Robert did BJU's Space and Earth Science this year with their DVDs. He enjoyed it so much that he has asked to do all of his classes this way next year. I am still trying to figure out the finances for this, but if we can possibly swing it, that's what we're going to do. So, assuming this works out, this is what he'll be doing.
BJU Geography (supplemented with Sonlight Core 5 books)
BJU Algebra I
BJU Physical Science
BJU Literature (1 semester class)
Rod and Staff English 7 (I know. It's not BJU, but this falls under "if it's not broke, don't fix it". It's a fantastic grammar program.)
IEW SICC-B
viola lessons/orchestra
I am aware of the time involved with BJU's DVD classes. However, I also know that I am in control of it, rather than it being in control of me. I will modify as I see fit.
Ruth does not enjoy DVD classes, so while she will be doing some BJU courses, she will not be using the DVDs. The possible exception is Physical Science. I am not sure if she will be doing that with Robert or in an outside class.
BJU American Republic (supplemented with Sonlight Core 100 books)
Saxon 8/7
Physical Science (BJU or outside class)
BJU Literature 8 (1 semester class)
possibly a couple of Total Language Plus guides
Rod and Staff English 7
IEW SICC-B
Art (outside class)
cello lessons/orchestra
There are other things I would love to do. I've always wanted us to go through Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings. However, our days are going to be full enough, and sometimes you have to say no to even the good stuff.
I cannot believe that I will have a high schooler next year. Where has the time gone?
(Yes, I know Sonlight has renamed their cores, but I'm referring to them by the names I'm familiar with.)
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Friday, May 06, 2011
Looking Ahead to Next Year
I've been a horrible blogger lately. So bad, I'm not even sure you can call me a blogger anymore. However, I'm giving it a try once again. I will have a high schooler next year (and 2 high schoolers the year after that!), so I'm feeling the need to savor every minute I have left with them. One way to do that, and to hold on to all the memories, is to blog about our adventures.
I thought I would start out by talking about the changes I am making to our homeschool next year. The biggest change is that I'm going to change to textbooks. I've thought of doing this in the past, but guilt over the lack of a living books education for my children held me back. Something I read awhile back has really stayed with me, though, and I've let go of this guilt.
What was this "something" that I read? Basically, it was said that our goal in homeschooling is to teach our children to have a heart for God. This can be done with any style of education, all the way from unschooling to traditional textbooks. Pondering this over the months has helped me realize that thinking that one educational method is the "be all and end all" is just plain wrong. I need to find what works for me and for my children. And honestly, the few textbooks we've done over the years have been very successful. I have felt comfortable with them and the kids have learned.
I made the final decision a few months ago to switch to textbooks for next year and I have never felt such peace about a curriculum choice. Even the arrival of the annual Sonlight catalog had absolutely no impact on my decision. :) I am eager to start our new adventure in the fall with textbooks.
I will be posting my list of exactly which textbooks we'll be using in another post.
I thought I would start out by talking about the changes I am making to our homeschool next year. The biggest change is that I'm going to change to textbooks. I've thought of doing this in the past, but guilt over the lack of a living books education for my children held me back. Something I read awhile back has really stayed with me, though, and I've let go of this guilt.
What was this "something" that I read? Basically, it was said that our goal in homeschooling is to teach our children to have a heart for God. This can be done with any style of education, all the way from unschooling to traditional textbooks. Pondering this over the months has helped me realize that thinking that one educational method is the "be all and end all" is just plain wrong. I need to find what works for me and for my children. And honestly, the few textbooks we've done over the years have been very successful. I have felt comfortable with them and the kids have learned.
I made the final decision a few months ago to switch to textbooks for next year and I have never felt such peace about a curriculum choice. Even the arrival of the annual Sonlight catalog had absolutely no impact on my decision. :) I am eager to start our new adventure in the fall with textbooks.
I will be posting my list of exactly which textbooks we'll be using in another post.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Final Curriculum Plans
A few posts back (but several months ago), I talked about our curriculum plans for this year. Things have changed a bit, so I wanted to share what we decided on.
History - This is the biggest change. After deciding on Sonlight Core 6, a friend offered to lend me Tapestry of Grace Year 4 (Classic) for free. After thinking about it, I decided to take her up on that generous offer. I spent some time with it, but found that going from Redesign to Classic was not that easy for me. I love all the updates in the Redesign version! However, after looking over Year 4, I also found that I did not want to go back to my original plan of Sonlight. So, I discussed it with Griff and he agreed that I could get TOG Year 4 Redesign DE if it fits in my school budget. After checking out the list of books needed for Term 1 (first 9 weeks), I saw that I would only need to buy 2 books. I either own them or the library carries them. That makes TOG much more affordable than I would have originally thought, and I made the purchase.
I am keeping my friend's Year 4 Classic through the end of the year. That way, if I find that I cannot continue to purchase the DE edition, I can go back to that.
Grammar - We will finish Rod and Staff English 5 as I mentioned before. However, we will not continue into English 6 as I had originally planned. Instead, I am going to take the opportunity to lighten our load a bit and alternate grammar with writing. Which leads me to...
Writing - We're going to continue with IEW. I'll be alternating a chapter of grammar with a unit of IEW. I want to get through Unit VII this year, and this will work out very nicely.
Literature - This is part of TOG, so we will use that part of their program. I may still buy some Total Language Plus guides if they fit into the budget, just because I like them so much. We'll see...
Math - We did switch to Bob Jones. I put both of them in Grade 6 math and I teach them together.
Science - Robert is doing Apologia General Science. Ruth is doing BJU Science 6.
Bible/Devotional - We will be using the following books, alternating them through the week.
Bible study - How to Study Your Bible, for Kids - I took the adult version of this class years ago and really like this Bible study method. It will not take us the full year to get through this guide, so we will hopefully use the methods learned to study at least one book of the Bible.
Devotional - Boyhood and Beyond (for Robert) and A Girl of Beauty (for Ruthie)
Composer and Artist study - I want to study 20th century composers and artists, but I haven't quite worked out the specifics.
Art - A friend and I are going to do Meet the Masters together. We'll get together once a month or so and do art projects. (Actually, this may impact our artist study, too. I'll have to take a closer look at it before deciding about that.)
Music - The kids will continue with private lesson instruction. We are not doing homeschool orchestra this year, so I will be looking for other opportunities for them to perform. I am thinking of nursing homes and our church's preschool program.
Health - We've never done this formally before, but I think we need some guidance in this subject. I want to keep it simple, though, so I just got the grade-appropriate A Beka Health textbooks. The kids will read from them, and we'll discuss what they read. That's it. Easy-peasy (and not too time consuming).
We have finished our first week of school and I hope to post a weekly report soon, so stay tuned!
History - This is the biggest change. After deciding on Sonlight Core 6, a friend offered to lend me Tapestry of Grace Year 4 (Classic) for free. After thinking about it, I decided to take her up on that generous offer. I spent some time with it, but found that going from Redesign to Classic was not that easy for me. I love all the updates in the Redesign version! However, after looking over Year 4, I also found that I did not want to go back to my original plan of Sonlight. So, I discussed it with Griff and he agreed that I could get TOG Year 4 Redesign DE if it fits in my school budget. After checking out the list of books needed for Term 1 (first 9 weeks), I saw that I would only need to buy 2 books. I either own them or the library carries them. That makes TOG much more affordable than I would have originally thought, and I made the purchase.
I am keeping my friend's Year 4 Classic through the end of the year. That way, if I find that I cannot continue to purchase the DE edition, I can go back to that.
Grammar - We will finish Rod and Staff English 5 as I mentioned before. However, we will not continue into English 6 as I had originally planned. Instead, I am going to take the opportunity to lighten our load a bit and alternate grammar with writing. Which leads me to...
Writing - We're going to continue with IEW. I'll be alternating a chapter of grammar with a unit of IEW. I want to get through Unit VII this year, and this will work out very nicely.
Literature - This is part of TOG, so we will use that part of their program. I may still buy some Total Language Plus guides if they fit into the budget, just because I like them so much. We'll see...
Math - We did switch to Bob Jones. I put both of them in Grade 6 math and I teach them together.
Science - Robert is doing Apologia General Science. Ruth is doing BJU Science 6.
Bible/Devotional - We will be using the following books, alternating them through the week.
Bible study - How to Study Your Bible, for Kids - I took the adult version of this class years ago and really like this Bible study method. It will not take us the full year to get through this guide, so we will hopefully use the methods learned to study at least one book of the Bible.
Devotional - Boyhood and Beyond (for Robert) and A Girl of Beauty (for Ruthie)
Composer and Artist study - I want to study 20th century composers and artists, but I haven't quite worked out the specifics.
Art - A friend and I are going to do Meet the Masters together. We'll get together once a month or so and do art projects. (Actually, this may impact our artist study, too. I'll have to take a closer look at it before deciding about that.)
Music - The kids will continue with private lesson instruction. We are not doing homeschool orchestra this year, so I will be looking for other opportunities for them to perform. I am thinking of nursing homes and our church's preschool program.
Health - We've never done this formally before, but I think we need some guidance in this subject. I want to keep it simple, though, so I just got the grade-appropriate A Beka Health textbooks. The kids will read from them, and we'll discuss what they read. That's it. Easy-peasy (and not too time consuming).
We have finished our first week of school and I hope to post a weekly report soon, so stay tuned!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Planning for Next Year
I've been thinking about next year's curriculum quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. I thought I'd write it all down so I can remember my thought processes. I also try to find as many things used as I can, so I give myself plenty of time to do that.
Note: Robert will be in 7th grade next year. Ruthie will be in 6th.
History - As much as I have loved using Tapestry of Grace for the end of our school year, I've decided that I just can't justify the cost. Our money is just not going as far as it used to. (I'm pretty sure this is a common problem everywhere.) I'm going to have to cut expenses somewhere and TOG just does not fit into the budget. So, I'm now looking at Sonlight Core 6. I love the book choices of Sonlight and we already own most of the books for this particular core. My only hesitation is the speed at which Sonlight moves. We'd be covering the Ancients all the way through the Reformation in one year. Wow! I would probably slow it down, spending at least 1.5 years covering this core.
Grammar - We started Rod and Staff English 5 a few months ago and we'll continue with that. We only do grammar a few days a week, so we probably won't finish it until February. We'll then start R&S English 6. I have tried other things for grammar, but I just love how R&S is set up. I also know it's very rigorous, so I'm comfortable using it below grade level.
Math - This is a tough one. I have really liked CLE, but my kids' grades on tests and quizzes this year have been very low. I feel that they really need more one-on-one instruction. And, while I am very good at math, I'm not so good at explaining it. So, I am probably going to switch to Bob Jones. I like their teacher manuals a lot and it's what I need. Since Robert is behind in math, I'll be able to put both of them in Grade 6 math and teach them together (which will also save money). The following year, Robert should be able to move into pre-algebra. Ruth can either do Grade 7 or pre-algebra, depending on how strong I feel she is in the concepts.
Science - Robert will be moving into more serious science. I have enjoyed using Bob Jones science this year, and he really likes the look of Life Science. However, it's very teacher-intensive. So, if we can afford to do the DVD (or their new online) classes, we will go that direction. Otherwise, he'll do Apologia General Science. I honestly think he would enjoy either one, so I'm comfortable with those choices. Ruth may do BJU Science 6. I'm not sure about that.
Literature - Well, Sonlight has plenty of reading, so that's covered. I'm going to try to involve the kids in some casual discussions of the books using Sparknotes, and possibly some Total Language Plus guides. I'm also looking at how logic-stage literature is covered in The Well-Trained Mind.
Writing - We're going to continue with IEW. I'm going to use the IEW Ancient History-Based writing lessons. We'll also do written narrations and notebooking.
Bible - We're going to do something wild and crazy here and just read the Bible for our curriculum next year. :) I might try to find a one year Bible for them to use, but I'm not sure. Since we're studying the ancients, it makes sense to start with the Old Testament, so that is what we'll do.
Composer and Artist study - We'll continue with the Ambleside Online rotation.
Art - A friend and I are going to do Meet the Masters together. We'll get together once a month or so and do art projects. (Actually, this may impact our artist study, too. I'll have to take a closer look at it before deciding about that.)
Music - The kids will continue with private lesson instruction and homeschool orchestra.
I think that's it. I'm happy with how it's shaping up. I think it's going to be a good year.
Note: Robert will be in 7th grade next year. Ruthie will be in 6th.
History - As much as I have loved using Tapestry of Grace for the end of our school year, I've decided that I just can't justify the cost. Our money is just not going as far as it used to. (I'm pretty sure this is a common problem everywhere.) I'm going to have to cut expenses somewhere and TOG just does not fit into the budget. So, I'm now looking at Sonlight Core 6. I love the book choices of Sonlight and we already own most of the books for this particular core. My only hesitation is the speed at which Sonlight moves. We'd be covering the Ancients all the way through the Reformation in one year. Wow! I would probably slow it down, spending at least 1.5 years covering this core.
Grammar - We started Rod and Staff English 5 a few months ago and we'll continue with that. We only do grammar a few days a week, so we probably won't finish it until February. We'll then start R&S English 6. I have tried other things for grammar, but I just love how R&S is set up. I also know it's very rigorous, so I'm comfortable using it below grade level.
Math - This is a tough one. I have really liked CLE, but my kids' grades on tests and quizzes this year have been very low. I feel that they really need more one-on-one instruction. And, while I am very good at math, I'm not so good at explaining it. So, I am probably going to switch to Bob Jones. I like their teacher manuals a lot and it's what I need. Since Robert is behind in math, I'll be able to put both of them in Grade 6 math and teach them together (which will also save money). The following year, Robert should be able to move into pre-algebra. Ruth can either do Grade 7 or pre-algebra, depending on how strong I feel she is in the concepts.
Science - Robert will be moving into more serious science. I have enjoyed using Bob Jones science this year, and he really likes the look of Life Science. However, it's very teacher-intensive. So, if we can afford to do the DVD (or their new online) classes, we will go that direction. Otherwise, he'll do Apologia General Science. I honestly think he would enjoy either one, so I'm comfortable with those choices. Ruth may do BJU Science 6. I'm not sure about that.
Literature - Well, Sonlight has plenty of reading, so that's covered. I'm going to try to involve the kids in some casual discussions of the books using Sparknotes, and possibly some Total Language Plus guides. I'm also looking at how logic-stage literature is covered in The Well-Trained Mind.
Writing - We're going to continue with IEW. I'm going to use the IEW Ancient History-Based writing lessons. We'll also do written narrations and notebooking.
Bible - We're going to do something wild and crazy here and just read the Bible for our curriculum next year. :) I might try to find a one year Bible for them to use, but I'm not sure. Since we're studying the ancients, it makes sense to start with the Old Testament, so that is what we'll do.
Composer and Artist study - We'll continue with the Ambleside Online rotation.
Art - A friend and I are going to do Meet the Masters together. We'll get together once a month or so and do art projects. (Actually, this may impact our artist study, too. I'll have to take a closer look at it before deciding about that.)
Music - The kids will continue with private lesson instruction and homeschool orchestra.
I think that's it. I'm happy with how it's shaping up. I think it's going to be a good year.
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