Spring craziness aside, we had an awesome year. I am blown away by the way these two grew during the last school year, and I felt good about the priorities we chose to tackle.
I have spent the last month preparing a wonderful feast of ideas for us to enjoy this year, and I can't wait to share it with you!
Here is the breakdown.
Read Alouds:
We are again pairing our Classical Conversations American History cycle with readings from Ambleside Online, primarily year 2 for my 7 year old (although I used a few things from year 1 that pertain to this year's American history cycle as well):
- Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbitt
- The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
- This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall
- Pocahontas and George Washington by Ingrid D'Auliare
- Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
We will also use the Story of the World to support our weekly history readings and narration, as well as a TON of assorted fiction. My pride and joy is the resource I've put together - the master plan for our year. You can find the weekly breakdown of readings and activities I've put together for our family by clicking HERE.
Math: Leah and Logan will both continue with Horizon math, grades 3 and K (though Logan is already in book 2 of the kindergarten program).
Science: I've pulled together a science resource from CC Connected which will reinforce memory work. For the second half of the year, we will continue with Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework.
Copywork: Leah is in the process of learning cursive, and we have thoroughly enjoyed New American Cursive workbook. I've also put together a book of history sentences - one in cursive for Leah, and in print for Logan - to practice handwriting. Logan, as a newly-minted five year old, will work slowly and only do a little handwriting practice at a time.
Language Arts: Last year, we began working with First Language Lessons, and I found them to be so profoundly simple and valuable. I admit, we were not very faithful working through it, and sadly only did a handful of lessons before things got derailed in the spring. This year, I plan to revive it and work more faithfully through the concepts.
One of the things I haven't had time to mention is the fact that Logan taught himself to read. Which was... AMAZING. To help him in that process, we are going to use All About Reading (my FAVORITE phonics and reading program!)
I also use the free resources at K-12 Reader and Read Works to pull together some fun, and usually on-topic grade level material to help Leah practice. She is no longer working through regular formal phonics lessons, so I print these out and have them bound at my local office supply store.
Picture Study: Charlotte Mason recommends selecting one artist to study for a single quarter. Since we are studying American History, I was able to find a series of paintings by numerous artists from around the time of the American Revolution. We'll work through the Early American History artwork pack.
Composers: My absolute favorite part of our week is when we come together with something sweet and a hot cup of tea for our Composer's tea. This semester, we are studying Bach and Dvorak. Classics for Kids is my absolute favorite {free!} resource, although there are tons of lovely books as well. We also pull information and activities from YearRoundHomeschooling, Making Music Fun and various other sources around the web.
Bible: We are still using the basic plan laid out in my favorite pre-school resource, God's Little Explorers, to teach the Bible. Each week, we study a Bible story and memorize a corresponding verse. This year, Leah will add in additional study using her new Adventure Bible, which contains the complete text, instead of the simplified Jesus Storybook Bible we've always used. During our circle time, we memorize scripture, sing worship songs and hymns, and talk about the people and events being covered.
Additional things of note: I don't know how much we will use them yet, but I purchased Interactive 3-D Maps of American History and Make and Learn Projects: Colonial America. Projects are so not my strong suit, but I thought I'd give it a go to help bring our learning to life. We also have Draw Write Now as a hand-me-down from an artistically minded friend... and to say that I'm intimidated by it might be an understatement. We're not naturally a family of artists, so we'll see if that gets into rotation at all.
After a lot of prayer, we have decided not to join a CC community this fall. With the baby, toddler and two in formal schooling, I just felt we needed that extra day at home to help bring a little peace to our schedule. Both Leah and Logan will attend an enrichment program geared toward homeschoolers once a week, but we'll be doing CC on our own this year.
In all seriousness, though, we can't wait to dive back in. Homeschooling has been one of our greatest adventures and biggest blessings!
