January Plans

I'm posting our plans for after the holidays. I'm looking forward to beginning a new term with my kiddos. We've enjoyed a more relaxed approach and I don't want to break that but I need to have some goals and something to build on.

Here's the outline (subject to change) for DD 15 yrs. Oops! Make that *16* she JUST had a birthday and I still can't believe it!

I decided to lay this out according to the Texas Recommended High School Program although we have more subjects than they do!

English Language Arts and Reading:
· Shakespeare: We’ve read The Merchant of Venice and King Lear with our hs friends we’ll be taking a break to do the Stossel Videos (see below) then we’ll get back to Shakespeare in the spring.
· The History of English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall
· Simond’s American Literature
· Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
· Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (we began this last summer but didn’t finish it… can’t remember why????)
· Poetry of Coleridge; Poetry study books from our local library
· Easy Grammar Plus; Igniting Your Writing; write summaries; poetry; narrations; songs etc.

Mathematics:
· MUS Geometry

Science:
· Apologia Biology
· Walden by Thoreau
· Nature walks and journaling

Social Studies and Economics:
· A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
· Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
SPEECHES AND SOURCE DOCUMENTS:
· The Holy Alliance Treaty September 26, 1815;
· The Catholic Emancipation Act;
· The Peel Web;
· Peel's resignation speech 1846;
· Web of English History (selections);
· Prince Albert's Exhibition;
· Giuseppe Garibaldi speech
· Select from the list of Irish accounts of the Irish famine; William Bennet's Narrative of Six Weeks in Ireland;
· Accounts of English Mill workers

GEOGRAPHY:
· The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS:
· In January we will begin a unit with some other hs friends using John Stossel’s videos featuring “Is America #One?” “Greed” “John Stossel Goes to Washington” and more

Languages Other Than English:
· Spanish: currently we are using Berlitz Spanish from our local library
· Latin: continue

Physical Education:
· Exercising
· Bike Riding
· Walking
· Dancing

Speech:
· Oral Interpretation
· Public Speaking – we cover this in a variety of ways

Technology Applications:
· Desktop Publishing
· Video Technology
· Web Mastering
· Computer Applications

Fine Arts:
· Piano
· Artist Study -TBA
· Composer Study - TBA
· Van Loon’s The Arts
· Drawing
· Oil Painting
· Mural Painting

Our Extras:
BIBLE: We’ve been studying the Kings of the OT but we took a break to study some other things we will go back to this after Christmas, we are making a notebook so will continue mapping, journaling, using the concordance etc. and for devotionals we have been listening to Pilgrim’s Progress (again) with ds year 3
LOGIC: Continue with Introductory Logic

LIFE AND WORK SKILLS:
Cooking, crocheting, knitting, babysitting,
She'll be learning to drive too!
She’s a member of what we call our “King’s Krew” for our children’s church. She writes and performs puppets, skits and helps teach the children. She also assists in teaching children's choir.

FREE READING: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights she’s also reading the Babylon Rising Series from Tim LaHaye


8 yo's January Outline

Copywork: We choose this as we go. We use Bible verses, passages from readings and sometimes DS’s own narrations.
Reading Lessons/Spelling: Continue with lessons put together by Mom (Various sources. We recently discover DS was visual-spatial so strict phonics were not working. Currently he’s dictating his own story to me that he reads for reading practice and that is working well!)
Music Appreciation: Piano lessons with DD, singing, Children’s Choir at church
Artist: TBA
Composer: TBA

BIBLE: daily Bible readings together, narrations, drawings, memorization, etc. Continue Pilgrim's Progress Book 1 (DS has a “book” that he draws in each time we read this.)

HISTORY: A Child's History of the World by Hillyer (This is the tough part for me. We’ve tried An Island Story; This Country of Ours by HE Marshall; and Story of the World by SWB and none of them just quite “fit” us. I will try again with the Marshall books now that DS is a bit older; I have to read them aloud to him and sometimes they seem to overload his audio system. I’ll make this final decision a bit later. We may even end up with another book suggested by AO The Discovery of New Worlds by MB Synge I looked over it briefly and liked what I read.)
BIOGRAPHY: Da Vinci by Diane StanleyGEOGRAPHY: Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (He enjoyed Paddle to the Sea. Tree in the Trail and Seabird – not so much. We’ll see about this one.)NATURAL HISTORY: Secrets of the Woods by William J. LongSCIENCE: The Story of Inventions by Michael J. McHugh and Frank P. Bachman (not sure about this one just yet, I’ll have to preview it first for difficulty.)
We own several science books with experiments; I’ll make this choice later.
MATHEMATICS: MUS Alpha, and Beta (right now we are really trying to memorize all the facts before moving on. DS has a hard time with this kind of memorization.) FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Right now DS just learns vocabulary and counting with us from Berlitz Spanish POETRY: TBA (DD is reading Coleridge so we may do that together) LITERATUREAmerican Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg
The Heroes by Charles Kingsley
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (my dd LOVED this book, I hope DS does too.)

FREE READING:
Heidi
Farmer Boy
Five Children and It
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

I noticed I have quite a few notes and indecisions here but ds is at a turning point in his reading. We need to spend time on reading lessons and enjoyable read alouds to keep his confidence up, so I just don't know what will work and what won't until we get into it.