Almost Ready!!

We start school in this house on August 31, and I am shocked to realize that I will probably be ready!!  All the books and supplies are purchased and put away.  The schedules are almost completely done.  Next Monday, I will meet with each child individually for “orientation” where I will go over their books and types of assignments so they are ready to go on Day 1.  This is particularly important for Rosie Girl since she’s working pretty independently this year.

I have made up a set of grading scales for Rosie Girl’s assignments.  The scales are from 1 to 5 and for such topics as content, completion, labs, etc.  I’ve also decided now how much each item in a course is worth.  At the end of the year, I’ll take her grades and do a weighted average and assign a grade.  While I’ve never been big on grades, Rosie Girl really likes to know exactly what is expected of her and when.  Doing this work on the front end will, I hope, lead to less angst on the back end.

Rosie Girl: For history, she will be doing Core 100 from Sonlight which uses the History of US by Hakim as the spine.  I will have her also read the notes that come with the curriculum and answer about half of the questions in the notes.  I also got the test packet from Amazon and she will do a test about once a month.  In the spring, I’ll have her do a research project, probably with the WriteAtHome workshop.  She and Wild Man will both learn the states, and I have Maps, Charts, and Graphs Book H for her to do.  She also will do a weekly Current Events oral or written report.

Her English course has a lot of components.  She will do composition with WriteAtHome online.  But, I still have her doing the literature portion of Sonlight Core 100, so she will read the books and answer some of the accompanying questions (as well as discussing them with me).  She will do Daily Grams Junior/Senior High, Analogies, and Wordly Wise as well.

Science is Singapore Biology with Castle Heights Biology Lab.  Singapore Biology comes with a workbook and I’m making up a few tests to give throughout the year.  The biology lab includes some microscope work as well as dissection.  At the end of the year, I will have her do some reading on the Creation/Evolution debate.

She will do Sonlight Core 100 Bible which involves a Bible Study Sampler with daily reading and questions along with several other books about prayer and faith.  Math is Life of Fred Beginning Algebra that she will do with her dad.  She will take Art and Chorus at the local public school and do Latin online with PowerSpeak.

Wild Man:  Wild Man will do Core 3+4 which uses The Landmark History of the American People as the spine.  I will probably do most of the reading from this book to him, although he is able to read from his readers on his own a good bit now.  He will learn the states with his sister and do Maps, Graphs, and Charts Book E

His Language Arts uses the Sonlight readers and Grammar Ace from Sonlight.  He will also use All About Spelling, Explode the Code, and Getty-Dubay Handwriting.  For Bible, he’s doing Bible Quest – Promises Fulfilled: Luke and Acts.  I anticipate that we will do that together since it involves a lot of writing.

Science is Crime Scene Investigations.  I have gone through and found the investigations that we will be able to do here at home and ordered the supplies that we need.  I think it’s going to be great!

He will do Math Mammoth with his dad as well as PowerSpeak Spanish.  He’s already done his summer band lessons at the middle school and will be taking band class two days a week.

Getting all this ready and putting the schedules (except the Sonlight part) into Homeschool Tracker has taken far more than the last week, so this isn’t exactly a week in review.  It’s more like a summer in review!  I’m feeling generally ready to go.  This week is my meetings with the kids to introduce them to all the new stuff.  They also have open house at the public school to find their classrooms there.  It’s the week of the Fair, so our town will be busy, although my kids are no longer involved in the Fair.

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to – mostly people who have actually started their school year!!