Homeschool Curriculum for 2010 – 2011 ~

This is our new school room.  Ok, ok, it’s really our homeschool area.  And if it looks like a mess…well, that’s because it is.  And this is only about one fourth of the mess.  :)  When I finish, I will share our new homeschool area because it is most definitely not ready to reveal just yet.  Actually, when Dave gets home tonight, he and I will be moving it around a bit more. 

However, I have finished the curriculum order (finally!).  I realize that if you are not a homeschooler this post will be a bit boring.  But we homeschool moms are known for talking about curriculum.  It’s kind of like pregnant moms talking about birth experiences  and moms of toddlers talk about potty training & pediatricians.  We moms always have our “mom topics”!

So without any more chit chat because this post will be long enough without all of that, here are our 2010 – 2011 school plans!

7th Grader ~

• Bible – Sonlight 3 + 4
• Literature – Sonlight American History readers, read alouds, and other selected books
• Math – Saxon 87
• Grammar/Writing – Saxon Grammar and Writing
  • Dailygrams
  • Institute for Excellence in Writing (have not ordered yet but am planning on it)
• Spelling – Spelling Power
• Science – Apologia Science – General Science
• Word Roots/Vocabulary – Vocabulary from Classical Roots
  • English from the Roots Up
• History/Geography – Sonlight 3 + 4 (American History)

5th Grader ~

• Bible – Sonlight 3 + 4, Bible Drill
• Literature/Reading – Sonlight American History Readers, Read alouds, and other selected books
• Math – Math U See
  • Teaching Textbooks 5 or Saxon 6/5 when finished with Math U See
• Grammar/Writing - Saxon Grammar and Writing
  • Dailygrams
  • Writing with Ease
• Spelling – All About Spelling
• Science – R.E.A.L. Science – Biology
  • Physics when finished with biology
• Handwriting – A Reason for Writing – Cursive
• History/Geography – Sonlight 3 + 4 (American History)

2nd Grader ~

• Bible – Sonlight 3 + 4, Bible Drill
• Literature/Reading – Learning more reading with An Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
  • 2nd grade readers from Sonlight
  • Literature selections from Before Five in a Row with her little sister
  • Listen in on read alouds from Sonlight 3 + 4
• Math – Math U See
• Grammar/Writing – First Language Lessons
  • Writing with Ease
  • Dailygrams (I have an old copy of 2nd grade level.  I’m not sure they publish this anymore.)
• Spelling – All About Spelling
• Science – R.E.A.L. Science – Biology
  • Physics when finished with biology
• Handwriting – A Reason for Writing – Manuscript
  • She will begin cursive towards the end of the year.
• History/Geography – Sonlight 3 + 4  (She will mainly listen in on this and glean what she can.  I am more focused on reading, writing, and math at this age.)

4 year old preschool ~

See my plans at the bottom of this post.

Art and Music

We will study at least three composers and three artists this year but I haven’t gotten that planning done just yet. 

We incorporate drawing and painting into many lessons because my children got their dad’s artistic capabilities.  (Thankfully, they did not get mine!) Also, we are trying to fit in guitar lessons for the older boys and piano for our daughter this year.  And when I say fit in, I’m talking about the budget. ;)

Notes ~

This year I am doing something that I have never done before in our five years of homeschooling:  I am buying curriculum that is planned out for us.  :)  I love to pull together my own plans but last year it was a nightmare.  I spent hours and hours on Sunday nights planning.  And that led to burnout.  So this year, I’ve bought plans that are written and I’ll plug in bits here and there.  I’m hoping this will lighten my load a bit. 

I will be using Sonlight 3 + 4 for our main course work and plug in some of the other subjects.  I had the hardest time deciding between Sonlight and My Father’s World.  However, I have wanted to try Sonlight since we started homeschooling in 2005.  Dave and I finally decided to just go for it!  I am very excited about our new school year!

 

Planning for May’s homeschool ~ Weeks 1 & 2

Whew! We’re in the home stretch! Our state requires 180 days of school for homeschools and since we are approaching that number, we will soon wrap up this year in our little school. We will officially finish the last of May but we will spend 2 – 3 days a week in June focusing on math facts and doing our read alouds. The kids will also be visiting the library and reading books & completing projects on their own. I plan to take the month of July off because if the garden does well, I will need to do preserving then. We will start back up early August. I want to be as done as possible when next spring rolls around so we can spend more time outdoors. It is too hot here to be outside much in August anyway. Since we are going to be inside more then, we might as well begin school too! :)

One of the things on my to do list was to plan out the rest of the school year. I spent time this past weekend with the older children’s core subjects and made checklists of the lessons to complete for the school year. They have enjoyed having their lessons listed and they are excited as they check off tasks done since they know that they are getting closer to summer!

This post will be a listing of our other subjects ~ preschool, science, history, geography, etc. It is mainly to have a place for me to link my ideas and write them down so I can find everything in one place. Plus, next year it will help me to know what we did last year with a click of a button!

~Our preschool lessons for the month of May will focus on the zoo and animals. I will probably touch on some other things that start with those letters (like the letter m is full of ideas) but mainly through the books we read. Our activities will focus on animals except for M week. On one day we will focus on music and xylophone because x is a tricky little letter to teach!~

~May 3 – 7~

Preschool

~ Letter Z ~

Themes: zoo & zebra

• Walking by the way ~ letter z
• Goodnight Gorilla (love this book!)
• Goodnight Gorilla at Homeschoolshare
• Z template at DLTK
• Zoo theme at Making Learning Fun
• Ideas for Z at Hubbard’s Cupboard (week 36)

Older Children

~ Complete seeds & plants~ (see April’s planning)

~ Earthworms ~

~May 10 - 14~

Preschool

~Letter M & the letter X~

Themes: Monkey, mice, mammals, and music (x is for xylophone)

• Delightful Learning ~ letter m
• Ideas for M at Hubbard’s Cupboard (week 18)
• M at No Time for Flashcards
• Letter M template at DLTK
• Monkey at Making Learning Fun
• Mice at Making Learning Fun
• Activities from Homeschoolshare ~ Goodnight Moon
• Mammals at Making Learning Fun
• Music at Making Learning Fun ~ xylophone
• X template at DLTK

Older Children

~Simple Machines from chapter 1 of The Swiss Family Robinson~

• Simple Machines Links
• Simple Machines Experiments

Homeschool planning for April

~One thing that really can get me frazzled is planning homeschool lessons for 4 different grade levels. Not to mention the fact that I tend to forget what I want to do for some of my children. So in light of that, I am going to post my planning here on my blog. One, someone else may be able to use some of the links that I am going to provide. Two, you may be able to help me by listing links or ideas that you have come across. This post is a work in progress and I will update it possibly through out the entire month. Also, if you have any ideas or links for any of the below themes, I would love it if you would let me know in the comment section! Thanks!~

(You will probably notice that most of my lessons deal primarily with my preschooler. I am trying to find & plan activities for my older children who are 1st, 4th, & 6th graders. If you know of any ideas for those grade levels that center somewhat on these themes too, please let me know. :0)

~One other thing that I should note. There are many links but I do not do everything that you will see at these links. I do what I think will work for us and leave the rest for later. Sometimes I intend to do something that I see but realize that I don’t have time so I will save it for later. Sunshine Girl will cycle back through the letters for Pre K so I mark these ideas to keep things fresh for her. I also have another Little Man who will begin these activities within another year. ~

March 29 – April 2

Preschool (Click here to see how we used these lesson plans in our school)

Themes: N is for Nest, Easter, Birds

Links & Ideas:

N is for Noodles (scroll down)

More N is for Noodles

N is for Nest

N is for Numbers

Rice Krispie bird’s nests

Easter Egg games

Easter & Spring Fun (many links)

Easter Lapbook

Easter at Making Learning Fun

Easter egg grass growing (for our nature table)

The Parable of the Lily

We will also talk about birds, do some bird watching, and feed the birds. We like to count the birds that come to our bird feeders also.

We will talk about animals that fly and my plan is to raise some butterflies. That’s my plan, anyway!

Edited: After searching through my books for this week, I decided to focus on baby animals and animals born alive & hatched from an egg.

Baby Animals Printables (scroll down but there are other great ideas on the page too!)

Books to use this week: (These are books we have in our home library.)

The Parable of the Lily Liz Curtis Higgs

Baby Farm Animals Golden Book

Baby Animals Cary Jordan

Who Took the Farmer’s Hat? Joan L. Nodset

Are You My Mother? P. D. Eastman

Older children

Themes: Spring Nature Study, Easter

Easter & Resurrection lapbook

Spring Nature Study

April 5 – April 9

Preschool & First Grader (Click here to see how we used these plans in our school)

Themes: U is for umbrella, Weather, rainbows

Rainbow printables

Rainbow Lapbook

More rainbow ideas

Weather Links at Making Learning Fun

Older Children (Click here to see how we used these plans in our school.)

Themes: Spring Nature Study (continued), Weather especially focused on Tornadoes

Tornado lapbook

Spring Nature Study (see above)

April 12 – April 16 (Extending this lesson for a few more weeks)

Preschool & First Grader

Themes: V is for vegetables & Seeds, plants, and flowers

The Carrot Seed

Collage Carrot

Edited: Growing Vegetable Soup lapbook

Older Children

Themes: Continue Spring nature study, Seeds, plants & flowers (ideas to come), Earthworms & composting

Gardening – planting season for us

We are going to be making two more composting areas. One will be a yard waste compost. I will let the boys build a neat little fence for that. We also are going to start using worms for composting. We ordered worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm.

Edited: Earthworms unit study and lapbook

Edited: Using parts of this lapbook to study seeds, plant, & flowers

Homeschool helper ~ plants lapbook

Squidoo ~ plant lapbook

April 19 – 23

Preschool

Themes: This is Sunshine Girl’s birthday week so we will do a birthday lapbook and possibly a study about her. Still planning all of this.

Edit: I will use some parts of this All About Me lapbook

Edited: Birthday Learning Fun Ideas

Older Children

Themes: ~Still planning~

Edited: Older Children will continue with plants, seeds, & flowers

April 26 – 30 (Moving to May)

Preschool

Themes: Z is for zoo, Z is for zebra, Zoo animals ~Still planning~

Older Children

Themes: ~Still planning~

~As I update this post with links, I will post in different colors so the changes will be easier to see. Also, I look forward to hearing your ideas for any of the above themes. Please feel free to leave a comment with your ideas or links. Thanks!~

One last thing before I go. I love to use the seasonal/monthly planning that I find at By Sun and Candlelight. I glean many ideas from her. Here is a link to her April planning.