School Days

We are starting our school year in a week, and I figured it was time for a post with our lesson plans for the coming year. I always love reading what others have planned, since sometimes they have such good suggestions.

We are going to continue with the school schedule of working several weeks, and then taking designated other weeks off. It will be a little more difficult this year, since we will be going to our local homeschool co-op on Fridays, but I think the kids are going to look at Fridays more as fun, than school.


MATH
Planned for only 3 days a week in August, and then 4 days a week after Labor Day. We are trying something new this year. I am going to start with Singapore 1B which at the beginning should be pretty easy for Katie, but then we will also be doing the Word Problems, and the Intensive Practice. Math has always been a struggle. She likes the geometry, measurement, time, etc. Strongly dislikes the calculation and facts. Hopefully this will go a little better.

SPELLING

We will continue to use Houghton Mifflin's Spelling and Vocabulary, but move up to Grade 2. It has been very easy for Katie to do on her own, and then I quiz her on the spellings throughout the week. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

READING

We are trying something new this year with Learning Language Arts Through Literature the Red Level.

It looks like it will be lots of fun, and I am modifying by skipping the handwriting that they use, as well as doing the spelling words (very easy), while adding our own spelling program. I just wanted to try something a little more concrete now that she can read many books on her own.

PHONICS

We will continue to use MCP Phonics level B, which we started this summer. With the schedule I have, we will finish that book in early January, and then go back to reinforce with Explode the Code 4 through 6. The explode the code books seem to really lock-in everything she learns through MCP, and it is something she can do on her own most of the time, and even in the car.

LANGUAGE

I didn't like last year's choice of Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, so this year we are opting for Voyages in English to add to the LLATL. It is only a small book, and shouldn't take us much more than half the year to finish. Plus it only cost me $3 at the Home School Store, so could I really resist the trial at such a cheap price?

WRITING
Handwriting will continue with Scott Foresman's D'Nealian. We are going to continue practicing the manuscript for at least the first half of the year, and then possibly start cursive the second.

SCIENCE
Another new trial will be EasyClassical's Earth Science, which uses a variety of books to cover the various topics of weather, geology, and astronomy. They give a list of books to choose from based on the age of your child, and what you want to cover.
I chose to use for the Geology/ Weather unit:
Janice VanCleave's Earth Science for Every Kid
Learning About Weather - an Evan-Moore Teacher book
The Geography Book - by Caroline Arnold
The Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World
2 of these I already owned, and then 2 I had to buy through ebay or amazon.

For the Astronomy unit:
Exploring Creation with Astronomy - an Apologia book, which I will do some serious editing on.
Exploring Space - an Evan-Moore Teacher book
The Glow - in - the - Dark Night Sky Book - by Clint Hatchett
The Usborne First Encyclopedia of Space
3 I owned previously, and I bought the Apologia book.

I like the way each week is laid out for you into a two day schedule, with pages for the books for that week, and questions below. Along with teacher information for parts laid out in a friendly manner. They also give you a library book list and shopping list for the following week when necessary, so you can plan a week ahead. Looks like fun!

We are also going to use some of the lessons from R.E.A.L. science that go along with the topics.

HISTORY
We are going to continue using Story of the World, moving on to Volume 2. Along with the activity book, and the library books for each week, it works well for us.

ART
We are going to test out Artistic Pursuits Volume 2. It should go along with our history, and it looks like it had some good projects in it.