Back to school

Whew! I can't believe it's almost that time of year... again--

Time to organize my planner.

Time to purchase a few supplies.

Time to wrap up the last minute details.

Time to get busy.

Time for school to start.

Ugh... I'm just not ready.

Nevertheless, my printer is humming. My files are filling. And my children are panicking :)

Yes, summer has flown by-- a wonderful, wonderful summer, it's been-- and autumn is just around the corner. And that means it's time to firmly nail down a plan or two, ready or not. Thankfully, this part of the process I actually enjoy. You see, I'm a list-maker to the core (I come by it naturally :), so getting our tails in gear for another academic year is really right up my alley (it's the implementing part that's tough!).

After mulling and brooding over several options for this upcoming year, I think I'm finally set. In most subjects, we're just going to do the very next thing-- the next level, the next in the series. In a few areas, however, we're gonna branch out... we're gonna try something new... and those resources have me very excited!

So here we go... my curriculum plans for 2009/2010. Naturally, everything is subject to change, though hopefully nothing will :)

Bub: 5th grade (10-11 years old)

DAILY SUBJECTS

Math:

• Singapore Math (Primary 5 A & B, Intensive Practice 5 A & B, and Challenging Word Problems 4)
• Life of Fred: Fractions and Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents

Latin:

• First Form Latin

Composition:

• Writing Tales, Volume 2
• Classical Writing: Homer -- upon completion of Writing Tales (approx. mid-year)
• Dictation, 3x per week
  

Independent Reading:

• 1.5 hours per day-- great works of literature and other titles to complement history & science studies
• Vocabulary notebook-- each day he'll choose one unknown word from his reading (he'll write the word, the sentence in which it was found, its definition in context, an antonym, its etymology, and a sentence of his own using that word)
  

Music: Piano practice

P.E.: Competitive year-round swimming

Noh-Man: 3rd grade (8-9 years old)

DAILY SUBJECTS

Math:

• Singapore Math (Primary 3B and 4A, Intensive Practice 3B and 4A, and Challenging Word Problems 3)

Latin:

• Finish Prima Latina-- this should only take a month or two; then we'll move on.
  
• Lively Latin

Composition:

• Finish Writing With Ease, Volume 2
• Start Writing Tales, Volume 1
• Dictation, 2x per week
  

Independent Reading:

• 1.25 hours daily-- great works of literature (from a list I've compiled) and other titles to support our history and science studies
• Vocabulary notebook
  

Music: Piano practice

P.E.: Competitive year-round swimming

Big Man: Kindergarten (4-5 years old)

DAILY SUBJECTS

Math:

• Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics
• We'll probably start Horizons K later in the year. Big Man is a very young kindergartener (as far as the public schools are concerned, he just makes the kindergarten cut-off by 6 days) so we'll work at his pace and progress as he's able.
  

Phonics:

• First Reader, Nora Gaydos readers, Bob books and other beginning readers
• Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code series-- progressing at his pace
• Books, books, and more books-- we'll all read-aloud to Big Man every day (including his 2 big brothers)... and we'll read lots!

Penmanship:

• An assortment of copywork pages I'll assemble-- the alphabet, word lists, simple sentences, and Scripture passages as the year progresses

Play. Build. Draw. Create. Sing. Imagine. Explore. Run. Jump. Climb. Swing. Skate. Swim. And so on...

Lollipop (1-2 years)-- Play! Play! Play!

TOGETHER: Me and my boys with Lolli tossed in the mix :)

Bible:

• Starting with Creation, we'll read through The Narrated Bible, a chapter or two per day. We'll keep a journal, we'll keep individual prayer lists, and we'll use a couple helpful tools along the way (such as The Holman Bible Atlas and The Victor Journey Through the Bible).
• We'll read through The Jesus Storybook Bible (again!)-- we all love this one!
• Family Times Virtue packs-- in the evenings with dad, one virtue per month
• Scripture memory and AWANA
  

History/Georgraphy/Literature:

• Tapestry of Grace, Year 3-- 3x per week
• Fieldtrips: Mount Vernon, Monticello, the National Archives, Lincoln's Cottage, Civil War battlefields, etc.
• Geography Through Literature using the Holling C. Holling books

Science:

• Christian Kids Explore Chemistry -- 2x per week
• An assortment of library reading to support each week's lesson material

Logic:

• Grid Perplexors and Mind Benders

Memory Work:

• Scripture, history dates/facts, science terms
• Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Art:

• Homeschool co-op art class-- 1x per week

Music:

• Hymns for a Kid's Heart-- 1 hymn per week
• Individual piano lessons

Read-alouds:

• An assortment of titles I've collected to complement our history studies and a few great books that are just for fun-- daily

SO there you have it... our year at a glance :)

And if you made it this far and are interested in peaking at even more school plans (that always helps me so much!), head on over to Darcy's Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop. There you'll find tons of ideas, inspiration, and encouragement (I know I already have... thanks, Darcy!)~

And happy planning!