Today's School

These are resources we are using today. 

I hope we learn something by the end of it! :)

High School 2014-15

I hesitate to put a grade level on this but ds is 16 now (Yikes!) and isn't on a specific grade level in anything.  We just keep plugging away and moving forward bit by bit.  But here is what I have put together for this fall's curriculum.

We follow AO/HEO basically but of course we change it up to meet our needs.  I use the "lite" versions and even then we don't get it all done.  There is so much!  Here's what we have planned.

We are just about in Term 2 of Year 8 at Ambleside Online.

DS has some LD (no labels, we just know this after 16 years ;)) and so we make adjustments to just about everything.  We buddy read, use audible, I read aloud, we work on the white board etc to get it all done.  He's very intelligent and a very deep thinker.  His reading comprehension is wonderful but he just doesn't read fast enough to read all the AO books!  He also has trouble with the act of handwriting so we need to work on that this year as well.  It's painful and we need to build up those muscles.  Copywork is perfect for that and his composition can be done on the computer.

As we finish each book or text, we will insert the next one on the list.

Here's what we are using besides the AO titles right now:
Bible - Hebrews. We are starting a new series at our church and ds will be working on his daily reading and "homework" every day
Science - Apologia Biology (we are more than 2/3 of the way through this)
Latin - Latina Christiana.  It is for younger students but I think it will work for us right now. It'll be his first dive into another language
Math - Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra.  We were into Alg 1, but struggling so we went back for a bit.  He's picking up faster now and we'll be back in Alg 1 soon!
Shakespeare - Hamlet
Plutarch - Crassus
Artist Study - Fra Angelico
Composer Study -Hildegard von Bingen

I will let him choose a book from the earlier years of AO to read on his own just for the purpose of reading fluency, and comprehension building and just plain old reading for enjoyment.  He's never enjoyed reading and hopefully this will help!

We will be starting drivers ed soon as well and I have plenty of other books waiting in the wings.

I also work out of the house two days a week so he works mostly independently on those two days and we do as much together as possible the first two days.  I really hope to get it all done in four days.  We are very busy with other things like our puppet team and other ministries at church so "book work" is only part of our education. Plus some time or other we need to clean, do chores and cook as well as just have some down time. :)

I have so many projects I'd like to do and I just never seem to get around to doing them! Some day!

"Lite" Summer Schedule

We are continuing some school work through the summer. It is just so hot that there's not much to do anyway. Also ds needs to keep reading! Here are the basics of what we're doing:

For 10 yo DS

• Bible


• Mathematics


• Poetry


• Dictation


• Reading to Mom


• Copywork


• Mom reads one chapter of one book of History, Biography, Geography, Natural History, Science, or Literature (Correspond readings with timeline book and map)


• Art & Handicrafts (these happen incidentally)

For 17 yo DD (who actually has enough credits to graduate but we're waiting so she can take dual credit classes this fall)

• Bible


• Literature / written narration


• History / written summary


• Math (finishing Alg. II)

DD's looks shorter than DS's but in reality he finishes first! Each of his lessons only takes about 15 min or less depending on the lesson. DD has to read whole chapters and write narrations so this takes a while.

All in all we are done by lunch if we start early enough, and we are keeping up some good habits and not forgetting everything we learned before the next school term.

Week of Feb 17-23rd

This week has been the longest week! I don't know why but it just seemed to crawl by.
We were pretty consistent in our school work, even getting done early some days. YAY! DS is doing so well with his reading, just moving forward in leaps and bounds. He is actually asking to read to me every night! How can I say no? I can't!

It was our turn to clean the church this week, we got done in record time! It's a great ministry to teach my children to serve, not just teaching and singing, but cleaning toilets. Yes somebody's got to clean the toilets for Jesus right? ;o)

DD started a new essay/speech class this week. I'm so glad she will be able to perform a speech for someone other than us. I'm looking forward to see what topic she chooses.

I'm really getting into my Homeschool Tracker Program. At first I really struggled with setting it up, but now it makes our days go so smoothly. I wish I'd done it years ago!

Week of...

I haven't posted a weekly summary in about a month! I'll do my best to catch up.

Dd got her learner's permit for driving! Woo Hoo! Just what I wanted, another teenage driver! LOL

A boy I used to babysit's father passed away and I attended his funeral.

At church we had a VBS kick off luncheon to brainstorm for this coming year. The Lord led us out on our own to do a VBS no one else is doing. We're writing it ourselves! I'm excited about what He is going to do and already IS doing. I'll post about that later.

Youth had True Love Waits banquet Wed the 13th.

We had a quiet Valentine's day at home, DH brought home pizza and I didn't have to cook. Yay!

Went to a friend's baby shower, the baby was already here and he was so precious. :)

At church I got to hold a newborn that wasn't even 5lbs yet. She was soooo tiny, she looked like a doll!

DD and I are reading "The Grapes of Wrath" and she noted that "they cuss a lot in this book". Normally we avoid very worldly books, and I've never read this book in order to make a pre-judgment and am reading it along with her now, but the themes in the book bring good discussions for us. We always try to look with a biblical worldview at things like this. Sometimes we need to see from the safety of our own home how people live without the Lord in their life. I'm not sure how the book turns out but for now I see such false worship through the characters in the book. If you've read the book I'd like to know your comments on it.

I can't think of anything else noteworthy at the moment. When I do I'll write another post.

Week of Dec. 23

Where did the week go? Christmas was a wonderful, relaxing day for us. I love Christmas day! We went to Christmas Eve candlelight service which was very sweet. I worked a couple of days and the kids did some school.
Yesterday we went to a baby shower for my niece at La Madeleine's it was so much fun! She's having a girl so there was lots of pink!
(Did I mention the cheesecake?)



That's about it for this week. I had the 'blahs' a couple of days but otherwise we're all doing well. Praise the Lord!

"Composer Study Thursday"

Richard Wagner

Siegfried

Who knew???

If I had known waaaay back at the beginning of homeschooling that my children would be more independent and get more accomplished by this simple little change in the way I plan I would have saved tons of money and time along the way! I thought that the way *I* work and loved to make forms would mean that *they* would love it too. Not so. One simple little change has made the world of difference in our homeschool this year. So simple, it makes me want to do the "I could've had a V-8" sound on my forehead. Wanna know what it is? Daily lists. Yup. That's it. I fought it all the way. I thought, "It'll waste too much paper, it would make more work for me.. etc. etc." But in reality my older dd likes to see what to do all laid out and she likes to cross off lists! Who knew? I thought she should like charts with all their squares side by side, you know the way most school planners are laid out. I've tried every visual version of charts there is, weekly vertical, weekly horizontal, 12 week charts, you name it. Now we have a daily list and I just fill in the page/lesson numbers and they do the rest. Actually 17yo dd already knows what to do and I fill in 9yo ds' list.

It's not overwhelming seeing all the things you haven't done, and for me the charts with "holes" would make me crazy thinking we weren't doing enough.

I give the credit for this discovery to Homeschool Tracker Plus (even though at the time of this writing I am not using this program, but may pick it back up after the holidays).

We are getting much more accomplished on a daily basis now, which is VERY important since I'm working part-time. I need all the help I can get!

WOW 17!!!!

Wow, I can't believe it's been 17 years!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Course of Study Plan for my 11th Grader

I've been working on lining out next year's schoolwork. I always do this (and change it many times over the course of the year ;o)) but this time I really need to get some things firmed up because I may have to go to work part time. I would like to have as many things routine as possible by then, so I'm listing my ideas and will update as I go. If you'd like to see our daily plan in progress go here.

Bible -
Luke, Acts, Judges, Ruth

Devotional -
Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
Fox's Book of Martyrs

English-
SAT Vocabulary Online
Easy Grammar Plus
How to Read a Book by Adler
Continue making a Quote Book including Bible, Literature, Shakespeare etc.
Written Narrations in various forms, as well as study guides for literature

Literature-
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale, Comedy of Errors
The Great Gatsby
All Quiet on the Western Front
Frankenstein
Farhenheit 451
The Chosen
Bridehead Revisited
To Kill a Mockingbird
Short Stories: too many to list
Finish Les Miserables (very long!)

Math-
Algebra 2 by Math U See

Science-
Chemistry by Apologia
Update 7/3/07 Joined VHSG Chemistry Course

History/Geography/Social Studies-

Streams of Civilization Volume 2
America's Century by DK
Diary of Anne Frank
When Hell was in Session by Denton
Witness by Chambers

Government-
The US Constitution
Richard Maybury books
Speeches/Source Documents

Fine Arts -
Art History by Van Loon
Picture Study - Matisse; Titian (1485-1576) Italian High Renaissance; other?
Composer Study: Johann Strauss, Jr.; Wagner and Offenbach, German Romantic; other?

Music-
Piano


That's all I have for now, I'll update any changes forthcoming.