Thursday, April 9, 2015

Tentative Planning for 2015-2016

I guess I'm a little early, but we are really wrapping up our year.  With a baby coming in May (scheduled c-section), we will be ending the school year the week before she arrives.  I'll have to think up a name for her to use on the blog, but I think I need to get to know her first.  For now, she'll just be "Baby."

Anyway, I feel the need to plan for next year now before I'm back in the newborn stage!  

Here are my tentative plans for 2015-2016:

Bee (6th grade!!!!):

English:
  • Continue All About Spelling, Level 5 and hopefully complete Level 6.  This will put us on track to graduate from AAS in the 7th grade.  However, I've decided not to stress about it.  If Bee has to finish up AAS in the 8th grade, does it really matter?  [He would be farther in the program, but we started it late in the 3rd grade, and long trips and an interstate move have slowed us down a bit.]
  • Tutoring:  Continue working with his tutor at WriteGuide. This takes so much pressure off of me! 
  • Booklist:  Consider having him pick a book from a list of classic age-appropriate books to read or listen to each month, in addition to books he selects on his own.  
  • Paragraph editing:  Edit 2-3 paragraphs per week from a 6th grade book called Daily Paragraph Editing. 
  • Handwriting:  He has progressed so much in this area; I am really pleased about it.  I will be getting him another book, and he can continue his work on cursive.  My only concern with print at this point is that he reverses his "z's."  He may need some extra "z" practice. 
  • Word Ladders:  We may do some puzzle from our Word Ladders book.  I need to get these printed in advance.  
  • Try doing some work from a book called Grammar Minutes? 
Math:
  • Life of Fred:  He will be doing Decimals and Percents, which I technically planned to do this past school year, but it did not work out. We will also plan on doing Pre-Algebra with Physics.  That should be enough, and he can do the other pre-algebras next year.  A part of me wants to push him ahead, but honestly, unless he badly wants to (which he does not), I don't see any reason for him to start algebra before the 8th grade.  I did algebra in the 8th grade; my mathematician husband did algebra in 8th grade--why do I get this urge to push Bee ahead sometimes? 
  • Additional Arithmetic Practice:   He may need to do some extra long division and multiplication work.  I need to get organized with that either this spring or summer, so that I have a little binder all set up for him to work in. 
  • Seventh Grade Math Minutes:  We have worked in this series of books a little each year.  I think each year Bee has completed around 25% of the book.  I think they are excellent test prep.  They also show me any obvious areas of weakness and expose him to problems maybe written in a different way than he is used to (like dots and parentheses for multiplication).   Mostly, they reassure me that he is progressing and that he can do problems similar to what kids in schools are doing.  He generally finds them pretty easy, which is good for his confidence, and because each worksheet is so short with a lot of variety, he does not mind doing them.  Last year, we mixed them in throughout the year, but this year we are just using them for the month of April.  
  • Stock Market Game:  Bee has asked to sign up for a class where he will be on a team that participates in this event.  He is very excited about it, and I think and hope it will be a good experience for him and a chance to learn about finance. 
Science:
  • FLL Team:  Assuming he is invited to join, this will be one aspect of his science education.  
  • Life of Fred Physics:  This will be another building block.  
  • Crash Course Chemistry?  Bee really liked the Crash Course World History, so I think this might be a good supplement.  
  • Science Graphic Novels:  I have been meaning to buy a bunch of these to have around the house anyway.  
  • Science Kit:  Have Bee pick out a science kit, based on what sounds interesting to him, so that he's doing something hands on. 
  • Finishing up his Minecraft Mod course, if he doesn't finish it this summer.   
Social Studies:
  • Crash Course US History on Youtube. 
  • Continue our comparative history study of biased history.   This will work well in combination with the Crash Course. 
  • Novels:  Maybe have him pick out a historical novel each month, or perhaps just one or two a semester.  
  • Graphic Novels:  Provide him with graphic novels on US history.  
  • Find a geography game where he can memorize states and capitals? 
PE:
  • Biking, scootering, skateboarding, hiking, playing at the park.  
  • I want something structured too, like swim team or tennis lessons or even homeschool PE at the Y.  

The Arts:
  • Woodworking:  He is signed up for a class and is very excited about it.  
  • Piano lessons: Continue.   
  • Art Class: Plan to do a homeschool art class at the local museum.  

Spanish:
  • Continue lessons with Homeschool Spanish Academy 3-4 times per week.  Worth every penny. 
  • Add more Spanish to our home.  Speak more Spanish to the boys, read more Spanish, play more Spanish games. 
Bug (2nd Grade--my soon-to-be middle baby is so big!):

English:
  • All About Spelling, Level 3
  • Writing Class:  Bug is going to be trying out a class at our coop.  I am hoping this will be a good experience for him and take some pressure off of me.  He is not impressed with me for signing him up for this. 
  • Let Bug continue reading whatever he likes.  Right now that is mostly comic books.  
  • Look for some complex picture books that he would enjoy me reading to him. 
  • Paragraph editing:  Edit 2-3 paragraphs per week from a 2nd grade book called Daily Paragraph Editing. 
  • Handwriting:  I think we are going to try Handwriting without Tears (for grade 1).  Handwriting has not been a strength for either of my boys.  I feel like I have not done enough to make it fun, but it is kind of inherently boring.  It's just not been a huge priority. 
  • Word Ladders: Print lots of these in advance.  Bug enjoys them. 
  • Try doing some work from a book called Grammar Minutes? 
Math:
  • Life of Fred:  I would tentatively like to get through the first 4-5 books.  
  • Multiplication practice.  This may be in the form of Timez Attack, or we may do worksheets.  Probably try Timez Attack, and if he doesn't want to do it, look into other computer programs or just print worksheets.  Bug knows a lot of his facts already, and I just want to keep solidifying them.  
  • Fun workbook pages and logic problems.  Bug likes his book called Math for the Gifted Child.  I buy it at B&N or Amazon, and it has a lot of fun problems.  We just skip around in it.  
  • Math Minutes, Grade 3.  Just like for Bee, doing some of these pages helps me to see that he is learning the same sorts of things that children in schools are learning. 

Science:
  • Bug is signed up for two weekly science courses that last the entire year, one on earth science and one on biology.  He is not happy with me over this and said something about how I was making him go to medical school.  However, my experience with him has been that he really enjoys classes once he gets into them. 
  •  Magic School Bus science kits.  Honestly, the classes he is taking should be "enough" science, but I think we will do some of the kits too because Bug is so curious about the world, enjoys science activities so much, and they are a fun thing that we can do together.  He is still at the age when he just wants to spend as much time with mom as possible.  I really like these kits because he can do them almost independently (so I just have to sit there and interact with him), and nearly all supplies are provided (except for a few really common household or food items).  This seems like a good thing to do with the baby in hand. 

Social Studies:
  • Continue reading to him from the "If you Lived" series.  
  • Look into some geography activities good for his age related to US History. 
  • See if I can find some fun US History crafts that are easy to prepare and that I can get ready before the school year starts. 


PE:
  • Biking, scootering, skateboarding, hiking, playing at the park.  
  • I want something structured too, like swim team or tennis lessons or even homeschool PE at the Y.  

The Arts:
  • Art Class: Plan to do a homeschool art class at the local museum.   
  • Increase our music listening and music history.  

Spanish: 
  • Add more Spanish to our home.  Speak more Spanish to the boys, read more Spanish, play more Spanish games.  
  • I would like for Bug to take lessons on Skype through Homeschool Spanish Academy, but he is really shy about the idea. 

Shopping List:
  • Handwriting without Tears for Bug.  
  • D'Nelian workbook for Bee.  
  • Science Graphic Novels.  
  • Life of Fred Pre-Algebra Physics, Biology, and Economics (I already have Decimals & Percents)
  • Grammar Minutes, Grades 2 and 6
  • Paragraph Editing, Grades 2 and 6
  • More Spanish books to read to the children. 

To-Do List:  
  • Create binders for each boy with worksheets and other handout/types of things.  Or perhaps create one binder for me and give them their worksheets on clipboards. 
  • Copy Word ladders for each boy.  
  • Print long multiplication and long division worksheets for Bee.  
  • Come up with booklists for Bee in the areas of classic literature and US history.  
  • Figure out an organized physical activity for the boys to join.  
  • Make a binder for my records that I'm supposed to keep "on file" in my home, including test results and annual progress reports.  I think I will organize these by school year. I will also have a separate section for copies of vaccine records for each child, just because I think it's something that should be required. 
  • Really do some soul searching and preparation for Spanish this spring and summer, so that I can add more Spanish to our daily life as well as include some formal lessons.  I really want to do better with this.  Maybe I need to make Spanish our top priority for a while. 
Our baby will be only a little over 2 months old when school starts!   I am going to have to figure out how to homeschool with a tiny one in the home! 



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