Planning

This past weekend, between shoveling out the clutter around the house, I sat down and planned out through our 'summer' lessons and fall semester. I can't believe that we are actually going to be starting year 4 of homeschooling this year. I was so surprised at how quickly planning went for me this year. I guess I am starting to become comfortable with how the girls learn and what/how much I can expect for us to realistically do.

I don't have a long dream list of things to study. Instead I really tried to focus on what the girls have been telling me they want to do. If something new comes along we may head down a different path, and me being relaxed about that is making all the difference.

We will start our Summer Quarter on July 2. I've scheduled it so Mary and Katie should be done by lunchtime each day to go play with friends. Only reading and math are 4 days a week, everything else will be done on alternating days.

Mary
Prima Latina (M/W)
Hooked on Phonics - Orange Book (T/Th)
Horizon's Math Grade 2 (M/T/W/Th)
Astronomy (M/W)
Writing Exercises (T/Th)
Reading - 20 mins (M/T/W/Th)
Ancient Greeks (T/Th)

Read Alouds: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and My Side of the Mountain.

Katie
Kumon Numbers 1-120 and RightStart Math K (M/T/W/Th)
Hooked on Phonics - Yellow Book (M/W)
Reading together 10 mins (M/T/W/Th)
Copywork (M)
Narration (W)
Reading Readiness Games (T/Th)

The Fall will not be much different, in fact Katie's will stay the same until she is ready to add more stuff in. As always she will participate as much and as little as she wants in the science and history I do with Mary.

Mary in the fall, will also add back in grammar studies to alternate with writing. She will most likely finish her phonics program fairly early in the fall and reading will increase to 30 minutes/day in two 15 minute periods.

Our science focus for this year is going to be Chemistry. In the fall I want to use Real Science 4 Kids. That should only take us through the fall, but with the introduction I figure we can use what science materials we have available through library, internet and here at home to study Chemistry for as long as the girls are interested.

We will finish our Ancient Greeks study in a few weeks, so this fall we will start with The Roman Empire. That will be our concentration for the whole year. We may take a break here and there if a small interest comes up in another part of history. That is pretty much why I am figuring a year on it. For some reason we cannot move very quickly with history and Mary. Alternating with history is going to be Geography studies. Every two weeks we will randomly pick a country that Mary has to do different projects for, from PowerPoint presentation to worksheets to a written report.

Mary (Fall)
Prima Latina (2x)
Math Grade 2/Book 2 (4x)
Grammar (2x)
Writing (2x)
Phonics (until completed) (2x)
Reading 20 minutes (4x)
Geography (2x)
History (2x)
Chemistry (2x)

We won't even go to my expected extracurricular activity list yet. I have/will have activities for 2 children and adding Emily to gymnastics in January. We will be walking a very fine line. I just need to teach the girls how to write in the car ;)

Peace,

Amy