Schooly stuff

I was going to go on facebook and post something like, "after 10 years of homeschooling I'm actually going to do some lesson planning," then I thought better of it. Not the lesson planning, but the posting of it. It doesn't really sound right and it definitely doesn't convey truth very accurately. So I came here where I can babble and it doesn't matter if I make sense or not.

Today is the last full day that Jonathan and Madi will be away on their mission trip. They have had a great experience. I'm so thankful for texting because without it I wouldn't know much! I've only spoken to Jonathan twice and to Madi only once (and if she didn't happen to walk by Jonathan while he was talking to me, I might not have talked to her at all). This post isn't supposed to be about them and their trip though. It's supposed to be about me and lesson planning. Wait a minute, isn't lesson planning about them anyway? The lines between "me" and "them" are so blurred, I can't tell what's what. Ere go my point about lesson planning. My whole life (well the last 16 years of it anyway) has been about planning for the kids, until today I just never used term "lesson planning" to describe it. So my quiet week at home is coming to an end (I had no Jake either on Monday and Tuesday), and I'd really wanted to come up with some sort of a schedule, lesson plan, whatever, to lay out the year ahead. I haven't done much of that yet. I'm not much of a scheduler. I feel like I've said all this before, but we tend to accomplish a fair-to-good amount of stuff around here each day and it's all happened without a schedule. We eat and sleep every single day. We do a lot of reading, playing, visiting, learning, even exercising most days. The house is no show place, but it is generally passable. We get stuff done. This makes it harder to follow a schedule. It's sort of the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' mentality. Every year, I want a schedule though. Every year at this time I read Managers of their Homes. For years I borrowed it and recently I bought a used copy of my own. I don't even like that book, but I read it every year. I want school work to get done (and chores etc) without the reminders (nagging, yelling). Maybe this will be the year that we'll figure that out (I think that every year). So today, in addition to reading that book, I'm attempting to organize, make lists, and mentally prepare for the year ahead.

I'm too lazy to put the links in, but this is what the school year is looking like so far.

Jake 3rd grade
American History- lots of it. We are more or less using two or three different curriculums that we are altering to fit our needs. There will be a lot of reading (aloud and silent) of a lot of real books. We could very well burrow into certain time periods and get buried there for weeks at a time, so I am tentatively thinking we may do this for two years.

Science- I just decided this morning that he will use God's Design for Life: The Animal Kingdom for Science. He told the homeschool evaluator that he want to do more science in the coming year.

Math- same as always Singapore (3A & 3B). 3A is missing somewhere in our house right now.

He will use Catholic Heritage Curriculum for Spelling, Language, and Faith/ Reading.




Madi 8th grade
American History and Literature- Sonlight Core 100

Math- Teaching Textbooks, she started Pre-Algebra in January and at the time wanted to finish before September so she could do Algebra 1 in 8th grade. I'm not sure how far she's gotten, but I'm quite sure he hasn't touched it in over two months. So she'll do that until she's done then she'll move to Algebra 1.

Science- Apologia General Science

Spanish 1- FLVS

Faith- Confirmation preparation

This doesn't look like very many "classes", but there is an excessive amount of reading (and writing) with the History and Literature, so for now, this is the plan.



Jonathan 10th grade

Science- Apologia Biology

Math- Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 AND Alpha Omega Consumer Math. Is it crazy to do two "maths" in one year? Probably, but it is weird how in (building) schools college bound kids don't have any classes on balancing checkbooks, doing taxes, budgeting etc. Our homeschooled college bound kid will!

English 2
Spanish 2
World History
(all with Florida Virtual School)

He will need to make the gym more of a priority this year and assuming that is the case will get a PE credit (possibly in conjunction with another FLVS class).

College Prep Genius SAT prep (which I think is a half credit course)

I'd also like him to do that Understanding the Scriptures class that we bought last year, but I'm not sure where the extra hours in the day are going to come from. He will definitely do this class someday, just not sure when.

I'm still not completely sure what we're calling Theatre for Jonathan. He spends more time there than he does sleeping on a lot of days. His official transcript (which I officially haven't started on yet) will have 1 credit for Theatre this past year. From February 1st through April 30th he had spent 279 at the theatre. It hasn't really slowed down since then. Some of it can be "volunteer hours", but he's not really lacking in those either because of ushering at church and the mission trip. At some point in the next year he's going to have to let them know that he won't be able to "work" there as much and will need to get a part time job. Maybe they could start paying him and kill two birds with one stone, we'll see.



Some of what's been floating around in my brain is now here in black and white, but the scheduling part of it is still a mystery. I imagine when I revisit this type of post next year at this time most of this will have been accoplished and the scheduling will remain a mystery.