2012-2013 ~ Curriculum and Plans

Well, here they are–my plans, dreams, and aspirations for the upcoming school year.  And even though I love lists, I do try to make them in pencil and reserve the right to change them as needed!

Big Sister’s Fourth Grade Individual Work:

• WriteShop Junior D:  This is a new curriculum for her and I’m very hopeful that it will be a great fit.  She’s excited because it’s writing, an activity she loves, and that we’ll be working one-on-one for the lessons.  There are three main goals I have for her with this program:  a better understanding of paragraph structure, being able make an outline to organize her thoughts before she writes, and working on grammar within her own writing.
• All About Spelling:  This curriculum was one of the hits from last year, though I would say we didn’t utilize it frequently enough to attain the full benefit.  I started at level one as the program recommends and she could have gone through it much more quickly if we’d used it as often as recommended.  We both liked it, though, and we’ll be diving in this year.  I am planning to combine this with our work in WriteShop and block out a chunk of one-on-one language arts teaching time with her three times a week.  With a year of experience under my belt and a more independent younger brother I think I can make this happen.
• Cursive Handwriting:  She is capable of writing legibly in cursive, the goal now is to smooth it out and increase her speed so she can fully transition.  She will be doing copywork in cursive that goes along with our history program, and I will also make more as needed using excerpts from literature we are reading and a free front called School Script Dashed.
• Math:  We will continue to use Khan Academy as her math curriculum.  I wanted to be sure it was the right choice for us so I did quite a bit of research over the last month.  I was sure I wanted a computer-based curriculum that did not require me to plan and teach a lesson each day.  After looking at all the option Khan still came out ahead for us–with the added bonus that it’s free.  She enjoys the program, and with me or my husband nearby to help with any questions it works well for us.  I keep an eye on the mathematics requirements in our local public school district, the Common Core standards, and Home Learning Year By Year by Rebecca Rupp to be sure she covers all necessary topics.  We’ll continue to cement all math facts using XtraMath and  I also have her play math apps for 10 minutes each day to work on multiplication facts. Edited to add: Okay, so plan A for math did not work at all.  Short Story: we switched to Teaching Textbooks.  Long story can be found in this post: Our Switch to Teaching Textbooks.
• Music: She continues in private piano lessons each week with a minimum of 30 minutes daily practice.
• Typing:  She will use TypingWeb, a free web-based typing program to further her typing skills.  The goal?  That she can type her own stories since she can write fairly long ones!

Little Brother’s First Grade Individual Work:

• Funnix:  Funnix is a computer-based learn-to-read program that is working very well for him, and I am very proud of our beginning reader!  He will continue to progress through the lessons and on days we don’t do a lesson from Funnix I have him read from any beginning reader book he can tackle.  Handwriting and spelling are all included in the lessons.
• Math:  This was a tough subject to plan.  He does not do well with a worksheet-based curriculum, which we tried last year, nor is he old enough for computer-based programs.  I will use the same references I use for his big sister to determine the topics he needs to learn and we’ll tackle one skill at a time, approaching each topic in a way that suits him.  It may be a hands-on game, it may be an iPad app, it may be cooking or building…this isn’t necessarily the easiest route but it’s what works best for him.  (For more on this you can read my post about teaching coin recognition.)

Together Studies:

• History:  We started work on Time Travelers Early 19th Century from Homeschool in the Woods.  The printables (minibooks, notebooking, maps) and activities are terrific.  We’ll spread this history unit study over the first half of the school year, reading lots of living books and finding documentaries to supplement.
• Science:  We also started a science curriculum this summer–R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life Level One.  It is also working well and we will continue into the school year.  You can read my full review of R.S.O.  We’re working on the animal kingdom now, then we’ll be slowing down as we get to the human body and really diving into that topic.  I had been preparing a human body unit study (due to great interest from my son) before I received this curriculum so we’ll use R.S.O. along with other materials I’d gathered.
• Nature Study:  One of the most enjoyable parts of our homeschool.  We use ideas from Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study, participate in her Outdoor Hour Challenges, and also follow any interest-led nature study topics.
• Unit Studies:  We will fit in unit studies as we go along based on holidays, special events (like a presidential election) and interest.  I know that I want to do one on government and elections in October, and we take a break from most of our regular schoolwork in December to focus on Christmas topics.
• Other Activities:  both children participate in Scouts, we will now have weekly meetings with our homeschool bookclub that met once a month last year, and big sister is in a youth group at church.

Well, it sounds like we’ll have plenty to keep us busy!  The funny part is, I keep trying to plan more.  I would like to incorporate composer and artist studies and am considering Harmony Fine Arts plans.  I also would like to dabble in some foreign language fun–nothing too expensive or time intensive just now.  But I am going to let us get rolling into our year and be happy to add/subtract and make any adjustments as we go along.

I’m linking up at the iHomeschool Network’s Not Back to School Blog Hop.  Pop over there to take a peek at other homeschoolers’ plans!