Living Unabridged

This homeschool year started well. And it needed to, because there are six kids in our home and our schedule is as complicated as its ever been. Here's a quick rundown of our school plans in 2017-18:
(links are affiliate links but many of our favorite resources are available at used curriculum sales for less)

Rhetoric stage: Oldest Daughter - 15, turning 16 in December. Junior in High School (or close).

Grammar: After years of grammar and basic writing instruction, she's not doing anything formal with this. She'll write some History or Psychology essays (5 paragraph format) each week and one long paper this year. We've looked at a few Grammar review resources but I haven't purchased anything. We'll see if it's necessary as the year goes on.

Math: Still working through Saxon Advanced Mathematics. When she finishes, she'll go on to Saxon Calculus, but she may not finish Calc. before she graduates. (I allowed a year and a half for AM.) She's also working through Life of Fred Geometry at her own pace.

History: History of the Renaissance World by Susan Wise Bauer. Extensive reading list to go with her history spine. Copies maps into her personal history notebook. (To see more about how we teach history in four year cycles to the different stages - and some recommended resources - see these posts: Teaching Ancient History, Teaching Medieval History, and Teaching Early Modern History.)

Science: Apologia Physics. She's taking this as a co-op class. Only one other student in the class means that she'll be getting tutoring from a mom / teacher who loves Physics. (As opposed to me. I never took Physics and frankly, it intimidates me. My daughter, on the other hand, is greatly anticipating it.)

Latin: Third Form Latin. She's working through this series at her own pace as an elective. (She passed my Latin skills a while ago.)

French: Rosetta Stone French, plus all the other French resources we've collected over the years (yes, including records!)

Electives:
1. Public Speaking
She's taking this at co-op. They'll be using the IEW curriculum Speech Boot Camp.

2. Civics
Relates to her History studies this year. She has a reading list to work through (The Federalist Papers, Common Sense, etc.) and I also bought a boxed Civics curriculum from Alpha and Omega.

3. Introduction to Psychology
This is an elective she asked me to get. So I bought Homeschool Psych by Timothy Rice for her to work through. Involves reading, answering questions, and discussion with me. We've already had some great discussions inspired by this course!

Fine Arts: still taking piano from me (albeit reluctantly), still singing in choir, still acting (co-op classes).

Other: volunteers weekly at the library, taking driver's ed, doing ACT test prep (has her first ACT practice test this month!), still trying to decide what to do for Phys. Ed.

Logic stage: 2nd daughter - 12, turning 13 in September. Roughly 8th grade.

Grammar: Jump in Writing from Apologia. Outlining and diagramming assigned by me. Poetry memorization (following IEW)

Math: still working through Algebra 1/2. Will begin Algebra 1 when she finishes. She's taking longer to finish Algebra 1/2 but she's understanding it well, which is important since it's the foundation to all of her high school level Math. (We also have Life of Fred Pre Algebra with Physics that she does at her own pace.)

History: Story of the World 3. Extensive related reading list. Mapwork and notebooking. Outlining relevant passages from Kingfisher History Encyclopedia.

Science: Apologia General Science (co-op class). We planned to do this last year, but it fell through. This year she's doing it with our co-op so it will NOT fall through. #accountability

Latin: Latin for Children A from Classical Academic Press. She's part way through, so she may move on to B.

Logic: Fallacy Detective (co-op class, taught by me)

Fine Arts: piano lessons from me (which she likes), still singing in choir, still acting (co-op class).

Other: volunteers weekly at our library, Taekwondo (co-op), very helpful with her younger siblings.

Logic stage: 3rd daughter - 10. Roughly 4th or 5th grade level.

Grammar: First Language Lessons Level 4. IEW Poetry memorization. This child needs lots of spelling assistance so she's using Building Spelling Skills Grade 4.

Math: Saxon 54. We took a year off of Saxon. She did CTC Math in that year (which she loved). Now she's doing well in Saxon. Technically, she's probably "behind". But so what? She's not crying about Math every day. (Notice I didn't say "She's not crying about Math" because it still happens. But not EVERY day.)

History: Story of the World 3. Related reading (including read alouds from mom). Map work and notebooking.

Science: Ocean Science (co-op class). This co-op teacher teaches incredible Science classes. Since this is covered at co-op, we're doing interest led science at home (with whatever materials we already have).

Latin: Song School Latin 2. She's nearly finished this. I haven't decided if she'll move on to Latin for Children A (which her older sister is also doing) or if we'll do something else.

Fine Arts: Piano lessons (not much loved, she prefers to play by ear), guitar lessons, ballet class (her most favorite thing in the world)

Other: Finally reading comfortably and actually looking forward to a Literature class at co-op. Have patience, dear homeschool mama with the less academic child. Pray for discernment about when to push and when to ease up.

Grammar stage: 4th daughter - 6, turning 7 in September. Roughly 1st or 2nd grade.

Grammar: First Language Lessons. IEW Poetry. Still working through phonics (The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading). Reading simple Bob Books or other easy readers. (Her reading is doing much better since she got her glasses last month. Turns out seeing properly is helpful, who knew?)

Math: Here's where I admit she's doing Abeka Math that I picked up at the thrift store. The goal is to have her in Saxon 54 in two years. She needs to learn basic math (addition, subtraction, multiplication facts, telling time, using money, etc.) until then. I'm not anticipating a problem with that. We also do "skip counting" as part of our morning routine. We also have Life of Fred that we read aloud together.

History: Story of the World 3. Listening to history related read alouds. Map work.

Science: Animals (co-op class). This class will be learning about animals and each child will also get a cocoon / butterfly to observe next Spring. Interest led Science at home.

Logic: Building Thinking Skills. This is one of my favorite things that I've added with this child. (And a couple of my older girls have said, "Hey, why didn't WE get to do that?")

Latin: Tags along with Song School Latin 2. She really loves learning French (we have the Hooked on French program) but it requires a computer and we don't always have a computer she can use. We're hoping to pick up a few more laptops in the near future so she can use our old laptop for this. In the meantime, she's doing some Free Apps I downloaded to one of our Kindles.

Fine Arts: art class (co-op). Hasn't started piano yet, but I probably should go ahead and start her.

Other: Folk Tales From Around the World class (co-op) covering literature and geography, gym class (co-op)

Grammar Stage: 1st Son - 4. Roughly Pre-K.

Attends co-op with us.

Has started phonics with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading (very low key with this, lots of review every day). He's pretty good at identifying letters so I decided to go ahead. (Plus, his older sister gets to review this way. #sneakyschool)

Greatly enjoys pulling out his "school books" (workbooks I pick up at thrift stores). Enjoys using our attribute blocks, pattern blocks, Legos, etc.

This year I'm also choosing a theme every week with a related story book (similar to the Five in the Row curriculum). Sometimes I have papers for him to color or cut. The name of the game with this child is "Keep Him Busy During School Time So He Doesn't Drive Everyone Crazy." I generally match this theme to what the older girls are doing in History. (So when they did Mary Queen of Scots, we read Wee Gillis and had maps of Scotland, etc.)

Toddler stage: 2nd Son - 2.

Also attends co-op.

Loves to have people read to him. "Reads" his favorite books over and over (and yes, he does have them memorized).

Copies his older brother when we're doing letter sounds.

Dumps out everything while we do school. (There is no such thing as keeping this child busy or out of trouble.)

Our days are full and fulfilling, to say the least!

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