2011-2012 School Year Plans

School has already started -- and we ARE homeschooling!! And, although I realize that my goal to update this blog on a regular basis has already failed, I do want to document my goals and plans for the coming school. With that said, here is what my curriculum for this year looks like:

Reading: Just lots of it! At night I'd like to read a chapter or two of a chapter book to the three bigger kids. I plan to incorporate lots of books that have been made into a movie, since getting to watch the movie is a motivating force for the kids to read the entire book! We did Charlotte's Web this summer, and just this week we got to watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the second book in "The Chronicles of Narnia". We'll start reading the next book in the series soon! Hopefully we can catch up with the release of the next movie so the kids can see the movie on the big screen right after finishing the book!

For Belle, I plan to encourage her to continue to read books from the American Girl series. I have made contact with a local homeschooling family who is considering starting up an American Girls reading club. If that gets going, Belle would adore being a part of the club! For Russell, I will encourage reading books out of The Magic Tree House series. So far, he read just one of the books; hopefully, I can convince him to continue along in the series! For James, READING is one of my biggest goals this year! Right now he doesn't even have any sight words yet, so getting him up to actual reading this year may be a stretch - but I think we can do it! I didn't follow a curriculum to teach with either of the older two, so I'm hoping to just be able to wing it again... we'll see how it goes!

Math: Math-U-See:I've purchased the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma levels. My plan is to have Belle and Russell complete alpha and beta and possibly get started on gamma this coming school year. We've done MUCH of alpha and beta already (on our own, without following the curriculum), so I don't think this is too much of a stretch. I've discovered that some of the math I've already taught them was just pure memorization though, and while that is good on one level, they really struggle with applying the logic behind one problem to similar problems.... For James, I plan to teach him to count to 100, understand place value, and MAYBE start basic addition problem solving.

Writing: Write Shop Primary, Levels A and half of B. I'm struggling with this because I know that Belle is ready for level B already, but I'd REALLY like to keep Belle and Russell together for this subject. Hopefully I can get Russell up to Belle's level so that they can stay together - so that means working through level A before starting level B. To justify keeping Belle in level A, I'll do lots of the suggested "extension activities" for her on top of the basic lesson. In addition to this curriculum, I plan to use copy work (primarily bible versus), journal time, and pen-pal letters to further handwriting and basic writing skills.

Science: I purchased lapbooks from Hands of a Child (http://www.handsofachild.com/) to use for different topics. My goal is to complete a study on the following subjects: heat and temperature, trees/seeds, spiders, dinosaurs, color, snow, rain, rocks/minerals, earth, space, and volcanos. I'll supplement this curriculum with lots of library books and experiments. The little kids will be involved with this area as much or little as they'd like, but I'll insist that Belle and Russell participate in the planned activities.

History/Geography: I plan to just do my own thing with this this year. My goals are to have the kids memorize the states and their capitols, along with the presidents (and potentially the years they served). If we accomplish this, I'll consider this subject a huge success!

Music: Belle started piano lessons a year ago, and Russell will be starting this year. I've been very pleased with the progress Belle has made, so my goal in this area would be for Belle to continue learning at the same rate, and for Russell to begin learning at a similar rate. Additionally, I'd like for Belle to become more independent with her practice... right now she gets so frustrated if I'm not sitting right next to her, so some independence in this area would be great! (With that said, I fully expect to have to sit with Russell for each practice for this entire year... God give me patience!!) We supplement their lessons with online note and key recognition practice. By the end of this school year I expect Belle and Russell to have both the treble and bass clef notes memorized (both the actual key and the note on the staff). Belle should also be able to identify some key signatures. The primary website we are using for this is: http://www.musicards.net

Typing: This is definitely an extra academic skill at this age, but because the kids are so interested in computer learning, I think it is important that they learn how to correctly type on a keyboard. The primary website we are using for this is: http://www.typing-lessons.org/. I hope that they are proficient at the first 6 lessons on that website by the end of the school year.

Spelling: I purchased the Sequential Spelling curriculum before deciding that I should wait at least a year before beginning that with my kids. So instead, I am going to use the lessons from http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/index.html. Russell is going to start right at the beginning, spelling level A, list 1. I just gave Belle a test to determine her placement level, and she's going to start at level A, list 15. For both kids, I expect that they complete a list a week, putting them 35 weeks ahead of their starting point by the end of this school year.

Preschool: I'm going to use ideas from the Funshine Express curriculum guide that I used in 2008-2009 when I did preschool at home with Belle and some of her friends. I have selected the topic areas that I want to incorporate, and I'll use the lesson plan ideas from those particular subject areas. I'm trying to align these themes with the science unit studies, so hopefully most of this learning time will correspond to our science topic. In addition to those units I plan to do a unit on personal safety, fire safety, healthy bodies (nutrition/exercise), various holidays, and a Dr. Seuss theme. The designated "preschool time" will be primarily for James, though I plan for everyone to participate at some level.

Whew... so there are my plans! I'm already anxious and excited at the same time to look back on this post a year from now! Let this homeschooling journey begin!