5 out of 5 paw prints! I just need a little picture now...

Homeschooling Only One

Yesterday, three of my four school-aged children were sick. Ginger, the oldest, was in day three of the flu, having missed getting it when the rest of us did, the week before. Tullius and Zamakee, in 2nd grade and kindergarten respectively, both had fevers. Not sure if it was a relapse, a repeat or something new... So my 5th grader Momo got to be an only student.

MATH Math-U-See Zeta, Lesson 21, Practice B Long division with decimals, rounding patterns, remainders as fractions, etc. Boring. Easy. 100% A+.

LATIN Lively Latin, Lesson 11.3 Forming the Future Tense I love Latin, so we did this together. Interesting. Easy. 100% A+.

LOGIC Building Thinking Skills 2, Chapter 10 Verbal Analogies A page of such things as marble:stone :: diamond:jewel. Not sure if it was easy or not, but she got them all right, as usual.

GRAMMAR Straight Forward English Series Verbs, p 13, Spelling Rules for Tense. Adding -s or -es to some verbs and then making sentences with them. Here are some of her sentences:
The eyrie tosses the yooyu ball to the jubjub.
The hissi drinks the morphing potion and changes into a cybunny.
Ah, good old Neopia! Easy. All correct...

CHEMISTRY The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe, Chapter 3 Activity #5 & #6 This involved finding the number of protons in 25 or so different elements and looking at a cool website called Dave's Wizzy Periodic Table This takes awhile to load, but is worth it for looking at how many electrons are in which S & P orbitals. I have a slightly difficult time understanding about the orbitals, but she doesn't. Chemistry really is fascinating! Maybe Momo will be a chemist.

HISTORY Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Week 24 Sigh. We could be doing SO MUCH...but we're not. Her reading is a 2 page spread in The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. Called "Battles and Battle Formations," it looks really unmemorable so I suggest we read it together. Everyone else is either sleeping or quietly playing.

We read the second page on formations first. Several times she mentions having "read about that" and goes back to find the page. Tomorrow, if everyone is well enough to go outside, we'll model the battle positions. We certainly have enough shields and sticks! Then we look at the list of battles on the first page. We decide to try to find them on our fold-out National Geographic Map of "The Historic Mediterranean 800 BC to AD 1500" that is on the kitchen table under the plastic table cloth.

The descriptions are short and not very specific, such as:
CHAERONEA A town in Central Greece, the site of Philip II of Macedon's decisive victory over the Greek cities in 338 BC. We struggle with the vagueness, but have fun trying to locate them. Not all are on the map.


And that was the school day. Not perfect, but peaceful and productive. I wish I could spend such time with her everyday. I wish I could spend such time with each of my children everyday.

Rest of the year: 5th grade & 2nd grade

Here is the rest of Momo's year. She's in 5th grade, using mostly the same curriculum as Ginger. The only differences are that she is in Math-U-See Epislon and is using Building Thinking Skills 2 instead of a formal spelling program. She does do spelling by using Tapestry of Grace's Vocabulary. I should post about that one day... I bought a poetry workbook and a test prep book for Momo, I just haven't started them with her yet.

I decided to edit this post & add 2nd grade since I just finished the sheet. This is for Tullius, who just turned 8. He really needs to be challenged...I just haven't found anything that does. Even multiplying a 3 digit by 4 digit number only confused him for a week or so. Oh, and he wrote down our milage on January 31st: 66,032 miles.

Thanks for the kind comments about my last spreadsheet. If you don't use/like Excel, a table in Word can be used to accomplish the same thing. I have to say that I did not come up with the idea on my own!! I've seen it on lovely blogs like Narrow Gate Academy and Trivium Academy.

This is the year we learn Latin

Here are some of the Latin materials we own...the binder is Lively Latin, which is currently a pdf download. The Help Your Child with a Foreign Language is from the library. As a side note, the first chapter of this book reads like a how-to homeschool manual, giving all the reasons that parents can make good teachers for their own children.

THIS YEAR'S GRAND PLAN

1. Complete Lively Latin (in Lesson 4 & so far, so good)
2. Learn Numbers, Colors, Days, Months, Greetings, Commands, etc
3. Use Before You Know It Lite to review
4. Complete Minimus (start in January)

And specifically for the magistra (that would be me):

5. Begin Latin Made Simple
6. Create a compilation for #2 that could be shared with other homeschoolers

That is the current plan. Lingua Anglica will be saved for next year when we are studying the Middle Ages. Latin Primer (as well as Latina Christiana I & Latin for Children A, which I also own) will be resources for seeing just what is taught in beginning Latin programs.

I'm excited about all this -- I'm a student, too!

Oh, I must give credit to My Two Blessings for reminding me about Before You Know It!

2007-2008 @ Stonewall Academy

As the Magistra for Stonewall Academy, I've made the decision to start a seperate blog that is just homeschool related. Our family website & blogs, along with our picture pages will remain at
Stonewall Academy Check these out when you have a chance!

This school year began on July 9, 2007 -- today began our 5th week!

**Curriculum Choices for the Whole Family**

Tapestry of Grace Year 1 This covers history, literature, geography, writing, and fine arts.
Lively Latin We will learn Latin this year!
God's Design for Science Plants 1st semester (2nd semester will be Chemistry)


**Curriculum Choices by Grade**

7th Grade Ginger
Math Key to Fractions, Decimals, Percents; Comic Strip Math
Grammar Journey Through Grammar Land
Spelling Apples
Handwriting Evan-Moor Cursive
Science The Botany Coloring Book

5th Grade Momo
Math Math U See Zeta; Figure It Out 5
Grammar Journey Through Grammar Land
Spelling Vocabulary from Tapestry of Grace
Handwriting Evan-Moor Cursive
Logic Building Thinking Skills 2

2nd Grade Tullius
Math Math U See Gamma; Challenging Word Problems 2, Mathematical Reasoning
Spelling Vocabulary from Tapestry of Grace
Handwriting Cursive First

Kindergarten Zamakee
Phonics Stairway to Reading; Spell to Write & Read Phonograms
Skill Workbooks Kumon Pasting; Can You Find Me?; Visual Perceptual Skill Building; Buliding Thinking Skills
Read Alouds Winnie the Pooh; Beatrix Potter books; Before Five in a Row books

Pre-School Beanie
So far, he's just tagging along...trying to learning the phonograms with Zamakee!