We will be starting school in one week, and I am pleased to say that I already have 3 weeks of lesson plans written out in my lesson plan book. I asked Addison if he was ready for school to start and he replied, "YES! This is gonna be one exciting year!". I think he's right. This year, the boys will be taking a few classes at Summit Academy, which has a new campus right down the road. This isn't a school, but a group of teachers... tutors.... who have homeschool classes a la carte. Classes are only held on Wednesday, with lessons to complete at home the rest of the week.
The boys will be taking Medieval History (which is perfect since we did Story of the World's 'Ancient Civilizations' last year). They will be in the class with their friends Aiden, Bryson and Carson. With a set of twins and a set of triplets in the class, it was full enough for the class to go on as soon as the two of us signed up! I think they are going to have a great time with lots of projects and creative opportunities. The next class they will go to is art, which they both wanted desperately. Although I am very crafty and artistic, I can only do so much... I only know so much... and art projects are time consuming and can get expensive! I am thrilled for them to fill this need somewhere else! After art will be Tae Kwon Do. I wasn't initially going to do this class, but they were both insistent, and it will count as PE. Plus, we couldn't do any martial art any cheaper anywhere else. Finally, they will be going to a 3-5th grade class, Anatomy and Physiology. The health teacher in me is totally excited about this one. I will be helping with the at home reading assignments, and the teacher thinks they will be just fine in there with the slightly older kids.
In addition to Summit Academy, Asa and Addison will be in Youth Handbells on Wednesday nights and a Drama class at the church on Sunday afternoons. It makes for a pretty full schedule, since I will have handbell practice on Tuesday nights. I just keep telling myself that most people have to get everyone up at the crack of dawn and get out the door before the sun comes up. I think about this on mornings like yesterday... when I heard sweet sounds on the monitor and went up the stairs to find Ivey, in a fabulous mood, with her diaper in one hand and poop smeared everywhere... on the sheets, the bumper, her legs, arms, stuffed animals... no fun. My morning went from running up the stairs to get Ivey so that I could milk the goats before Olive woke up to doing mountains of laundry and bathing a poo covered child. If we had to get out the door for school, I have no idea what I would have done.
We are continuing with some of last year's curricula, but some will change. We will be using Abeka for spelling, reading, phonics and poetry, which is new for us. Grammar remains the same, with First Language Lessons. We will use Spectrum Writing for writing skills and our journals from last year for Creative Writing. Science will be through Summit, who uses the new Apologia's "Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology". After checking out the book, I am pleased. I am not big on heavily religious curricula (I'm just not a fan of feeling like you need to learn multiplication by figuring out how many shoes the Apostles would need... it's just forced and over the top in my opinion), but this simply gives God His due credit for creating such an amazing body, which I appreciate.
For Math, I am crazy. For some reason, I can not be content to follow one curriculum. The boys tested into Teaching Textbooks 3rd Grade, which is a very cool computer based learning program. However, it is not as advanced as the one we used last year. Even though they will be in the 3rd grade math, I still want to keep them moving in the speed they enjoy, so we will be using Mammoth Math 2A and 2B along with Teaching Textbooks. Mammoth Math is very similar to Singapore Math, which we used for the 1st grade. I think they are going to love the computer lessons and we'll make sure to stay on our advanced track with the other.
History will be "The Story of the World", which they loved. Plus, they will have an energetic fun teacher at Summit who is on FIRE for history! We will have handwriting with "A Reason For Handwriting", and we'll somehow manage to learn cursive this year. Some people have asked if they still teach it. Yes, and I will too. Cursive is faster and I use it as my primary writing. So, my boys will learn it! For Social Studies, we will be learning the 50 states and capitols for the first half of the year and do a Georgia study for the second half. We will also be doing Spanish with Rosetta Stone, which the boys started at the last half of last year.
Whew! Somehow this will all take place with an almost two year old girl who sounds just like a tea kettle when she doesn't get her way and a 5 month old baby who eats every 3-4 hours. It will work... with a lot of sweat and very little sleep, some flexibility and a lot of patience, it will work!
1 comment:
I think every child should learn cursive. It helps with a multitude of learning diabilities, plus helps to make a person able to be productive in life, no matter what writing style other people use. You are awesome. I may just let you teach mine if you have room. I'll take the boys back for high school at the Chee.
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