Our 2013 schedule and curriculum

Okay, I confess!  I am (still!) a schedule addict!

I, personally, LOVE seeing what other people do to help organise their time.  I enjoy reading through their ideas and seeing if it would be something that may fit our family lifestyle.

So, in saying that, please take this post as a way of sharing in case you are part of that type of audience who does like seeing the ideas of others.  I don't want to send a whole lot of readers into a panic.  No, you don't NEED to write up a schedule like this!  This is 'me' and how I work, and I'm just sharing if you'd like a peek into my life.

Also, do note that I don't claim to have everything perfect here.  We certainly DO!! have off-days, even off-weeks. Sometimes we are so engrossed in learning a particular topic that we spend longer on it than a written schedule allows ... so I'm flexible.  However, for my purposes, I do need an outline of how to manage our time. This is my guideline, especially where having extra students for music are concerned.

What do I use to organise our homeschool routine?

Well, I drew a lot of inspiration from Managers of Their Homes, so will still write out our routine in that format.  It works so nicely and I can print it out easily enough and paste it into my diary to check against appointments, etc.  If you'd like a look at last year's schedule again, please see here and here.  Below is a screen shot of how our 2013 schedule is looking at the moment:

click image to enlarge

Today was our first day back to the books.  It was great seeing the children enthused and pulling the books out.  We did have a few disorganised moments here and there, but I was really pleased to see that the day ran quite well.  Tomorrow may be another story, but today ... we're all happy. :)



Here is what we are using in 2013 (taking up where we left off last year):

Maestro (age 14):

• Wordly Wise 9
• IEW (B continuation course, then Speech Boot Camp), plus adhoc writing journal/comprehension
• Math U See Geometry
• History Odyssey: Early Modern 2, with readers from Sonlight Core H and 100.
• Apologia's Physical Science
• A collection of other books on life skills.  He's already reading Money Matters Workbook for Teens. CLE's Home Maintenance is his next elective choice.
• Dance (ballet, jazz, hip hop)

Mariposa (age 11):

• Phonetic Zoo A
• IEW (A) plus adhoc writing journal/comprehension
• Singapore Maths level 4, book 1, then level 5
• Sonlight Core D+E
• Sonlight Science F (3/4 through from last year), then Science E.
• CLE's Home Economics, plus sewing projects I'll put together.
• Piano lessons (preliminary).
• Horseriding
• Dance (hip hop)

Together we'll also be using:

• Grammar of Poetry
• Bridge to the Latin Road
• Visual Latin
• Meet the Masters for art (purchased through Homeschool Buyers Co-op).

Well ... that's the plan!  I can't believe another year's already underway.  I hope you ALL have a wonder 2013, and I look forward to sharing more as the year goes on. :)

Until next post!

Catherine

Dec 9 weekly wrap-up

I enjoyed filling in the calendar page this afternoon, writing in everything that happened AFTER the event.  I know! It's supposed to be the opposite way around, so I remember what's coming up.  Ah well! :)

The year's winding up and I've had several music students finish up their lessons for the year.  Most of my afternoons are freeing up, and with no more dance lessons for the children, we're enjoying a more relaxed routine.

We're also winding up with our bookwork.  Only two more weeks to go and we'll have a break over summer!

In our homeschool ...

Mariposa has finished another Singapore Maths book.  Instead of starting the next book, we're enjoying reading Mathematicians Are People Too, and learnt about Thales.  She really enjoyed the story of the donkey who didn't want to carry a heavy load across the river, and how Thales trained it to change it's behaviour.

Maestro has moved to some early Physics concepts in Apologia's Physical Science.  It's the first time he's used these formulae, but he's enjoying the change in topic.

Both of the children have worked on their spelling and improving really well.  I'd been a little lax with Maestro's spelling, but have pulled him back in with Mariposa's lessons (ie: they both work on the same list) using IEW's Phonetic Zoo.  The word list is not at all 'babyish', but based on learning the phonetic rule and recognising base words with their suffixes. Even though he is a really good speller already, I want him to keep up the practice and stay familiar with the rules. I'm so impressed with the improvement Mariposa's made with her spelling over this year (she's had to struggle with reading problems).  She's really done well with All About Spelling, and now Phonetic Zoo is challenging her that little bit more.  Here's a sample of all the words she's now able spell correctly:

This sample is from the Teacher Notes sample

found in pdf HERE.

We're still working through the same read-alouds: Johnny Tremain and Iron Peacock.  I'm hoping we'll finish these during next week.

We've also been doing some great lessons with Papa about goal setting.  I'll have to write up a separate post about that, so be sure to check that out soon.

Socially speaking ...

We enjoyed a lovely visit with a friend on Monday; ALL of Monday. It was an early morning start to make lunch up to take with us, and then we didn't get home until dinner time.

Wednesday night was coffee out with the local homeschooling mums.  I ended up chatting a lot with a lady I didn't know too well, but who shares similar ideas of growing her own produce, teaching her children sewing, cooking, building ... a lovely night spent sharing stories and ideas. :)

Then on Friday afternoon, the children went to stay overnight with friends whilst Papa and I went out.  We were given some complimentary tickets to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

In the home ...

It's been about the cherries!  I worked my way through all of them very carefully, so they're all washed, picked and now bottled (if not yet eaten fresh!)  The cherry pie made during the week was such a success that I've had to promise to make it again soon. Seven jars of cherries are now cooling off as we speak, and I can hear the random 'click' of the seal taking hold in the lids.



Our tighter budget was a success with our grocery shopping.  During the week I came across a great blog called The Fun, Cheap or Free Queen.  She has a very simple, workable idea for tracking spending weekly.  It was most helpful, so I hope to make it a success through the rest of the month.

You will also notice, if you've visited here before, that I've been playing with my blog page (again!).  I want to fix the header up some more, but that'll be when I get some time to figure it all out.

Hoping you all have a wonderful week ahead!

Until next post,

Catherine

Read more Weekly Wrap-Ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
and It's a Wrap at Hammock Tracks

Mariposa's Books for 2011

I know! I should be enjoying the peace and quiet, the relaxed days that have a minimal routine, no rushing about ... but I can't help myself! I think I'm addicted to my children's books. I keep getting them out for a look, to stack them neatly in piles and play with the planning pages. So, when I again found myself leafing through a folder, I decided to direct my enthusiasm to a blog post instead. Lucky you, lol!!

I'll start with what Mariposa is doing. She's now 9yrs old, so grade 4 in our state/country. We had a great time doing Sonlight's Core 1+2 in 2010. I bought a whole lot of the readers, from intermediate to advanced in that Core. We still haven't finished them all, but they're there for use now that her reading skills are picking up.  Along with those readers, we have the following:

Spelling:

We started using All About Spelling in October. We needed something to help boost Mariposa's confidence, and manipulatives are ideal for her learning style. What she already knew, she's skimmed through very quickly. This has been great, because we can tailor this perfectly to her needs.

Having the letters on tiles has helped her immensely. As she often wrote many letters in reverse, or whole words in mirror, having these already on the tiles has helped her quickly get the word 'done' and spelt correctly the first time. When we then do dictation with pen to paper, she has found that it's helped give her a better visual of what the letters and word look like. I've noticed an improvement and she's enjoying it, so we'll continue with this product for her.

Actually, we're not too far off finishing the first book, but along the way she has already had to practice some of the tricky spelling words that were tripping her up. We'll review some of the latest lessons before proceeding further along. Even Maestro picked up some rules he didn't know before, just from listening in.







Language Arts:

We're changing over to LLATL (Learning Language Arts Through Literature). This change came about from a few steps. Firstly a friend showed me how she was using them, then another friend offered me use of her Teacher's Manual. All I had to do was to purchase the Student's books, which is available at Christianbook.

Mariposa is starting with the Yellow Book, which is probably a little easy for her, but will again build up her confidence in reading/writing.  We can plough through what the book specifies as a week's worth of work in a couple of days, then slow down to the recommended pace as she the work gets harder.

Maths:

Singapore Maths again. This program worked so well in 2010, so we're sticking with it. She'll start working on Level 3 this year.

Winter Promise:

Yes, we're having a slight diversion from Sonlight for a little bit. Whilst she still has some readers to keep her busy from Sonlight's Core 1+2, we're going to use Winter Promise "Animals and Their Worlds" for the main. It's set out in the same style as Sonlight, only with different themes.

This is probably something we could have done when she was a couple of years younger, but there is a HUGE attraction to animals in her life, so why not exploit it? This is the folder I've been pulling out often, as I can see that some things in the Instructor Guide will be quite easy for her. I may need to tweek this a bit, omitting the 'too easy' and adding a few other ideas/resources from our library.

Science:

Well, I know that Winter Promise has books that would cover Science, but we're still going to have a go at another lot of science from Sonlight. I've decided to let her have a go at Science 2. It may be a bit of a step back from Science 3, but my reasoning is that she could probably do a lot of this on her own, helping again to develop some independent learning. The experiments should be fun, too.  See ... I'm trying to cater to her 'hands on' style, and if it all gets too busy, we'll stretch it over 2 years.

Art:

We're staying with Artistic Pursuits. Mariposa is naturally into the art supplies anyway, so this book will give guidance.

I have also invested in a great calendar that I heard about on Jimmie's Collage. Jimmie uses a calender from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which can be used for incidental learning of art each day, or sketching.


Dance is still going to feature in our regular routine, but Mariposa has cut back on a few classes to fit in time for gymnastics in 2011.  The gymnastics lessons will be held with a local homeschooling group.


Well, that's it for now.  I know we usually add and take away things as the year progresses.  Nothing is ever set in concrete.  At least sharing this with you all has helped stop me from playing with folders and things for a bit (smiles!).

The Adventure of English

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But a bow if repeated is never called bine,
And the plural of vow is vows, never vine.
If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular’s this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese?
Then one may be that and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim

So the English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the queerest language you ever did see.

Anon (poem sourced here)

Don't you feel you just have to laugh? Our language is so confusing!! So many rules with exceptions. BUT .. I've found that it does actually have a most interesting history. I'm half way through watching a dvd I borrowed from the library called "Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure in English". I'll give a summary of what I've learnt so far.


There ARE reasons for why English is the way it is.
(i) Partly it is a 'mongrel' language, beginning with a Germanic dialect, then influenced with Normadics by invasion, then the Romans conquered and brought in Latin. Latin, though, was considered a scholastic language, therefore mostly prominent in the upper classes. Then in came the French and also had a huge influence.
(ii) Partly, our modern English involved accidents in usage from centuries ago.
(iii) But some of it was deliberate.

There was debate. The reformers wanted to spell the way words were pronounced. The traditionalists wanted to keep the spelling as it had always been. The traditionalists won (the reason for some silent letters), but they also tampered with it!

To make the root of the language more evident, words which had endings from French were given a Latin 'look'.
eg: the silent letters in debt and doubt, and victuals.
If the word was of Greek origin, the spelling was adjusted, and this is where we acquired the 'h' in throne and theatre.
Rhyme, however, was given an 'h' because rhythm had one.
Could had an 'l' added because it became silent, but 'l' is present in should and would.
Similarly again: whole, but then there's where and whelk.

So, you see, the rationalisation became really mucked up.
Of course printing also played a huge role in more changes.

I'm looking forward to finishing off this series, but I think that to grasp most of this properly I'd need to read (or rather, study!) the book. At least this will make interesting conversation with the children about why we find spelling so difficult, let alone our grammar!

Homeschooling update

We're almost at the end of our 7th week, in our 10 week term. I've felt like it's been quite an easy week actually, as the children have happily worked by themselves. So long as I can oversee what's being done, they're pretty much just pulling out the books and getting on with it.

One thing that hasn't really worked, with regard to our new organisation method, has been the putting of all their books in the boxes. What was happening was books were being returned to the box without enough care, so I've resorted back to the stacked 'in' trays.

Hmm - need a few more trays I think!

The folders with the weekly summaries are working really well. It's just a matter of ticking of that the task is completed, adding page numbers to keep track. At the end of the term, we'll have some clear indications of how much work has actually been done and I think I'll write a summary report on each subject area so that the children can have it as a record of what's been achieved (NB - our state laws don't actually require reporting methods. This is something I'll be doing voluntarily). I'm also considering adding a page for a book list, particularly to encourage Mariposa; so she can see how much she's actually reading (a self-esteem boost).

We've also now acquired some lovely new Maths 'living books' called Life of Fred, by Stanley Schmidt. For Australians, they're stocked at Adnil Press for a very reasonable price.

I've worked my way through a few chapters of the first book, Fractions, and already am very happy. Not only is the story continuous, humourous and engaging, but other coincidental lessons are taught with regard to language and grammar. Maestro will begin working through these soon as he's almost finished his current math books.
Here are a few other reviews: BellaOnLine and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
Lastly, I'm preparing to change our current spelling program. As she's working further into her work, a few issues have been emerging for Mariposa. It's not that she's not trying .. she works very hard, but we're finding a few difficulties with regard to spelling. Quite often numerals and letters are written backward, sometimes in complete mirror, vowels often omitted ... so I'm going to try Sequential Spelling soon. A friend uses it with her children (with similar spelling issues) and has found it successful. It's ordered, so hopefully next week we'll try that out.