The Plan 2011-2012

Planning Post as promised! As mentioned, this year we have Violet our Sophomore, Matthias our 8th grader (although, stay tuned on his course-work), Seamus 4th grade, and Sean-Paul 1st.

Here's a snapshot of some of the studies we will be doing this year, grouped by child, links where possible ::

Violet - Sophomore

• Jacob's Geometry (w/Matthias)
• British Middle Ages History & Literature Studies 5th c. to 18th c. (w/Matthias)
• Henle Latin Year 2
• Biology w/Labs
• Religion
• Fine Arts (Ballet)

Matthias - 8th/9th

• Jacob's Geometry (w/Violet)
• British Middles Ages History & Literature Studies 5th c. to 18th c. (w/Violet)
• Henle Latin Year 1
• C++ Programming (Giant Campus Academy)
• Engineering 1 (Giant Campus Adademy)
• Fieldwork (Biology, Ecological & Environmental Studies
• Confirmation Prep
• Fine Arts (Piano)

Seamus - 4th

• Fractions 2 & Decimals 2 (Mammoth Math)
• Sonlight American History Core 3
• French (w/Sean-Paul)
• Zoology & Botany
• Geography Around the World
• Catechism, Latin Prayers
• Fine Arts (Cello)

Sean-Paul - 1st

• Montessori Math Materials
• Geography Puzzle Work
• Montessori Blue & Green Reading Materials
• Story Hour from various sources
• Zoology & Botany
• French (w/Seamus)
• Catechism
• Fine Arts (Art & Music Appreciation)

So this is roughly what we will hope to tackle, give or take. I will flesh out each child's subjects with some scheduling ideas included sometime soon. Hope your weekend is off to a good start friends! Thanks for popping in.

** Also, if you missed out on the Ask post, please stop by and put in your ?'s, it's an open post :)

Comments

[Angela]

Just popping in to tell you how we like Jacobs Geometry! So far it's going well. Jacobs was the only geometry book I could find that had any connection to the real world at all, and that was important to my ds. We're using the Dr. Callahan DVDs and syllabus that go along with Jacobs, and I think that's making a big difference. When he goes back to do the second half of algebra that I'm letting him "break" on for now, I think we'll get the Dr. Callahan DVDs for Jacobs algebra. Their Geometry syllabus seems to have a realistic amount of work (at least he's finished the first 3 weeks on schedule) and the DVDS, although not terribly professional, are salted with funny quotes and some amusing skits. I think part of is that my ds is just a lot more spatial than algebraic and he likes the drawing aspect, but I'm happy with how it's going so far!

[Carmen]

Meredith, Your plan looks solid. I'm putting Luke's 7th grade together and I'm always weak on science. We've done a lot of informal nature study/drawing. What would your recommend for science? My idea is to choose a few non-fiction science related topics as read alouds, but I think I need more direction in this subject. what do you think?

[Meredith]

Carmie, Matthias really enjoyed The Mystery of the Periodic Table for 7th grade last year. It's a fun book and there's a couple of neat websites on the periodic table for the kids to play on. I'll see if I can find the links and email them to you :) Have fun planning!!

[bev]

Hi Meredith,

Thank you for sharing your plans. What specifically are you using for Geography and the sciences for your boys ( 1st and 4th graders)? Is it Sonlight as well?
Thanks. Bev.

[meredith]

Hi Bev, we will use Children Like Me and other similar books from the library for studying world cultures and then I have a whole slew of geography materials from Montessori for Everyone that supplement our Geography boxes and puzzle maps. We really like the Research guides found here. Science is also very Montessori based also using the research guides and tons of books from our own and the public library on whatever birds/animals and plants they are interested in studying.

 

Let me know if you want more specifics, but this has always worked well for us in the earlier years, LOTS of exploration and self-directed discovery :)

Many blessings,

Meredith