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Planning the School Year – 2008/09

I spent all of last weekend and most of the preceding week planning out this school year so we could start on Monday…which we did.

Before I mention anything else though, I MUST give some linky love to Donna Young. She has made my life so much easier! — and saved me a HUGE amount of time. Her website, if you are not already familiar with it, is DonnaYoung.org. In an age where most people charge for their resources, Donna Young generously offers an array of *FREE* printables that I find to be absolutely indispensable when it comes to homeschooling planning.

So here is what is on the agenda for this homeschooling year:

High School

“Gator” (13) – Grade 9

The spine of Gator’s curriculum for high school will be Tapestry of Grace, starting with Year 1 this year. This will be my first year using this resource, although I used to make up a similar curriculum of my own using the recommendations of the original The Well-Trained Mind.

Tapestry of Grace will encompass World History, Fine Arts, English, Bible, Government and Literature.

For foreign language, I would like to use Rosetta Stone. (French is Gator’s choice, as his goal in life is to be a chef.)

I’m kind of torn on this though – the Rosetta Stone. I personally believe that Rosetta Stone is a wonderful program! I was first introduced to it through or public library system, knowing I would one day buy it for our personal use…bu I am extremely disappointed to have learned that the Rosetta Stone company has now pulled their product out of the library system. Why? I can only speculate…but I can’t help but wonder if it’s greed. Did they feel like they were losing too much money by offering it for free?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have even known about the program if it hadn’t been through the library service, and one of the reasons I thought so highly of the company was because of their generosity in sharing this resource with the general public — much of which could otherwise never afford to learn a foreign language. I don’t know. I guess I’m just disheartened. I may still order it through my next Timberdoodle order (my long-time FAVORITE homeschool company) as soon as I can afford it, but I am not as excited about the Rosetta Stone company as I once was. Perhaps I am being too critical, but I love to see companies “giving back to the community”, and am generally eager to support such companies. But when those companies withdraw those resources…*sigh*

Gator will be taking the standard 9th grade courses for math and science: Biology (Apologia) and Algebra (Saxon).

Middle School and Elementary School

As previously mentioned, I will be using Konos, Volume III (character-based unit studies) as the foundation for my younger students. It will cover all of the basic subjects except for math, phonics, and grammar (there is some grammar/writing included, but the English teacher in me prefers formal grammar instruction — it’s just “my thing”).

“Ant” (12) – Grade 7

Ant will be one of my guinea pigs this year. For math and English, I am chucking my old standbys and trying something new. Teaching Textbooks for math…

…and Language Lessons for the Secondary Child Volume 1 for English.

I looked at the Teaching Textbooks demo online and it looked like something that would work well with Ant. Ant, who is dyslexic, has some difficulty when it comes to his math instruction (as in my explaining it to him). He gets frustrated. I get frustrated. Teaching Textbooks eliminates this problem altogether. The instruction is done entirely on the computer, much like with the DIVE CDs for Saxon, but this program is unique. There are several practice problems for each lesson, as well as a re-explanation on any of the problems which are answered wrong. Also, all of the problems are done ON THE COMPUTER (with the solutions worked out on scrap paper). This eliminates the need for full pages of neatly written work (a challenge for dyslexics), and helps me out by grading the lessons and tracking the progress.

So far we have only done two lessons in Teaching Textbooks, but Ant really likes it. He was actually asking to do math yesterday.

As for the Language Lessons for the Secondary Child Volume 1 for English, I had never even heard of this curriculum before — and I am not generally the type to jump into a new curriculum sight unseen…but I first saw it, again at Timberdoodle, with this description:

Written for a child between the ages of ten and fifteen – whenever they are reading a variety of classical literature and able to write a short report without much effort. This volume contains grammar, punctuation skills, copywork, narration, dictation, picture study, letter writing, and more – with a strong emphasis on learning about and learning to write different types of poetry. A consumable text with 180 daily lessons and full color classic paintings throughout, this is the perfect language arts course for your upper elementary or middle school aged child who is using the Charlotte Mason approach.

It sounded intriguing to me, and much different than our typical course of study. At $20 for 180 of instruction, I thought it was worth a try.

“Dinky” (10) – Grade 6

Same ol’, same ol’ for math. Dinky will be finishing the Saxon Math 6/5 book that we never made it all the way through last year, then she will be moving on to Saxon Math 7/6.

And for English, I am going to give the same English that Ant will be using (Language Lessons for the Secondary Child Volume 1) a shot. Although it is a consumable text, I only bought one copy for the two children to share. They will just simply copy the assignments from the book onto their own papers.

I just received my Timberdoodle order yesterday and briefly glanced through the book. It looks good — much “lighter” than the Rod and Staff that we typically use. Language Lessons for the Secondary Child Volume 1 is heavy on creative writing. For Dinky, this will be a pure joy. For Ant, my resident dyslexic who loathes writing, I believe it will be a challenge — but this is an area where he could use a little stretching, so we’ll see.

“Lefty” (9) – Grade 4

This is Lefty’s first year of formal math instruction, for which we are using the Saxon Math 5/4 – the same math book that his four older siblings all used.

And for English, we are continuing with Learning Language Arts through Literature, the Orange Book.

“Boo” (7), “Cricket” (6), & “Curly-Top” (5) – Grade 1

The three little girls are still finishing up their Alpha-Phonics book (they are on lesson 80-something), then they will switch to Rod & Staff 1st grade Reading, in conjunction with Pathway Readers and workbooks.

Why? Because of the busywork involved.

I have ALWAYS stayed far away from workbooks. I personally do not like “busy work”, but let’s face it — these are three VERY busy little girls who definitely NEED something to keep them busy and out of trouble while I am working with the others.

I own two sets of the first grade readers and one set of the corresponding workbooks, bought on vegsource years ago and never used. I also own a set of the Pathway readers, but I need to purchase the workbooks.

For math, again because of a recommendation from Timberdoodle, I have decided to try Miquon Math for the first time.