This years' home school plan

April 2010

I have spent the past month making a homeschooling plan for the year. It started with receiving a catalog from a well known homeschool curriculum in a box type publisher. Oooohhh Shiny! Me want! I am a sucker. Keep me away from sales presentations. Seriously.

So reading and investigating further, I realized that I would change just about every aspect of what they sent which kind of kills the whole "you don't have to do any planning" part of the sales pitch. I sulked for a bit because I had my reasons for wanting an easier way out. Pregnant and about to have my fourth child pretty much topped the list. But eventually I got over it and in less than twenty minutes had laid an outline of things I'd like to do in homeschooling this year. Then I slowly worked on expanding that outline as time allowed. I'm pretty excited about the things I have planned to try with the kids.

Of course, it is just a plan, and not a set in stone structure. I told Dinoguy we were studying ancient native Americans soon and he replied that he wanted to study Norse mythology! So that's being added in as soon as we get back to the library. As a guide to help me figure out what was age appropriate and sequencing for topics other than mathematics, (because I've got that one covered), I used the book Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp. which I was able to get on Paperback Swap. (I LOVE Paperback swap by the way!)

It is an overwhelming book if tried to take all at once. If I was reorganizing it, I'd do it by topic instead of grade level, with suggested grade levels along the way. But anyway, it gave me ideas of what topics kids usually hear at each grade level. Overall it just reassured that we are doing great, but in some things it helped me out a lot. Besides outlining what usually comes in a grade and topic, it gives many suggestions for resources and curricula, varying from free websites, to books and curricula to buy and how to get them. Since it is ten years old, some of the links weren't working. But it was a good starting point.

Two excellent quotes from the book:

"Homeschoolers can design their own curricula, assembling resources and using approaches that best suit their own children's needs. You child is enthralled by marine biology? Invent a curriculum that builds upon this interest... When it comes to curricula, kids should always come first.  It's not what teachers teach that's important; it's what children learn - and what children learn best is what interests them, what they want and need to know." (emphasis added)

June 2010

"Our long experience in homeschooling has shown, time and again, that an intense interest in anything inevitably leads everywhere... Kids are natural learners, and each will find his or her own best way to learn. There are many roads to an educational Rome."

So here is my monthly plan outline. I have broken it down further into weeks and resources, but I'll spare you that. Anyway, it might all change. The beauty of homeschooling is that we can (and will) immediately change anything that isn't working.

	History General Topics by Month
September	Ancient Native Americans, American Indians, (Scandinavia and Norse mythology!)
October	Mayas, Aztecs, Incas
November	Columbus, Conquistadors
December	Early American Settlers
January	American Revolution
February	American West Expansion
March	World Geography
April	Asia - China, Japan, India
May	Medieval Times Survey

Create a big time line on office wall! Read interesting books related to topics 3X a week as selected at library. Investigate in other media (movies, computers) as well.

	Science General topics by month
September	Magnets
October	Human Body systems/ 5 senses
November	Life cycles of animals and plants, needs
December	Sounds - waves, light and shadow
January	Water cycle, basic composition of earth
February	Season changes for animals, living vs non living
March	Weather
April	Simple machines, basic physical characteristics of objects
May	Physics- motion, force, friction

Do simple experiments and investigations related to topics 2X a week. Discuss scientific method. Mathematics Games Themes September Numbers & place value, even/odd, rounding, estimation October Fractions November Graphing/patterns December Addition/Subtraction January Multiplication February Money March Measurement April Time/calendar May Geometry

Art Investigations September Pencils October Tempera November Collage/mosaic December Printmaking January Watercolor February Weaving/crochet/fibers March Pastels April Modeling clay/pottery May Chalks

Visit Art museum monthly or every other month. Use great works of art from historical period as inspiration for creating projects. Also use project idea books have on hand. Discuss color wheel and other topics as appropriate, checking out how to type guides at library.

Language Arts Plan
Handwriting with out tears
Penpal - write every two weeks to HS penpal, write grandparents as well.
Memorize a poem every month and present to audience

Phonics 3X a week - word study games from Words Their Way
Vocabulary 2X a week - discuss words from books we are reading, do word games (word search, crosswords, Scrabble, etc)
Reading - Read aloud 30 min. a day from list of related reading books to history topics. Have books related to history topics from list available for reading. (I created lists of 30-40 books each for reading related to topics and also for reading aloud.)
Grammar and other topics I have a weekly list of ideas that will be presented.
Short story writing sometimes, try out journaling as well.

Music Plan
Continue Violin lessons and daily practice. Continue piano investigations as desired. Listen to great classics in car for musical exposure. Add musicians into history studies.

Languages
We will continue ASL probably at the co-op and Dinoguy might add Spanish there. Any other language needs will be met thru our libary, which offers online language lesson access as well as CD's and DVD's. 

March 2010

So there is the plan for this year. I know that tons will be added to it by the boys interests. But having a plan helps me immensely feel more organized and ready for our new addition in two months.

How can I have a plan and still say I follow my kids interests? They have asked for more structure. They have asked for help learning to write and everything else. Learning is still the reward. There are no external motivations or bribes. History topics I view as presenting possibilities (or strewing as some call it.) Dinoguy says history is his favorite subject and he loves all the history books I bring home.We are using interesting texts and books by people passionate about the topics. Mathematics, science and music and art are things they ask to do and enjoy.

Again, I am just hoping the plan will help me be a better mom at providing options to them. I am not tied to the plan as what we have to do, but it gives me a starting point each week and each day. Last year I did weekly planning based on what interests I was seeing and it was tiring and overwhelming, and easily led to burnout. I will still be doing some planning each week to prepare and modify, but with the overarching yearly plan, I hope to save myself some of the burnout, tiredness and worry if I am providing enough.

March 2010

Story writing

Today's writing game was to roll dice and see how many words you get to add to the story. It went really well, Dinoguy wrote 30-40 words happily and Trainboy wrote about 10-15. I got to write the very end thru dictation as they were done writing. I believe it was a successful way to have fun and practice some writing. Here is our story below, it is quite fun.

The Angry Tiger by Dinoguy, Trainboy & Mom

Once there was a tiger and he was angry! One day the tiger was sleeping, but a mouse jumped on him. The tiger was hungry and he wanted a person to eat. So he asked the mouse "Where can I find a person?" "You can find a person outside of the jungle." The tiger said "Thank you" and gobbled up the mouse. Then he went out of the jungle. but whenever he saw a person, they ran to safety. The tiger decided to get to the cheetah's house to ask for help to catch a child for them to eat. The cheetah said "I will help with you." So they built a trap to catch a child. They hid nearby and waited for a child. After 12 minutes a child came and was caught! The trap had macaroni and cheese in it and the child was trapped by a cage falling. They ate the child right up before he even got to eat the macaroni and cheese. The end.

Typing

Which John Holt book is it where he talks about letting kids play with a typewriter and observing their stages of learning? Is it How Children Learn?

L loves to type up lists and tell me about them. I open up a blank word document and he types for pages and pages. Currently he is just randomly pushing buttons on the computer, but he did pick out the letters to his name once.

This is kind of a follow up to the post a few months ago about writing lists for moving. He loves to make lists. I guess I make alot of lists, and recipes involve lists, but after he types, he tells me all about what is on his list. It looks like a bunch of letters pushed randomly and repetitively, but to him it is a list about what to take to Africa for a hunting trip, or what to take with you when you move, or what we need to do to clean the kitchen, etc. It's fun to let him type up his lists.

Learning to write!

Well, we are in the middle of packing up the last of our amazingly large pile of belongings. The boys have been doing well overall with the unusual schedule and all.

L decided to make a list today of things we needed to pack. He ask me how to spell lots of words and wrote them, letter by letter, on his list. It was a cool moment for me, to have confirmed all the things he knows. He knows words have letters, and that he knows how to write those letters! His list was things like: Furniture, Toys, Notebooks. It was awesome.

See the important thing to me is that he is demonstrating what he knows, as opposed to me or someone else testing him on what he doesn't know. Asking him to read words out of a book just doesn't interest him yet. (Or maybe it overwhelms him.) He loves to have me read books to him, and he memorizes his favorites so he can "read" them over and over again. However, point to a word and ask him what it says and he won't answer, or he looks away and says "I don't know." Ask him about letters and he still won't look. He's just not ready for that yet. But he is WRITING!

Just a few months ago, (maybe March or April), he wrote some letters to Santa, (he loves mail) but it wasn't recognizable words, but cute scribbles that kind of resembled Sanskrit or something else. But there were examples of things he knew in that too. The scribbles were small & tight and in groups - like words and he said words as he made the scribbles.

I am SO excited about this. But I am also excited about the fact that I didn't make a big deal about it, and that I am recognizing the things he is learning and showing me in his own way. See - I am making progress too! I didn't even realize that the Santa letters showed any sort of writing skill, but now I can look back and see those things and say WOW!

Happy Father's Day yesterday to my wonderful Dad and my amazing husband. :) The Triple Citrus Cheesecake was delicious! (Visit Cooks Illustrated to find the recipe!)