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

Good morning!

Hello everyone!

It's been another bit of a gap between posts, but the quiet in blog land only reflects that there's plenty of things happening here to keep us very busy.

The past two weeks have been especially busy with extra dance rehearsals in preparation for the concert, which was this weekend gone.  What a great night!  The format was a little different this year, with the juniors all performing in the afternoon with the theme 'Circus'.  Then, in the evening, the older students performed with the theme 'A Walk Through The Art Gallery'.  Pictures from famous artists were projected onto the back screen, and appropriate music and dances reflected these pictures.  We really enjoyed watching it, and the children enjoyed the different format.

In our homeschooling, we're looking to finish up in another month.  Many projects and books are almost completed.  Mariposa's almost through the level 3 Singapore Maths books, but Maestro is swiftly working through MUS Pre-Algebra.  We've also become the proud new owners of IEW. Maestro is LOVING this intensive writing course, and I'm really happy with the work he's produced so far. Science is still being worked on at a steady rate, but we're only about 3/4 through each of the levels (NOEO Chem I for Mariposa, and Apologia's General Science for Maestro).  It's the same with our history: Maestro's at the beginning of the Middle Ages through his Sonlight, whilst I only recently started doing Australian history with Mariposa this term.

I've been learning more about certain learning issues.  Mariposa has had several severe ear aches since a baby, thus the reason for her operation in September.  This week, I've been watching some online videos about the affects that all those antibiotics have had on her young body, and how they could be contributing to some learning difficulties, via Dianne Croft's site.  Once the cds, 'The Biology of Behavior', arrives here and we've had a chance to really study it, we'll be implementing ways to improve her health for better learning (and all the rest of us, too!)

In the henhouse, we have had one of our youngest hens go broody.  She's now successfully hatched 1 of 4 chicks that we planted under her as preincubated/fertilised eggs.  They're quite happy occupying a fenced off area along the side of the house (because I'm running out of room to put these chickens!!!!), so I often wake to the sound of 'took, took, took' as Mama hen takes her young chick out for a forage early each morning.



This morning's been one of checking over budgets, menu planning and shopping.  Now it's time to get the diary out and check what the rest of the year looks like, because I don't want it rushing by in a blur as the last two weeks seemed to do.  Time for a cuppa, and we'll get on with that whilst the children do their math I think!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

A week of wet weather

Looking over the pictures I put in my last post, I can't believe we were actually enjoying a very warm day at the beach.  Since that change came through, it's been COLD! and wet, all week.

Never mind, because there are some sunny days predicted in the next few days.

The good things this week brought was:

Mangoes!  A bulk supply c/- a friend, which is steadily being devoured.  

I'll start freezing some soon, as they're gradually all getting ripe now.

Mariposa's received her Certificate of Recognition 

for participating in the library's writing competition.

Maestro's been having a go at Math-U-See Pre-Algebra.  There are some gaps that he hasn't covered before, but a lot of it has been revision.  We're putting MUS on trial in our house, and so far Maestro is liking it.  We'll have a better idea of how it 'fits' after a couple more weeks.  

(We're still using Singapore Maths for Mariposa.)

I've ordered 'The Girlhood Companion' for Mariposa, which arrived this week.  She has been trying so hard to be a lovely helper here, and making some special mother/daughter time reading and learning new recipes, etc. will be much fun.  I'm thinking that the monthly Tea Cozy Club may be a good option to try, also, especially if the writings, recipes and crafts are of the same high standard.

Maestro has started making his own website.  

I know ... how did he learn to do that?!  I don't know how to do that!  

All it takes is a friend who already knows and a curious mind to soak up the information apparently.  

He's including podcasts, polls, and a whole lot of other music/technology experiments.

We were also full-swing back into homeschool lessons, dance lessons (only 2 more weeks until the concert!), Papa back to work and my music teaching.  All the good things to keep us busy and our minds off the wet weather.

I hope you've all had a good week!

Let's take this notebooking a little more seriously

I've been putting myself through some more teacher training.  We have a teen in the house and I don't want the learning to be all textbook based.  It's has to remain engaging and encourage discussion.

The Primary years have been a lot of fun, and thankfully they're not over YET with Mariposa being at the end of grade 4 level.  But with Maestro, we need to get a little more serious in defining interests while still broadening understanding on the bases already established.

So, where does one go for inspiration?  Friends!  Yes, I've been talking with those who have older children and watched what they're doing.  Still, I really want more angles on how to do this.  How have others successfully pulled together the final years of learning with their teens?

I learned about a month ago that there's a Charlotte Mason High School online course, complete with papers and audio files that arrive in monthly installments.  This is put together by Jim and Sheila Carroll over HERE.

After a few weeks, I've already received enough information to seriously whet my appetite for MORE PLEASE!  After reading and then listening to the audio files, I've been bunny-hopping around the internet looking for more information.

So far, the main inspiration has been to finally sit down and have the children really start working on regular notebook entries.  It was after listening to Cindy Ruston that this has really taken off.  Her talks on her 'Talk-A-Latte' pages were fabulous.  It's so easy, and then I wonder why I didn't seriously set it all up this way from the start.

So, now the children each have a 3-ring binder and all notes are going in there.  Beautification is a good thing, but if we don't have time, we come back to it later.  Whilst we were away, the children were studying parables, such as "The kingdom is like ..."  which they wrote out, then paraphrased the meaning.  I also want them to have a go at making up their own parables as we didn't really have that happen last week.

The children seem to prefer notebooking much more than lapbooking.  The 'everything in one place' works with the plastic sleeves and papers already on hand, and half-done projects easily contained where they can be transported for work elsewhere.

I'm looking forward to 'notebooking' all my recipes.  They seriously need a tidy-up!

If you'd like to check out some of the places I've been to when looking for ideas, here's a quick list:
- A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set, Cindy Rushton
- Notebooking for High Schoolers
- Notebooking Resources for Homeschoolers
- Beautiful Feet samples
- Harmony Art Mom's Notebooking Resources
- By Sun and Candlelight, "My Homekeeping Notebook"
 ...... and there are HEAPS more if you do a google search. :)

*** Pictures to come in a future post .... when we have finished our covers and have a collection of interesting pages to share! :)

The Write Foundation - TOS Review

Finally, I can share this writing program Maestro and I have been trialling from The Write Foundation since early October. Maestro has always enjoyed creative writing, but now we have something new to help build layers of new skills with those already acquired from previous learning.

The Write Foundation offer three levels of programs:

• Level 1 - Sentence Structure, which is aimed at ages 11 - 13,
• Level 2 - Paragraph Structure, aimed at ages 12 - 15, and
• Level 3 - Essay Writing, aimed at ages 14 - 17.

I had an option as to which program we could explore, and chose Level 2 (Lessons 1-15). It was a good choice, drawing Maestro into methods of recognising paragraph structure, methods of paraphrasing, developing more descriptive writing through grammar usage, and a once-a-week focus on poetry.

Teacher's Instruction Manual on the left.

Lesson Pages in a binder with tabs for the student.

Mindbenders .. a new favourite in our household!

The product is set out in three parts:

• The Teacher's Instruction Manual includes Introductory Notes and Lesson Plans.  
• Student Worksheets of approx. 200 pages, are separate, and best given to the student as required. 
• Finally, a download of additional resources includes all Teacher Presentation pages, assignments, evaluation and recording pages.

An optional product that The Write Foundation has incorporated into their program is the use of Mind Benders from Critical Thinking. I decided to purchase the first book from CBD, and both children have enjoyed doing these puzzles.

It is worth noting that this product is not a 'child works alone' product. It is designed for the parent/teacher to read ahead, print off required materials from the cd, then present the work to the child/ren, as one would in a class or small tutorial group.

Upon receipt of this course, take the time over a cuppa or two, to peruse all the items. It may take a week for you to familiarise yourself with the method and see how all the parts fit together to make one lesson. Take notes and highlight key points from the Teacher's Instruction Manual introductory pages. After I spent time doing this, I imagined I was already teaching the first lesson before presenting it to my son. This helped the successful flow of our experience. I needed to see how this package would work together rather than start and rummage through the pages in confusion during the actual lesson. And, yes, it did indeed work! ☺

The most intensive teaching is at the beginning of each lesson, or once a week (if work is done 5 days a week). If you are a parent that has time and is happy to do this, then this product could work for you. It is NOT a self-explanatory workbook system. This worked for us as I do usually take time to review lessons with the children 1:1 before they go off and work alone. However, with this product, the time was a bit longer on day 1 of the lesson (around half an hour) to introduce new concepts and work through the first examples. After that, a couple of minutes review only was needed for the remainder of the week, then Maestro could go ahead with the assignment. Of course, homeschoolers could tweak the lessons to even out the teaching aspect across the week better, if you have time to organise yourself to do so.

Coloured highlighters were replaced with pencil underlining here, 

but this was a fun exercise that Maestro grasped very quickly.

I admit that we've not really been very formal about presentation of Maestro's writing work. It's usually all handwritten on lined pages. Well, I took the opportunity to start setting some requirements for his final drafts as per the checklists in this product. For Maestro, checklists work really well. He was proud when he'd been able to go away and work on an assignment, then present a freshly printed, double spaced, piece of work with his name and date stated on the bottom. He likes a systematic approach and that's what this program offers. I can certainly see that this system of learning has it's merits, setting very good foundations in writing, just as the product title reflects.

Through the site's main page, you can peruse the various levels via the buttons on the left sidebar. Each level will give you sample pages to view and a syllabus outline.

Levels may be purchased complete, or in 15 lesson lots. A complete level is $69.95*US (plus shipping). A block of 15 lessons is $39.95*US (plus shipping). (*NB prices reduced, therefore amended on this post, Nov 16th).
** REMEMBER: you can use one level over a two year period if desired.
ANOTHER UPDATE Jan 10th 2011: these books are now available as downloads for overseas customers, therefore no shipping costs!!   Just go via the order page on PayPal, enter shipping destination and if you're not U.S., shipping costs are omitted.  The item will then be forwarded as an ebook.


An extra service offered by The Write Foundation is an online tutor to help with grading and holding the students accountable.  For more information on this payable service, see this page.

NB - I received this product from TOS for the purpose of review. There is no other compensation and the opinions are my own. Thank you to TOS and The Write Foundation for the use of this product. If you'd like to read further reviews on this product, please click HERE.

Encourage your budding writers

It's National Novel Writing Month at NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program. If you want to encourage your children with their writing, then this is a great online resource to check out, with FREE workbooks and resources.

I've only just looked at this site, so haven't really prepared my children to do this challenge just yet. However, I will be keeping it in mind for the future!! I'm actually reviewing another product to do with writing at the moment, so we'll finish that first and then schedule this challenge for a future date.

So, just spreading the word! Check it out HERE.