Every now and then (about once a week, actually) I see a reference to The Weekly Wrap-Up and think "I ought to do that sometime." But I never get around to it. Finally, I am.
The theme this week is curriculum. Homeschooling mothers love to talk curriculum! Here are our plans for the 2010/2011 school year... as I know them so far. I have two kids, roughly 6th and 8th grades.
History is always first in our house. Yes, it's a homeschool cliche. I can't help it. First half of the year will be American Revolution and the Constitution; second half will be the start of a new cycle of world history with Veritas Omnibus I. You can read how this came about here, if you like.
We have a new curriculum for Bible Study which I am very excited about: The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study by Starr Meade. You can read more about this here.
For math, I'm sorry to say that we are picking up where we left off when we started our summer break. I had wanted to finish the books, but it didn't happen. OK, I couldn't make it happen and keep my kids and myself sane. So one child will finish Math-U-See Delta and move into Life of Fred Fractions and Key To Fractions. The other will finish the fractions books and move into Life of Fred Decimals and Key to Decimals. Whew.
Science is not decided. Science is never decided. Though my kids, at least my son, seem to have a pretty good handle on science topics. We are somewhat Charlotte Mason-ish in this way: lots of good books, observation, experiments.
For English we use a few resources. Both kids will be working in Our Mother Tongue for grammar. My boy will continue to work on his composition skills by working on Boy Scout Merit Badge worksheets (and earning the badges), article analysis, and other means as they come up. A writing curriculum does not work with this child. My girl will just write. She can do that. I use AVKO Sequential Spelling for the nonwriter/nonspeller. The child who can write can also spell. We don't use any curriculum for vocabulary except books. Both kids will read and be read to, a lot.
We'll continue Getting Started With Latin, and try to be a little more intentional and regular with it.
My girl wants to learn French so I am toying with Memoria Press First Start French. I'm still trying to decide if she is serious about it or not. She also takes piano lessons and likes lots of time for arts and crafts.
Both my children are active in Scouts, and my son participates in First Tech Robotics League so they have cool not-so-extra curriculars going on.
PE means going to the YMCA for gym time and swimming, walking/running the dog, playing with our new badminton set, and are just generally active.
I guess there is not all that much actual curriculum in there. But, those are our plans!
You can find other Weekly Wrap-Up posts, or post your own, at Weird, Unscocialized Homeschoolers.
2 comments:
Your plans look just fine! Mostly, you're spending time with your kids. My hubby is a math tutor and he loves the Key To ... series as well as Life of Fred. (What's funny is that our daughter, who loves to read and write, did terribly with Life of Fred and is back to ALEKS math!! Nonetheless, the curriculum is solid, he says).
You might consider Singapore science curricula. My 7th grade son started the Intermediate science last year and enjoyed the three chapters that we did. (He's dyslexic, so I mostly read to him, although he did read the end of chapter reviews himself.) My 10th grade daughter did Biology last year - and I was quite impressed with the depth of their biology, although we had to find another lab to add and I had to add practical info about human sexuality. They are definitely textbooks, but I like them.
Have a great year!!
We do like to talk curriculum don't we? It sounds like you have an exciting year planned.
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