Monday, May 18, 2009

Already Planning Next Year's School

Homeschool plans.

Ella – 3rd grade

Ella will be studying:
History – Story of the World, Part III (received)
Grammar – First Language Lessons, Part 3 (received)
Writing - Writing With Ease (shipped)
Spelling – Spelling Workout “D” (check)
Art – Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes and we will continue with the art appreciation lessons from ...what's their faces. I'll find 'em. Hold a sec. (ordered)
Bible – may do family bible study with the catechism
Piano – piano lessons, music appreciation in the form of Great Composers coloring book. We'll do one a week and listen to that particular composer via Pandora radio. (shipped)
Latin – Latina Christiana (shipped)
Cursive – Handwriting Without Tears (shipped)
Science – Using a text as a guide and looking for a creation science curriculum (suggestions?), also Adventures With Atoms and Molecules by Robert Mebane (shipped)
Math – Right Start Mathematics, level D (shipped)

Sarah – 1st grade

Sarah will be studying:
History – Story of the World, Part I (check)
Reading – Finish OPG if she’s not done this summer (check)
Grammar – First Language Lessons, Part 1 (check)
Spelling – Spelling Workout “A” (ordered)
Art – Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes (she'll do music appreciation with Ella)
Bible – may do family bible study with the catechism
Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears (shipped)
Science – A Beka science and health (check)
Math – Right Start Mathematics, level B (check)

Rachel – Pre-K

I don’t really like to do all that much until they’re in kindergarten but Rachel will be doing:

Reading – Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, as much as she is able or wants to. (check)
Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears (shipped)
Art – whatever we feel like doing

Rachel really likes being involved in school. I didn’t do but 27 lessons of OPG with Sarah when she was 4 because that’s all she wanted to do. I have a feeling Rachel may want to do more as she loves being in the school with us and getting that attention. I only ordered the handwriting book for her because it’ll give her something that is “real school” to do during school. She really likes that stuff.

Total cost = $383.15

It sort of seems like a lot, but this is a complete curriculum for three grades and the vast majority of it I will use for four more kids.

8 comments:

Johanna said...

Wow! That's really cheap for three kids' school. It's really cheap for one kid's school. I need to sit down and do something like this, too. Since I use Sonlight as my core, that really cuts down on how much I have to piece together, but it also greatly adds to the cost. Let's just say that Aaron's school alone next year will cost more than your three girl's school...oh, well. I love it.

Do your girls have a difficult time spelling? Aaron seems to spell pretty well, and I wonder if I really need to get him a set spelling curriculum, or if I can just use copywork and reading to reinforce spelling. I can't believe he's going to be in first grade. Man, I can't just fluff through next year anymore! :)

Joanna said...

Ella is an excellent speller...for being in 2nd grade. Sometimes she really tosses a whopper out there and you have to wonder if she's been listening through all her grammar and rules of spelling, etc. But I attribute her good spelling skills to the Spelling Workout books (which I *really* like) to her love of reading. There's no workbook that will make up for that. If you want I'll scan a lesson off and email it to you so you can see what it's like.

Johanna said...

I'd love to see a lesson! I looked at the book you're using for art, too. It looks good. Aaron is really artistic and I'm really not. I've been on the lookout for good things to help him with art.

Joanna said...

I like that it's something I have to be involved in, and even though I'm not that good at drawing I can teach her to draw. I did take an art class in high school and recall some of those lessons vaguely.

Joanna said...

Also about the Spelling Workout, I like that for a good reader, you can just give the lesson to the kid and they can accomplish it independantly. Every now and the I had to help Ella with a more complex issue, but for the most part the directions are clear and easy to follow.

Joanna said...

I'll wait until the new Spelling Workout A comes in, since that's the one that Aaron would be using. Ella did Spelling Workout A and B during 1st grade and C during 2nd grade.

Anonymous said...

*covers eyes and plugs ears*

lalalalalala

I am too stressed over THIS year's school work at the moment to think about next year's! haha

I love it that you are so organized though :)

M said...

Wow! What great help! I am begining to see that we will probably be homeschooling too except for vision services at the public schools, and this is great information. I am sooooo stealing the PreK stuff for Savannah.... I found that some of the other curriculum is too hard to get prepared for while still being Mom!