23 August 2010

2010-2011 Curriculum

Each year, I post our intended curriculum for the school year. Usually, I do it around the time when I send our notification to the school district. I got that project done last week, so now I'll post for you to see what we're going to be up to this year.

Lukas:

Intermediate Language Lessons
English from the Roots Up
Prima Latina
A Reason for Handwriting C: Cursive
Math-U-See Gamma (4 units) and Delta
Ava:

Five in a Row Vol. 2 and 3 (This covers everything but reading and math)
Pathway Readers (We have 3 levels of these plus one workbook)
Explode the Code 2 and 3
Memoria Copybook 1
Math-U-See Alpha

Both kids:
My Father's World Creation to the Greeks (covers Bible, history, science and a few odds and ends)
Nazarene Bible Quizzing (studying 1-2 Samuel)
God and the History of Art

My Father's World has lots of great books and resources scheduled for us to use this year. The Children's Homer, Aesop for Children,  Dinosaurs of Eden, Celebrating Biblical Feasts and so much more are on the list. I am super excited about studying Biblical feasts together this year. The only glitch we have found in this plan is the fact that the Columbus Metro Library system doesn't have most of the book titles that are suggested by our curriculum to use as supplements. My kids enjoy our book basket books so much, so I decided I needed to find a way to get at least a few of these titles. Since I occasionally have a crafty idea, I researched and discovered that I can get a Bexley library card (and why is Bexley NOT part of the metro system anyway? It is right in the middle of Columbus, after all.). Bexley happens to have a large Jewish population. Because of that, their library carries books about Jewish feasts and traditions,  so I can get many of the titles there according to their card catalog. Does anyone else find this to be interesting? 

We'll be starting our school year reading the Narnia books aloud. Lukas could not be more thrilled with this plan. I also plan to read Charlotte's Web again this year since Ava was so little the last time we read it, and I'm going to introduce the kids to Ramona as well. Other than that, we'll plan our read-alouds as we go. It's one of our favorite parts of our school year! Anyone have some great titles to suggest to us?

I still need to plan Lukas' first scheduled reading for the school year. There's so much great children's literature out there that it's sometimes difficult to decide what he should tackle next. Any suggestions for great books that a 4th grade boy would love? He's an advanced reader, so the grade level does not need to be 4th grade. Please share some of your favorite titles in the comments!

Our school year will begin the week of Labor Day. Labor Day is Lukas' actual birthday. I'm not sure if we'll be starting school on Tuesday or Wednesday that week. I won't decide that until we know Eric's work schedule. I'm ready for some fluency in our schedule, though I'm not sure that we'll get that even with school starting. I hope that we do. I do believe that we need it!

5 comments:

  1. Stephanie Bonar via FB:

    Your kids are going to love the Narnia books. Mine do. We read them during summer because our curriculum has read alouds scheduled in. We just finished The Silver Chair tonight. As for suggestions for your kids, I could give you many. But you may have already read them. Hmmm some of my boys' favorites were Usborne's Greek Myths, which may fit in with your history, Homer Price, Henry Huggins, and they loved loved loved Detectives in Togas, but that would probably tie in nicely for you guys next year.

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  2. Our curriculum has some read-alouds scheduled too. I just ignore them sometimes and do what I think is going to be best for us. I've learned to view curriculum as a guide and not a rule, which is super hard for me, but I have to view it tha...t way. Otherwise...I go crazy (maybe I'm already there).

    We've read Henry Huggins. I can't remember if we read Homer Price or not. I know I checked it out once, but I think we ended up reading something else. I'll have to put it on our list. I'll look for the Greek Myths when we get to that part of our history study. I've heard Detectives in Togas is pretty good. I hope I remember that next year!

    Have your kids seen the Narnia movies?

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  3. Stephanie Bonar:

    Yes, they've seen them. I wish I would've made them wait till they had heard the books read. But at least it's that way for the rest of them. I really liked the first Narnia movie, but I was disappointed(ok really annoyed) with Prince Caspian. I know that movies sometimes change things, but I thought the changes were just rediculous. I mean flirty glances between Susan and Caspian? Really??!!

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  4. Amanda Transparenti via FB:

    ack...getting a bit overwhelmed. We are like gypsys right now. I haven't really started too much because our living plans have been so up in the air. We are finally moving into our place tomorrow....then the unpacking begins.

    On a side-...note, any thoughts on Apologia for science?

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  5. Amanda, cut yourself a break. Wait until you're settled. It's kindergarten. Lukas finished K at the beginning of April after starting in Sept. To start kindergarten, you need reading, handwriting and math. Seriously. The other stuff is ext...ra at this age. Do you remember learning scientific facts in kindergarten?

    Have you chosen any curriculum yet? I looked at Apologia when Lukas was beginning 1st grade, and I really thought it was too much for a child that young, and it involves a lot of planning ahead for the parent. I actually don't even care for it for him now, but I know a couple people who like it. I would go w/something less intensive for K. We used some Usborne books that had lots of hands-on experiments, and I didn't have my kids do any writing about science in K. I used a book called "History for Little Pilgrims" and we read Beatrix Potter stories and other fun read-alouds. Don't overwhelm yourself. You have 13 years to teach everything.

    Also, we're not starting school yet. We still have 2 weeks of summer to enjoy first. Have you thought about going w/an all-inclusive curriculum for your first year? If you got Five in a Row, reading and math, you'd be all set for the school year!

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