Curriculum Plans 2012/2013

This post is part of a series showing the realness of homeschooling---the ugly, frustrating, and wonderfulness of it all. 

English:
Rod and Staff 8

Vocabulary.com

Megawords:
Sentence Composing for Middle School

Math:
Derek Owens Algebra

Science:
Rainbow Science

Literature:

Windows to the World: Introduction to Literary Analysis Teacher and Student

Self-Evident Truths Series: Statements of Equality

Logic:
The Art of Argument
Critical Thinking in United States History: New Republic to Civil War

Art:
Art will be outsourced this year.   Both E-R and I-E are quite talented, and I’ve taken them as far as I can.   They will be picking a specialty and working with an artist later on this year.

Drama: 
I-E and E-R tried out and got parts in The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever at a local playhouse.   Rehearsals are filling up their afternoons.   After this show, we will be taking a break from acting so they can concentrate on art, but I’m sure another show will be in their future later in the year.  

History:
Liberty! The Series
George Washington’s World
Abraham Lincoln’s World
A History of US
Student News Daily

Additional we are reading for one hour a day.   I have a pile of books on the shelf that are available for the girls to choose from each week.  

Week 25

 

Spring is here! 

We have enjoyed the sunshine and worked on our garden this week.   Our potatoes are up and carrots and onions are planted.   On our patio we’ve planted tomatoes under the dryer vent and lettuce in the shade.  

 

In Math we came to a stand-still with our Singapore.    We worked through the lesson on finding the area of composite figures, but the homework didn’t work out so well.    The girls got most of the problems wrong, and I even after working through the problems numerous times I just can’t get my answers (or I-E’s and E-R’s ) to match up to the answers provided in the answer key.    My husband (also known as Mr. Math Genius) will have a math session with the girls this weekend to help them figure out the problems.   A big part of me feels that the answer key is wrong! (the answer key was wrong!)   In place of Singapore, the girls worked ahead in Key to Algebra.  

In English we’ve almost finished up pronouns.   Next week we will have a chapter review and test before moving onto adjectives.   We had one day of feeling lazy so instead of our usual lesson the girls put together a Jeopardy game.

 

It was an excellent way to review—and actually more work than working though a lesson (but I kept that info to my self).  

Essay Voyage focused on content  this week.  The more we work with Essay Voyage the more I like it.    I must admit the classic essays didn’t excite me, and the thought of skipping them did occur to me.   After reading excerpts from  Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, James Boswell’s biography of Samuel Johnson,  and Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, I am glad we ploughed through.    Often the vocabulary is difficult and the reading slow, but oh the rewards of sharing the ideas with my girls!  I love the discussions that have ensued.   Wish I had a few more thumbs---I’d give this program 6 thumbs up! 

In History we continued studying The Age of Exploration.    We read about Columbus, da Gama, Cabral, Cortes, and Cabot.  We  focused on note-taking and forming outlines from those notes.   The girls formed an outline from the notes they took last week from the article in The Almanac of World History.  Birth of a New World Religion also provided note-taking practice.  We discussed  what lead to Columbus’s “discovery”  of the New World as well as some of the consequences of that discovery.   Ended the week watching When Worlds Collide.  

I-E started new acting classes—improv and stage combat.  She learned how to perform a slap, a kick in stomach, and a hair pull!   E-R finished her pre-engineering class this week and will start robotics and animation classes in a few weeks.  

A busy, full, productive week with sunshine!  How was your week?

<center><a href="http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/search/label/Weekly%20Wrap-up"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/kbmomto3/weeklywrap-up2.jpg" /></a></center>

Week 20

I look at the number 20 above and think how far we’ve come this year.   We’ve made it past the half way mark of our school year! 

One thing that stood out this week was our literature discussion about I Am David by Anne Holm. 




We had gotten behind in our Blackbird &Company study guide,



and since the girls have been doing so much writing in other areas, I decided we would work through the guide orally.  The discussion questions in these guides never fail to impress me.
 

         Johannes once said, “Greedy people can never be happy,” he also said, “When you very much             want something you haven’t got, you no longer care for what you have got.”  Do you agree with these statements?  Why or why not? Can you give examples to support your opinion.

This question brought about an awesome discussion on those that have, those that don’t have, gratitude, materialism, ambition, and the attitude of always wanting more.

 
Of course Iva was disappointed the dog died!  And I kinda have to agree!  Perhaps publishers around the world should ban together and refuse to publish any children and young adult books where the dog dies!
    
Joy was restored when I pulled out the new highlighters!  What is it about office supplies that make us so happy?



   
Valentine’s Day was celebrated by heart attacking  our adopted grandma.   We also had a nice supper which E-R and I-E helped prepare and set the table with chocolates and roses at each place setting.
  
We finished our Key to  Algebra Book 1.   I-E is moving onto Book 2, while E-R decided to start the Key to Geometry Book 1.   Our new Singapore Math books (6B) arrived on Thursday, so we will start those next week.   I’ve decided to slow down on the Hands of Equations program to concentrate a bit more on our test prep book.   I’ve found that E-R and I-E understand the concepts that will be on the standardized math test, but don’t always understand the  terms those concepts are presented in, so we are practicing math problems with those terms.
      
In Spelling this week, E-R and I-E were thrilled to have tested out of list 6.  E-R was also excited to test out of list 7 and move on to list 8.   That left I-E by herself working on list 7.   She was very upset, this being the first time something like this has happened.    I knew that eventually one of them would pull ahead of the other in something.   I-E and I have talked about it, but she’s still not happy.   I do think this may push her to work a bit harder, and maybe in a few weeks things will be switched  up with I-E working ahead of her sister.

We finished up verb usage this week in English.   Next week we’ll move into pronouns.     In Grammar of Middle School: Sentence Composing we worked on absolute phrase.   Essay Voyage covered formality this week.

History introduced Spain’s political history during the Renaissance.  The girls took the note taking they’ve been practicing a step further by organizing those notes into outlines.   It’s a skill we’ll keep practicing for the next few weeks.   We also started reading an adaptation of Don Quixote.   E-R thinks the author must have been a bit crazy!
 

E-R

and I-E

working hard 

 

Books Should Be Free—And They Are!

I recently stumbled upon booksshouldbefree.com. What a find!   This site has hundreds of free audiobooks.  The stories can be streamed on your computer or downloaded onto your IPod or any other MP3 file.    Many books also include links to both sites with the text of these books, so one can follow along,  and sites with information about the books and authors.  Another neat feature are the many books in languages other than English.  Studying French, the fur trade, and Jules Verne?   How about listening to The Fur Country in French?     No copyright laws are violated as these books are all in the public domain. 

Here are just a few of the books we’ve enjoyed from booksshouldbefree.com 

And I’m looking forward to hearing the Bible read in French

(perhaps, it will help me remember all that French I shoved into my head back in college)

as well as

Enjoy and Happy Listening!

Check out what other homeschool moms are doing at




Housefullofbookworms.com

and

Teach Me Tuesdays

The Things Kids Write

Recently my daughter discovered the much anticipated fight scene for Winter’s Tale would involve combs.  Yes, COMBS!    The play is set in the 1950s, so the director decided the greasers would pull the combs out of their back pockets for the fight scene.   Each year the kids look forward to learning the fight scene as it usually involves swords or pikes or some such exciting weapon.   Utter disbelief is the only way I can describe E-R’s reaction to this announcement.   On the walk home from Shakespeare, E-R orally put together her argument,   and once home she quickly sat down and wrote out this speech to share with the director.  

KNIVES

I was raised by the Filipinos (the knife people).  Knives are not useless.  We use knives for everything: opening cereal boxes, opening gifts, hunting, opening bags, and self-dense.  Like the “The Outsiders” Johnny saved his friend Ponyboy with his knife ( But he killed him but that is not the point).  We bring it everywhere: to the super market, to a movie, to the park, and to go bowling.  The knife will never go out of style;  my Grandpa still carries one.  The knife is part of your family.  You might think that it is funny to fight with a comb, but knives are the real weapons.You should never use a comb to fight and call your-self a man.  I will never surrender to the comb.  It is against my rule and the knife people’s rule to use a comb when fighting.  BECAUSE WE ARE MEN WE USE KNIVES.  And because, combs are for sissies; knives are for men.
And that is why we should use knives in our fight for Shakespeare not combs

My daughter started out the school year writing four sentence paragraphs.  Each sentence consisted of a subject, verb, and direct object with an occasional adjective thrown in for good measure.  It is exciting to be her mom and teacher and see the progress that is occurring in this arena.       

What progress has you excited?

  

Be sure to check out what others are learning about at

  

and

Week 13

Last Saturday we got to watch the lunar eclispe.    It was pretty awesome and a great start to our weekend.

My photog skills aren't up to the task of documenting this awesome event.

Our school week was spent wrapping up lose ends before our Christmas break. 

We worked through chapter 3 of Rod and Staff 7 which covered verbals and substantives.  After break we’ll cover the writing from that chapter and review before taking the chapter test.  Ideally we could have covered the entire chapter, but it didn’t work out that way this time.   We’ll make sure to take lots of time to review before taking the chapter test.

Mapping the World with Art covered the voyages of Christopher Columbus.  I-E and E-R learned to draw The Greater Antilles and The Lesser Antilles Islands.   They then combined them together in an antique style map. 




In Math we covered proportions and rates.   In addition to our Singapore work, we had fun realizing how important proportion is when working with photos.  

I-E also used proportion to enlarge our template for gingerbread houses.  She had to scale back her original creation so it could fit in the oven to bake!   We’re looking forward to decorating our gingerbread house with cousins during break.

Spelling took more work than planned.   After flying through the first word list in Mega Words, I expected the second lesson to be just as easy for I-E and E-R.   Turned out not to be the case!    Those schwa sounds at ends of words were killers for my girls.   We added some neat activities from our new box of Spelling Power task cards.

E-R chose  to spell out her words on the keypad of my phone, while I-R used toothpicks to spell out her words.   And the test was finally passed!   We will move onto the third word list after break.  

In history we learned about Renaissance music in Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines.  




    We also took an unplanned detour to the holocaust.   While scrolling through our TIVOed shows, I found two show that recorded in 2009!    Who Do You Think You Are which aired on NBC showed the journey a celebrity took in tracing their genealogy.   Lisa Kudrow’s father’s family were Eastern European Jews.   Her journey back to the village of Ilia in Belarus told the story of how all the Jews in the village—including her Grandmother—were shot and burned.   The story ends happily though when she finds her father’s cousin, who was believed to have been dead, alive and well in Poland.  Before watching the show, we looked up Hitler and the Holocaust in our history encyclopedia.  E-R remembered Number the Stars which we read two years ago and made the connection between that book and our new information.   I highly recommend the show.   It was a great way to show how “ancient” history affects us today.   After further investigation I’ve found that a new season of this show will air in February of 2012.   And the episode we watched along with others are available to watch on NBC’s website. 

A great week and the perfect ending to our second term.   Happy Holidays everyone!

Week 5

A few highlights from our school week at home:

Math:   As if my kids don't have enough math in their lives, we've started reading Exploring the World of Mathematics: From Ancient Record Keeping to the Latest Advances in Computers.

After reading the first chapter, Counting the Years,  I know why February is the shortest month of the year, and September is not the seventh month (something I've been wondering forever--or at least since I started studying Latin).    In Singapore Math,  we skipped all of the fraction lessons and just completed the practices and reviews, since  Key to Fractions has plenty of fraction work.   I-E is cruising along in her Key to Fractions and is close to completely Book 3.   E-R is working on completing Book 2.  

Geography:  Putting together everything we've studied so far, the girls drew The Arabian Peninsula. (Sorry no pictures--my camera is MIA)  Next was a map of the Mediterranean area with blanks to fill in.  This map was on a different scale and required a bit of thinking to complete.

English:  We wrestled with object complements, objective complements, and subjective complements.   No matter how many times I teach these I end up needing to relearn them myself.  Perhaps four times the charm?

Literature:  E-R and I-E are finishing up Black Beauty today.   The plan was to pick vocabulary words from the books to study and learn.  Turns out they had to dive real deep to find any new words to learn.  So, we've taken words from any reading that produces unknown words.   Their vocab words this week are from The Living Christ and are commemorate, millennia, virtue, indefinite, associate,and frisky.  We've also started using Vocabulary.com This website is quite fun and has been a great motivator for all in the house to improve their knowledge of the English language.  

Shakespeare:    

Big Announcement!  Winter's Tale is the play the Shakespeare Class will produce.   It's a comedy.  It's a tragidy.   It has a bear.   How awesome is that!   Assignment for this week--read and cast the play.

Our biggest accomplishment for the week was time management.   We've decided to go to bed earlier and the girls are getting up earlier.   Our school days are starting promptly at 8:00 at the dining room table.   We are accomplishing more, and work hasn't stretched so far into the evenings.

How was your week?


 

  

Neat Resource

Independent Reading Management Kit: Literary Elements

I know, I know with a name like this you are all running out to buy this exciting book!

What this book lacks in title, it more than makes up for in usefulness. It is written for the public school teacher who needs to addresss multiple levels of abilities while helping students learn to work independently, therefore making it is perfect for a homeschooling mom teaching multiple children-each with different ablilities and levels of independence.

This book is not written to analyze any one book, but rather is full of ideas for projects that will help students learn to think about literary elements. The projects cover many different styles of learning. Students could decorate a CD cover to show the theme of a story, fracture a story to work with point of view, make a flip book with a character's personality traits, scrapbook the story's plot, or write a friendly letter from the viewpoint of a character making sure to describe the setting.

This is a resource that makes literary analyze easy for the busy mom and keeps things fresh for the students.

Check out other neat resources at

We Are That Family

Works-for-Me Wednesday

Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2011-2012 or English, Science, and Math oh my!

It's that time of the year again.   Time for homeschoolers to get all their ducks in a row for the coming school year.   Time to file, time to plan, time to organize, time to sleep-in--oh, one of these things doesn't belong!

This school year I am down to two students in my homeschool.  E is leaving our school to join A-M at Foothill Technology High.  All though we will miss E, we are also excited about the bit of freedom this will allow us and the new adventure this brings to his life. 

And so without further ado--our curriculum choices for the year! 

English:
Rod and Staff English Level 6
Rod and Staff English Level 7
Sentence Composing for Elementary School
Grammar for Middle School: A Sentence Composing Approach
Write Source 8
Sequential Spelling

 E-R really wants to finish her beloved Rod and Staff English series before starting high school, and since level 6 has so much review I think combining both levels 6 and 7 this year is doable. Also, level 7 is where the writing instruction moves more toward logic stage skills which we need at this stage.   Adding to the writing skills in Rod and Staff, we will finish up Sentence Composing for Elementary School and move into Grammar for Middle School:  A Sentence-Composing Approach by by Don and Jenny Killgallon.  Write Source will continue to help us incorprate writing across all of our curriculum, and Sequential Spelling will cover those all-important spelling skills.  

Science:
Thames and Kosmos Physics Solar Workshop
Thames and Kosmos Wind Powered Kit
Thames and Kosmos HdryoPowered Kit

Thames and Kosmos alternative energy kits will form the base of our science this year.  In addition to the kits, we will utiliize Usborne and Kingfisher Science Encyclopedias, library books, and various websources.   Our first kit,  Solar Eneregy, requires lots of sunshine.  We're keeping our fingers crossed here in this fog-encased community that the sun will make it's usual appearance in October.   As we use the kits and work out the kinks in my lesson plans, I'll post the lesson plans, so check back for those.    Feel free to check-out and use my lesson plans for the Thames and Kosmos physics kit here and here.

Math:
Singapore Math Standards Edition Level 6
Key to Algebra : Books 1-4
Key to Percentages

Singapore Math Standards Edition Level  6 along with Key to Algebra: Books 1-4 will prepare E-R and I-E for algebra next year.   We also have Life of Fred: Biology floating around to throw in for a change now and than.   I'm also drooling over the Murderous Maths Books.  I haven't tried these out, nor even seen them in person, but I hope to get my hands on one to see if it would add a bit of fun while shoring up some math concepts.

Literature: 

I have all of the books and the guide for Beautiful Feet Horse  Study.   I'm not sure if it will hold E-R and I-E's interest like it did for A-M at this age.   So, I also purchased Blackbird and Company literature guides for Eight Cousins, I am David, and Treasure Island.   And the all important Figurative Language workbook is making another appearance.   It prepared E for Windows to the World.   E-R and I-E started it last year, but it became clear quite early in the year that they were not quite ready for it, so we set it aside until this year.

Nature Studies:
Handbook of Nature Study
My Nature Journal
Handbook of Nature Study Blog

This year we are adding formal nature studies to our school for the first time.   My two gals love to draw and muck around outside, so I think adding nature studies to our week will add a level of enjoyment we've been missing.  I downloaded for free the Handbook of Nature and will use lots of the terrific ideas from the Handbook of Nature Study Blog.

Art:
Atelier Art 7
Meet the Masters

After drooling over Atelier Art at a homeschool convention, I came home determined to finish Calvert Art so we could move on to Atelier Art.    Calvert is a super-solid program which I have always wished had more levels to it.    I think Atelier Art is comparable to Calvert instruction with many more levels available. Meet the Masters is a fun program I purchased and downloaded on a whim last school year.  We did several of the projects, and I'm sure it will help us beat some of the school blues that pop up from time to time in even the best of homeschools.

Memory Work:

As always, memory work will fill an important spot in our homeschool day.   I haven't even started planning it out though!   I do plan on featuring Memory Mondays again throughout this coming school year and invite all to join in.   I think I will make it a bit more formal with a linky to make it easy for all to hop around and glean ideas from other's work.

Logic:
Building Thinking Skills: Verbal

We have used Building Thinking Skills workbooks for several years now and will work through the end of the series, but I would like to add something a bit more formal at this stage.   I'm looking at the Blast Off with Logic series.   

History: 

Last, but certainly not least!
Story of the Renaissance
Native America on the Eve of Discovery
History Portfolios: Renaissance
History Portfolios:  Modern History
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Marco Polo Jackdaw
China a Cultural Heritage Jackdaw
Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines
Almanac of World History
The World of Columbus and Sons

are some of the books I'm using to put together our studies this year.   As my current project,  the books are spread all across my living room, and I'm beginning to wonder what in the world I bit off!   But I'm sure it will work out in the end!

I would love to see what you are using in your homeschool or answer questions about what I'm using this year or what worked for us in past years. 

And be sure to check out what curriculum other homeschoolers are using this year at

Weekly Update: March 7-18, 2011

I haven't posted in almost a week!  Last weekend was my kids' performances of MacBeth.   All the stress, late nights, long hours of memorizing, extra classes, and time spent were TOTALLY WORTH IT!   The show was a great success.   

Opening fight scene

Three Weird Sisters

MacBeth after becoming King

MacBeth and Banquo discuss their meeting with the three weird sisters

Lady MacBeth telling MacBeth how things are going to go down

Banquo Dies!

I knew this experience had cemented a love for Shakespeare when I overheard my kids using lines from MacBeth to insult each other!  

What Say You---Whey Face!   

You were of women born

Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men.

Geese, villian!

 (said with as much scorn as one can muster)

For the most part these past two weeks, we stuck to our normal routine--though day light savings threw a ratchet in the time we started school this week.  

Grammar---We finally finished pronouns in Rod and Staff.   E-R and I-E bombed their tests.    They just never picked up on the concepts of the different cases of pronouns.    After spending way too long on trying to teach the concepts, I've decided to move on.   Next year R&S 6 will reteach most of the concepts, and perhaps their brains will remember a little something from this year.   They have moved on to the next chapter on Adjectives and Adverbs and studied descriptive and limiting adjectives.   E did well on his pronoun test.    Usually all the levels of R&S  follow the same outline of topics.   For some reason level 6,  switches the adverb and adjective chapter with the punctuation chapter.   So, E is studying punctuation.   It's been all review for him, so far---end marks, quotations, split quotations,  and indirect quotations.   Everyone worked in their Building Thinking Skills books.   E worked in his test prep and word roots vocabulary books.   E-R and I-E worked on reading comprehension and free writes through-out the week.  

Lit---E's Window to the World has finally been found!    It was sitting on a shelf in his room.    He read and took notes on chapter 10 Setting.  I-E and E-R finished reading A Family Under the Bridge.    This book is an easy read, but is full of such great discussion fodder.    We discussed what makes a family, how one achieves self respect,  how fear affects our actions, how appearance affects your actions and others perceptions, and how we determine what is right and wrong.  For their final project,  both girls decided to make a budget for a small family living in our little town.   It was an eye-opener for them to see exactly how much things cost.    We were able to look at the budgets and discuss how homeless can happen.  

Math---E-R and I-E worked on a short geometry section in Singapore.   They learned how to determine the measurements of angles in triangles and quadrilaterals.  They also worked on a cumulative review and took some tests on line at Brainchild.   E worked on Aleks Math.and mastered square root simplification, factoring a perfect square, and proportion word problems.  

Science---This week in science we read chapter 23, It's a Gas Take its Temperature!   Covering four scientist, Joseph Black, Henry Cavendish, Karl Scheele, and Joseph Priestley, this chapter managed to cram a lot of info in a small amount of reading.   In order to help the kids process all that info, each kid picked one scientist to study indepth.   Then we had a panel discussion about their discoveries and important contributions to science.   Poor Karl Scheele had the bad habit of tasting all the chemicals he experimented with and it is believed that he died by poisoning himself with one of these tastes!  

History---Last week in history we covered the Magna Carta using a Jackdaw. 

We read the broadsheets about King John, Barons and Feudal Lords, Magna Carta: What it was, and what it was not, The signing of Magna Carta, King John and History, and England in 1215.   We then read the Magna Carta (well most of the Magna Carta---it was dry and not a bit entertaining!)  E-R and I-E created Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting governments today and in King John's time.   E wrote an essay comparing the way the barons settled their dispute with the king, with general elections, strikes, and arbitrations.   We also enjoyed the copies of the original Magna Carta and the poster showing how the Royal Standard from King John's time through today has developed. 

This week we started our study of the Byzantine Empire.   I-E and E-R wrote reports on the history of the Hagia Sophie,  Justinian, created mosaics, and drew and labeled maps of the Byzantine Empire.  

PE--Everyone swam and have a meet today.   I-E started working with a water polo team.   She's one of the youngest, but seems to be holding her own. 

Fieldtrip--We did squeeze a fieldtrip in.   I posted about that here.

Be sure to check out everyone else's weeks at the