There has been significant progress in my son's ability to do language arts, which is a minor miracle. I have noticed that he has really clicked with it in the past few weeks, but, on Tuesday, there was a breakthrough. We were doing his lesson in LLATL about quotations. He stopped and said, "Mom! They made a mistake in this book and left off the quotation marks at the beginning of this quote and the comma at the end of the quote." I looked, and sure enough, they had! It wasn't intentional, it was an error in the book. I was so happy!
He's also making amazing progress in math. He has tested into Saxon 6/5 and been doing super with it!
Times like this, I feel as though it's all worth it!
Showing posts with label lesson plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lesson plans. Show all posts
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
It's Been a While!
I've been so busy!!!!
We've been doing all of our wrapping up of last year's materials and getting ready to begin our next phase. The kids have gone to camp and come back and we are now organizing our life to get started on Monday!
We are really ready. It's been a LOOOOOONG week of "I'm bored." When it starts to get like that I dust off the books and get to planning because I know it's time! They are actually excited to start. I'm thinking it will be good to begin new stuff.
Here's the plan so far!
History
We are starting our 2 year study of American History. This year we will be using the Beautiful Feet guide with the Genvieve Foster books as our spine. We will be reading a LOT of living books and my oldest 2 will begin writing monthly term papers based on our studies. We will tie in Art History and Music Appreciation from this time period to enhance our studies on Fridays.
Science
This has been a tough one for me (see posts below). I was struggling with what to do with my oldest who is a rising 9th grader but a very young one (she will just turn 14 in Sept.) Science has been a HUGE commitment for her this year with Biology and all. She's done well, but, it's been a lot of work for her. Also, she is a little more than half way through Algebra 1 (we had some struggles at the beginning!). The natural progression would be for her to start Chemistry this year, but, I'm afraid that her math skills need a little more work.
In the meantime, I've bought Christian Kids Explore Chemsitry (for grades 5-8) for my younger 2 for this year. I've decided to start my oldest out in that with her younger siblings and let her get her math skills further along and then once she starts Geometry, we will begin Chemistry with Apologia as originally planned. She isn't really interested in college yet, but, I want to make sure she's up to par on science in case she changes her mind.
I feel good about this decision because I think she will in the long run excel with this plan instead of struggle her way through science she really isn't ready for.
We will also continue nature journaling, which we enjoy! Another thing we will be implementing is gardening and weather.
Language Arts
This is an easy one for me! We will continue with Learning Language Arts Through Literature for the younger 2 and begin American Literature with KISS grammar for the oldest. We will also begin KISS grammar for my youngest since I forgot to order Ridgewood (my fav grammar program) and now I have to wait until someone who is coming down can bring it for me!
My oldest 2 will be doing Writing Strands and will be working on writing essays this year. This will be a stretch, because, eventhough we've done a lot of writing, I've never really required a full-on essay with notes, bibliography, etc. We will work on this all year.
We will also be doing Shakespeare throughout the year on Fridays. My kids actually love reading these plays and sonnets. They think it's interesting learning about the language and all of the historical things attatched to Shakespeare.
Math
The oldest will continue with Teaching Textbooks. I really love this program. It's been so great for a non-math mom like me!!!!
My middle child is really advanced at math and enjoys it a lot! She is currently doing an intro. to Algebra course with the Key To...books and will be moving on to Teaching Textbooks later this year.
My youngest will be starting Saxon 65. He is good at math, but, a little lazy about it. He doesn't apply himself the way he should so we will be working on that.
There are a lot of other subjects we will be working with, government, world view, etc. but, that's for later! I can only plan so much!
We've been doing all of our wrapping up of last year's materials and getting ready to begin our next phase. The kids have gone to camp and come back and we are now organizing our life to get started on Monday!
We are really ready. It's been a LOOOOOONG week of "I'm bored." When it starts to get like that I dust off the books and get to planning because I know it's time! They are actually excited to start. I'm thinking it will be good to begin new stuff.
Here's the plan so far!
History
We are starting our 2 year study of American History. This year we will be using the Beautiful Feet guide with the Genvieve Foster books as our spine. We will be reading a LOT of living books and my oldest 2 will begin writing monthly term papers based on our studies. We will tie in Art History and Music Appreciation from this time period to enhance our studies on Fridays.
Science
This has been a tough one for me (see posts below). I was struggling with what to do with my oldest who is a rising 9th grader but a very young one (she will just turn 14 in Sept.) Science has been a HUGE commitment for her this year with Biology and all. She's done well, but, it's been a lot of work for her. Also, she is a little more than half way through Algebra 1 (we had some struggles at the beginning!). The natural progression would be for her to start Chemistry this year, but, I'm afraid that her math skills need a little more work.
In the meantime, I've bought Christian Kids Explore Chemsitry (for grades 5-8) for my younger 2 for this year. I've decided to start my oldest out in that with her younger siblings and let her get her math skills further along and then once she starts Geometry, we will begin Chemistry with Apologia as originally planned. She isn't really interested in college yet, but, I want to make sure she's up to par on science in case she changes her mind.
I feel good about this decision because I think she will in the long run excel with this plan instead of struggle her way through science she really isn't ready for.
We will also continue nature journaling, which we enjoy! Another thing we will be implementing is gardening and weather.
Language Arts
This is an easy one for me! We will continue with Learning Language Arts Through Literature for the younger 2 and begin American Literature with KISS grammar for the oldest. We will also begin KISS grammar for my youngest since I forgot to order Ridgewood (my fav grammar program) and now I have to wait until someone who is coming down can bring it for me!
My oldest 2 will be doing Writing Strands and will be working on writing essays this year. This will be a stretch, because, eventhough we've done a lot of writing, I've never really required a full-on essay with notes, bibliography, etc. We will work on this all year.
We will also be doing Shakespeare throughout the year on Fridays. My kids actually love reading these plays and sonnets. They think it's interesting learning about the language and all of the historical things attatched to Shakespeare.
Math
The oldest will continue with Teaching Textbooks. I really love this program. It's been so great for a non-math mom like me!!!!
My middle child is really advanced at math and enjoys it a lot! She is currently doing an intro. to Algebra course with the Key To...books and will be moving on to Teaching Textbooks later this year.
My youngest will be starting Saxon 65. He is good at math, but, a little lazy about it. He doesn't apply himself the way he should so we will be working on that.
There are a lot of other subjects we will be working with, government, world view, etc. but, that's for later! I can only plan so much!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Finishing up!
Since we school year-round, we don't really go from one grade to another all at once. So that means, we can be working on at least 2 grade levels in different subjects at some point during the year. We finish levels to go to the next level. This year we have really plowed ahead and are finishing up levels a little early, which is fabulous!!!!
My oldest finished 8th grade last week and now is officially working on 9th grade in all her subjects. We need to finish up Biology and then we can officially move on to all our next levels with all 3 dc. This year, I did something I've never done before and I started all 3 kids in different periods of history and science. I will probably never do that again! It was so much to plan and teach that it's really too much work. I'm more about teaching one lesson in each subject to all 3, and then assigning different levels of projects to be done within that subject. That's what works well for me, I'm too spread out and stressed any other way!
My other 2 have officially finished the main bulk of their work in their levels and are currently working on art appreciation, composer studies, reading, math, and various science topics including nature study/journaling. We are waiting for the oldest to finish up Biology in order to move on together into the new areas of study.
Here's some new things we will be adding and I've planned out:
1. Geography using the Holling books. We are using this at my kids' request. They loved it when we used it years ago and wanted to use it again. This will be a nice change from Trail Guides.
2. Beautiful Feet Jr. High American History. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Truthquest user, so this has been a change I haven't embraced too freely! But, when we were home for a visit in February, someone gave me this guide with a lot of the books I need for it. I've looked through it, and I've decided to use it because it really is good, and the best part, it's free!
3. Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. I picked this up for my younger 2 because I wanted to do Chemistry because my oldest was going to be doing Chemistry too. After looking at it and talking with my oldest dd, I realized that we are all going to use this together this year. She was going to do Apologia Chemistry, but, I feel like she will benefit from this as an Intro. to Chemistry class. Next year she will do Apologia. She needs a little break from higher level science.
4. Artist and composer study from Ambleside Online. I will be using the AO guide to these along with the prints in the Yahoo group and the selections of classical music I can find online.
5. More intense Nature study. Maybe intense is the wrong word! What I mean is, more in depth. They are at the age now where I will be requiring more from their journals in way of writing. There will be a little research required as well.
That's about it. I still can't figure out how to post charts and visuals like that. So I guess I won't be able to share menus, lesson plans, or other things for a while yet! Bummer, that I'm so illiterate in the computer. But, I'm learning!
My oldest finished 8th grade last week and now is officially working on 9th grade in all her subjects. We need to finish up Biology and then we can officially move on to all our next levels with all 3 dc. This year, I did something I've never done before and I started all 3 kids in different periods of history and science. I will probably never do that again! It was so much to plan and teach that it's really too much work. I'm more about teaching one lesson in each subject to all 3, and then assigning different levels of projects to be done within that subject. That's what works well for me, I'm too spread out and stressed any other way!
My other 2 have officially finished the main bulk of their work in their levels and are currently working on art appreciation, composer studies, reading, math, and various science topics including nature study/journaling. We are waiting for the oldest to finish up Biology in order to move on together into the new areas of study.
Here's some new things we will be adding and I've planned out:
1. Geography using the Holling books. We are using this at my kids' request. They loved it when we used it years ago and wanted to use it again. This will be a nice change from Trail Guides.
2. Beautiful Feet Jr. High American History. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Truthquest user, so this has been a change I haven't embraced too freely! But, when we were home for a visit in February, someone gave me this guide with a lot of the books I need for it. I've looked through it, and I've decided to use it because it really is good, and the best part, it's free!
3. Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. I picked this up for my younger 2 because I wanted to do Chemistry because my oldest was going to be doing Chemistry too. After looking at it and talking with my oldest dd, I realized that we are all going to use this together this year. She was going to do Apologia Chemistry, but, I feel like she will benefit from this as an Intro. to Chemistry class. Next year she will do Apologia. She needs a little break from higher level science.
4. Artist and composer study from Ambleside Online. I will be using the AO guide to these along with the prints in the Yahoo group and the selections of classical music I can find online.
5. More intense Nature study. Maybe intense is the wrong word! What I mean is, more in depth. They are at the age now where I will be requiring more from their journals in way of writing. There will be a little research required as well.
That's about it. I still can't figure out how to post charts and visuals like that. So I guess I won't be able to share menus, lesson plans, or other things for a while yet! Bummer, that I'm so illiterate in the computer. But, I'm learning!
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