Our goals for this homeschool year:

Alex: Tot School

Alex has shown much more interest in doing school lately!

I plan to continue the following:

• Tot School ABC printables
• Animal BC printables
• monthly theme Tot Packs and others from here
• more Bible time with songs, more arts and crafts
• Montessori printables and materials

Tori and Katie: 1st grade

I’m following the ideas in The Well-Trained Mind and Ambleside Online: First Language Lessons, Winnie the Pooh, Christian Liberty Nature Reader, monthly theme printables – if I can more advanced ones to match Alex’s themes. Quarterly, we study an artist, composer, hymns, poet. I post them on our calendar board.

Here’s their 1st grade curriculum:

• Apologia Land Animals
• Singapore Math 1B
• Tapestry of Grace Year 2 with Story of the World as a spine
• First Start French (Liz will help teach this!)
• Artistic Pursuits
• Grapevine Studies for Bible

Liz: 7th grade

We still like reading lists and other things from Ambleside Online. We love the quarterly artist, composer, hymns, poet.

Here’s her 7th grade curriculum:

• Apologia General Science. We’re following the ideas mentioned in this blog post.
• Life of Fred Fractions with mathbooking
• Elementary Greek
• Second Form Latin
• First Start French (Liz will teach Tori and Katie: it’s pretty basic stuff) We have Mango Language free from our library and they give us access from home and on our devices. Sweet!
• Reader Notebook
• Tapestry of Grace Year 2
• Artistic Pursuits
• Grapevine Studies for Bible

Schedule:

Every Day: math, reading, foreign language
Mondays: Intro to TOG unit, art lesson, science lesson intro
Liz watches Latin DVD lesson, reads Greek and French lessons (much shorter than Latin lessons)
Tuesday: history reading (TOG), science reading
Wednesdays: map work and geography (TOG), science reading and notebooking
Thursdays: Lit reading (TOG), LA notebooking, science reading and notebooking
Fridays: finish reading with TOG and science and notebooking, Liz has a science test biweekly
Saturdays: finish up any notebooking, work with Dad on science experiments, history projects, nature study

Themes:

Because I get bogged down in stuff and often don’t remember important events until after the fact, here is my reminder of appropriate themes for certain months. Some themes don’t matter when you do them, but I put them where I needed filling. I must remember to gather materials beforehand. ha!

August: summer themes (BBQ), nursery rhymes, dinosaurs
September: apples and leaves, autumn, community helpers
October: pumpkins, Halloween, space, transportation
November: harvest and Thanksgiving, farms
December: Hanukkah, Christmas, family
January: New Year, snow and winter, MLK Jr. Day, bears
February: Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Valentines, President’s Day, health
March: St. Patrick’s, animals
April: spring and Easter, weather
May: Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day and flowers, bugs
June: Father’s Day, gardening, frogs, beach
July: Fourth of July, camping

Our Curriculum for 2012-2013

Elizabeth is 11 and in 7th grade.

Victoria is 6 and Katherine is 5 and they’re in 1st grade (funny how they have different abilities! Tori loves math and science and Katie can narrate very well and can read much more fluently than Tori).

Alexander is 2 and does Tot School (when his mood is right).

History:

I love it when all the kids learn together. I love Tapestry of Grace for this. Here are the children coloring Rose Windows from cathedrals and Elizabeth is researching them on the iPad. She read the article to her siblings.

We are studying Medieval Times this year. We can’t wait to dress up Alex as a knight or something. I wish we lived close to a Medieval Times restaurant. I found the coolest medieval cookbook at the library. We shall have us a medieval feast as our unit celebration!

Bible:

The kids often have a hard time comprehending when I just read from the Bible. We often read from our Bible story book for TOG history. We needed something more though. We’ve been loving Grapevine Bible Studies. I contacted Dianna a couple months ago and asked if I could do reviews for her and she happily obliged. I really thought the idea was silly at first, but the kids love it. They really get it. I need something the kids can all do together and this fits well.

Liz then has her Worldview reading from TOG. Right now, she is reading The Church in History

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Math:

Science:

We’ve used Apologia science Exploring Creation elementary series from day 1. Tori and Katie did Swimming Creatures last year. This year we are learning about Land Animals. Elizabeth is beginning General Science this year.

We also do nature notebooking each month. I read a Christian Liberty nature reader to Tori and Katie almost every day.

Language Arts:

Um. I was an English teacher in my past life. I don’t have a curriculum for this. I know there are some great ones out there. I’ve looked at them and I just can’t bring myself to spend money on them.
I use the TOG writing ideas each week, mostly for Elizabeth. Elizabeth learns her grammar from her Latin program. She started with Prima Latina in 3rd grade. IF I feel she needs a refresher, I teach it to her. That’s what I did. I don’t need a curriculum to teach grammar or writing or reading. I think I am blessed with these talents. I love literature and writing and all that grammar stuff. Liz love to read. She carries her Kindle with her everywhere. I loaded some free classics as well as some TOG and Ambleside Online reading books on there and she loves it.

I use online printables for Tori and Katie. The girls really love her word families. We read A LOT. We do copywork. We get lots of books from the library for history, science, and literature. We’re also working our way through First Language Lessons. I don’t make them do every lesson. Tori asked me last month: “Mom, when are going to move on from nouns? I get it.” So we move on!

Living books for history and reading:

• Saint Francis of Assisi by Joyce Denham
• Johann Gutenberg and the Printing Press by Kay Melchisedech Olson
• Caedmon’s Song by Ruth Ashby
• The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur by Margaret Hodges
• The Squire and the Scroll by Jennie Bishop
• Joan of Arc: Heroine of France by Ann Tompert
• Exploring Ancient Civilizations: Medieval Times by Robynne Eagan
• Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thomson
• Men of Iron by Howard Pyle
• The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski
• Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson
• The Making of a Knight by Patrick O’Brien
• Marco Polo
• Medieval Myths, Legends, And Songs by Donna Trembinski
• The Fall of Constantinople by Ruth Tenzer Feldman
• Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
• Celtic World by Fiona Macdonald
• You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Crusader!: A War You’d Rather Not Fight by Fiona MacDonald
• The Renaissance by Jane Shuter

Foreign Language:

I teach them all a word each week or so in German, French, and Spanish. This week is the word “sun.” Die Sonne, le soleil, el sol. They love it. Katie is begging to learn Spanish. I guess I can try to fit it in. Our library has a Mango languages app.

Liz is currently going through Elementary Greek. It’s just ok. She will begin Second Form Latin when she completes the Greek study. Any recommendations out there for a good Greek program? Liz really loves it but I am less than thrilled with this text.

Art:

We love Artistic Pursuits! All the girls enjoy these lessons. We also study the artists on Ambleside Online. I really need to incorporate more arts and crafts. TOG has some great ideas, and I am just lazy.

Other:

We have lots of computer games and iPad apps. Technology, check.

I think Tori and Katie need to start up Funnix again, taking turns. It would give me time to work with Alex one on one. I need to set a schedule up a couple times each week.

Tori, Katie, and Alex are taking gymnastics this year. They just started and they love it! We took a couple years off and Tori and Katie are just picking up where they left off. Katie is playing soccer these next couple months. Liz and Tori will probably run track again in the spring. Not sure what to do for Liz during the fall and winter. She wants to start Taekwondo, but it’s just not affordable or convenient. They recently pooled their allowances and bought a couple Just Dance Wii games. They make you sweat!

I also plan to begin a homemaker’s journal with Elizabeth. I have plans to get a lovely scrapbook and pretty tab dividers and let her help me plan it. My mom just gave me a subscription to Better Homes&Gardens and I think Liz could use that as a jumping off point to begin her home idea scrapbook. She can start collecting decorating ideas, recipes to try, cleaning and organization tips, beauty and hygiene tips, hospitality and event planning/holiday ideas.

Basically, it will be a real life Pinterest since I will not let her have her own account yet. (I’m a mean mom!) I hope it helps her get more adept at running a household and doing her chores. If she gets to make some decisions, then maybe that will generate interest? I was doing so much more at her age and she doesn’t even want to learn. sigh

This is an exciting year!