Back to Home-School!
We had a great summer, but now it's "Back to School" time here for our family. Well, actually, we've been "back to school" since the end of August. This year, we have one son who recently graduated and will be heading out to the Marine Corp. this fall, Drummer Boy is in 10th grade this year at our local public high school, MMBoy - 6th/7th grade, and Baby Girl -1st grade will continue their education at home with me!
As there is a somewhat large age/grade gap with my homeschooling children, there are only a few things we do together and then they have their individual studies. That is one of the pluses of homeschooling - to be able to include siblings in certains subjects and simply adjust the depth, workload and expectations to the appropriate grade level.
Last year, one of our favorite additions was Morning Time which I discussed here. We are continuing our Morning Time with only a few minor alterations to the schedule.
Monday:
Prayer, Bible - reading through Proverbs & God's Promise/God's Names/God's Providence by Sally Michael, Memory Work, Poetry - A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson & Now We are Six, When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne, Parts of speech, Shakespeare (see Literature below), Copywork
Tuesday:
Prayer, Bible - Old Testament & Proverbs, Memory Work, Math Songs/Drill, Life of Fred math series, Copywork
Thursday:
Prayer, Bible - reading through Proverbs & God's Promise/God's Names/God's Providence, Memory Work, Poetry, Prepositions, Life of Fred language arts series, Copywork
Friday:
Prayer, Bible - Old Testament & Proverbs, Memory Work, Art Study, Read aloud fiction, Copywork
Other than our morning time, the only other joint learning is Apologia Science. We are using the Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures. This is a great series for multi-age schooling. There are even journaling notebooks available to enhance the curriculum. Some days we use them and some days we don't!
So, what does 1st and 7th Grade look like for us this year:
Baby Girl - 1st Grade
Math
Math-U-See Alpha
Reading, Writing & Phonics
McRuffy Press 1st Grade Phonics & Reading
Copywork - Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book
Science
Apologia Flying Creatures
Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
History
50 Famous Stories by James Baldwin
Viking Tales by Jennie Hall
These 3 Biographies by Ingri D'Auliare: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Buffalo Bill
Literature
Aesops Fables by Milo Winter
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
The Blue Fairy Book
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb
I mainly use the Ambleside Online curriculum, Year 1 list. As this is my 3rd child using this, I do tweak it here and there based on what we did or did not like in the past, what each child is interested in and what is working for us this year. They have a great week by week schedule that I plug into a planner and edit based on our school year.
The only complaint so far from Baby Girl is that she wants to do everything, every day!!
MMBoy - 6th/7th Grade
As you can see, I think grade placement is of great importance - ha! I am starting with Ambleside Onlice curriculum, Year 6 - but, again, I have adjusted the curriculum to fit MMBoy's needs this year. However, for church and co-op activities, he is placed among 7th graders. I did let him know that if he'd like to be considered a 7th grader, he needed to step up and take on more of the work independently and I am happy to say that, so far, he has been doing a great job!
Math
Math-U-See - Delta & Epsilon (we didn't quite finish Delta last year, so are beginning with that and plan on getting through Epsilon too!)
Writing & Grammar
Handwriting Without Tears - Cursive Handwriting
Easy Grammar
Wordsmith Series - Apprentice (we had started this last year and are continuing to make our way through the book)
Spelling Plus by Susan C. Anthony
Science
Apologia Flying Creatures
Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity by Robert Cwiklik
Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick
Galileo and the Magic Numbers by Sidney Rosen
History
Augustus Caesar's World by Genevieve Foster
Story of the Greeks by H.A. Guerber
Story of the Romans by H.A. Guerber
Literature
Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch (found a great illustrated copy at B&N!)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (This book study was offered at our co-op this year! What a fun way to get a required reading in)
The Iliad
Language
English From the Roots Up by Joegi Lundquist
Both of my students have additional "free reading" - books I pick up for them, books they pick out from our local library or a book we are all reading together. I try and keep track of these intentional and accidental reads.
I still have yet to finalize our Read-aloud list, but will post that when I get it done.
Happy "Back to School"!
Rita
