Curriculum Plan – 2010-2011

 

It’s that time of year again – school planning time!  In about 6 weeks, we’ll be officially starting school since we follow the public school calendar around here.  I’ve ordered some of our curricula, but still have some pieces yet to get.  The schoolroom is in a shambles, none of the schoolwork is in Homeschool Tracker Plus, and I have a headache.  Nonetheless, I’m optimistic that we can start on time and everyone will be educated by the end of May (including the parents).

Rosie Girl – 10th Grade (and generally independent)

• History/Geography/Social Science – Sonlight Core 200
• Bible – Old Testament Survey - Rosie Girl hasn’t been all that happy over the last few years with Sonlight Bible and asked to “just read the Bible”.  This year we decided to have her read through the Old Testament along with Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth and How To Read The Bible Book By Book.
• English Literature – Sonlight Core 200 literature (it’s never let us down yet!)
• English Composition – Write At Home’s essay writing workshop followed by the research paper writing workshop.  During and after these workshops, she will be writing regularly about Social Sciences, Bible, or English Literature.
• Chemistry – Singapore Chemistry with MicroChem Kit
• Fantasy Literature – Rosie Girl has already read several fantasy literature book series and just needs to write a paper to receive her 1/2 credit for this course.
• Japanese – Rosie Girl did 1/2 credit’s worth of Latin last year, but has requested Japanese this year.  I found a DVD course to get her started, but she will spend most of her time with Mango, a course available through our local library.  Of course, she will get to use these skills when she watches her anime shows and reads anime books.
• ACT/SAT review – Weekly, Rosie girl will take part of an ACT or SAT test to review her standardized testing skills.
• Algebra 2 – Rosie Girl uses ALEKS for math with PWM working alongside her.
• PE – Rosie Girl will keep a record of her physical activity (Wii Fit, biking, walking, etc.) as well as continuing with her tap dancing class.
• Art 2 – At the local high school
• Piano – At Lawrence Academy of Music
• Mixed choir – At the local high school.  She is also hoping to participate in the Show Choir.
• Community service – Rosie Girl will be helping our worship director at church with some of her more “mundane” chores and learning how the worship director functions.

Wild Man – 7th Grade

• History/Geography/Social Science – Sonlight Core 5 – Wild Man has dyslexia and still doesn’t do well with lots of writing, so the “spine” of Core 5 (the Encyclopedia and Eastern Hemisphere Explorer) would be quite difficult for him to accomplish.  Instead, I’m going to use the Instructor’s Guide to schedule the rest of Core 5 and then use a Geography book as our spine that Wild Man and I will take turns reading aloud from.
• Bible – Some kind of overall Bible survey.  We have a couple of books of this nature, but PWM isn’t real thrilled with them, so we’re considering others.  PWM will do Bible with Wild Man this year.
• Literature – Sonlight Core 5 – Again, Sonlight literature has always been successful!
• Grammar – What a dilemma!!  I think I’ve decided on Easy Grammar 5 or 6 (he’s in 7th grade, but his dyslexia means his literacy is lower than advertised) while using the Winston Grammar cards on occasion to help with parts of speech.  I don’t know how well this will work, but we’ll give it a whirl!
• Spelling – All About Spelling – This has helped not only his spelling, but also his handwriting and his reading.  Definitely a keeper!
• Composition – Institute for Excellence in Writing last year and Wild Man was quite successful.  We will be continuing that program this year.
• Science – Singapore Intermediate Science A and maybe B.  We will also do some of the dissections I had planned to do with Rosie Girl last year that we never got around to!  I may also have him read some of the Sonlight Core 5 science readers.
• Math – ALEKS under the supervision of PWM.  We’re going to try to be more diligent with math this year.  Math definitely suffered during the years when we were working with Wild Man on his dyslexia.
• PE – Wii Fit, biking, trampoline, karate class
• Band – Wild Man will be in the 7th and 8th grade band at the local middle school playing percussion again this year.
• Community service – Working once a week at the Senior Nutrition Site here in town.

There it is!  All my crazy school year thoughts in one post.  Let’s pray that something remotely sane comes of it!

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others are planning this year!