Z's 7th Grade Curriculum Plans

Bible - Memoria Press Christian Studies II - using KJV Bible

Math - Saxon Math Algebra 1 (We use the Saxon Teacher CD-ROM and Art Reed videos)

Language Arts

• Reading - Assigned Book List and Literature Guides; Fun Book List & Family Read-alouds
• Grammar - Grammar for the Well Trained Mind; Editor in Chief workbook
• Writing - Writing With Skill II; Writing & Rhetoric 5 
• Vocabulary - Vocabulary from Classical Roots A & B
• Comprehension - Abeka Skill Sheets; Reading Detective

Greek - Memoria Press First Form Greek

Logic - Thinking Toolbox

Science - Novare Physical Science

History* - The Human Odyssey; Story of the World; The Good and the Beautiful (we should probably be to the American Revolution by the start of 7th grade)

Geography - Memoria Press Geography II

Fine Arts

• Art - Home Art Studio (my adult daughter teaches art)
• Music - Piano lessons - Hoffman Academy

Computer - CompuScholar's Tech Essentials

Z's 6th Grade Curriculum Plans

Bible - MP's Christian Studies I - using KJV Bible

Math - Saxon Math Algebra 1/2 (We use the Saxon Teacher CD-ROM and Art Reed videos)

Language Arts
- Reading - Assigned Book List; Fun Book List & Family Read-alouds
- Grammar - Grammar for the Well Trained Mind; Editor in Chief workbook
- Writing - Writing With Skill I; Writing and Rhetoric 4
- Comprehension - Abeka Skill Sheets; Reading Detective A1
- Spelling - Spelling Workout H (finishing last half of the book and will be done with spelling)

Logic - Fallacy Detective

Foreign Language
- Latin - Latina Christiana II (finishing last half)
- Greek - Memoria Press Elementary Greek II
- Hebrew - Miiko Shaffier's Hebrew (Summer)

Science - Jay Wile's Discovering Design with Earth Science (Changed to Focus on Physics Middle School in February)

History - The Human Odyssey; Story of the World; The Good and the Beautiful (we started HO in late 4th grade and continuing on and probably be to the Renaissance come 6th grade)

Geography - Memoria Press Geography I

Fine Arts
- Art - Home Art Studio (my adult daughter teaches art)
- Music - Piano lessons - Hoffman Academy (finishing program in 6th)

Our history mix is going VERY WELL!! So, we are going to continue with that through the next 2 years and then probably move on to American history come 8th grade.

Z will be stopping Latin when he finishes LCII and going into his 3rd year of Greek, so I think he can handle some introductory courses in Hebrew (summer) that he has requested.

Z's 4th Grade Curriculum Plans

Here are the plans for Z's 4th grade year:

Bible - Bible Study Guide for All Ages

Reading - Assigned Book List; Fun Book List & Family Read-aloud

 

Math - Saxon Math 6/5

 

 

Grammar - First Language Lessons 4

 

Writing - Writing With Ease 3; Writing and Rhetoric Narrative I; Writing Strands 4

 

Spelling - Spelling Workout F, G & H

 

Vocabulary - Wordly Wise Book 1

 

 

Latin - Latina Christiana I with Roots of English; Ludere Latine; Latin Cursive Copybook 

Greek - Memoria Press' Greek Alphabet

 

 

Science - Christian Kids Explore Physics

 

History - All American History Volume 1

 

 

Art - Home Art Studio

 

Music - Piano lessons - Hoffman Academy

Extras - Archery; Architecture; Woodworking; Chess

 

Notes on Z progress and curriculum plans:

Z tested into the 7/6 Saxon Math book last fall but I had an uneasiness about skipping 2 math books, and Z cried and said he wanted to do 5/4 and 6/5 books, so we decided to do them.  He rarely misses anything but he is enjoying going through the 5/4 book and should start the 6/5 book soon, so I'm thinking he can finish up the 6/5 and possibly the 7/6 book in 4th grade and start Algebra 1/2 in 5th grade.

 

He begged to add in Greek, so we are going to be doing Greek along with Latin on different days.  Along with Latina Christiana I, we are doing the coordinating books such as: Roots of English for a beginner's introduction into Latin and Greek roots; Ludere Latine activity book; Latin Cursive Copybook; Rummy roots card games for extra practice of word roots.

 

He has an amazing ability to understand grammar, so I'm thinking we will need to move on in grammar after the FLL 4 book, possibly starting Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind books mid-4th grade.  

 

He also has a photographic memory like I did as a child, and has no problems at all with spelling, so he will be finishing up the Spelling Workout books in 4th grade.  We may even start Vocabulary from Classical Roots A book after finishing spelling.

 

I had added in Wordly Wise books this past year (A, B and C) because Z begged to learn what words mean, so we will be continuing on with those at whatever pace he wants, so I'm guesstimating we will do Books 1 and possibly start 2.

 

He writes fiction on his own in his spare time, so I just let him fill up small books of his stories but we also do Writing With Ease because he loves hearing all the excerpts from the books, but he doesn't need much help with dictation as he can hold sentences in his mind easily, so I may not do the dictation parts of all of WWE 3.  We are loosely mixing in lessons from Writing and Rhetoric: Narrative I and also doing Writing Strands 4 (original version).

I flesh out the Christian Kids Explore books pretty extensively with other books, videos, experiments, kits, etc.

K's 12th Grade Curriculum Plans

We are at the finish line!  K is starting her last year of school and I can't believe we made it through all the challenges that came at us but with God, we made it!  K has some things to finish up leftover from 11th, along with the following:

English IV - Writing exercises with Jump-In Writing; Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind; Book list 

Honors Geometry/Trigonometry - Saxon Advanced Math first 90 lessons; Saxon Teacher CDs; Art Reed DVDs  

Personal Finance - Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Personal finance high school course

Science - Chemistry/Physics 101 DVDs with required supplements for credits

Constitutional Law - Michael Farris' Constitutional Literacy DVD and workbook

Latin - Henle Latin

Z's 3rd Grade Curriculum Plans

Here are the plans for Z's 3rd grade year.  We are adding in a lot this year - Latin, cursive, piano lessons, archery, architecture, woodworking and chess.

Bible - Bible Study Guide for All Ages

Reading - Assigned Book List; Fun Book List & Family Read-alouds

 

Math - Saxon Math 5/4

 

Grammar - First Language Lessons 3

 

Writing - Writing With Ease 

 

Spelling - Spelling Workout E & F

 

Vocabulary - Worldly Wise B & C

 

Latin & Cursive - MP Prima Latina & MP New American Cursive w/ Prima Latina copybook

 

Science - Christian Kids Explore Chemistry

 

History - A Child's History of the World

 

Art - Home Art Studio

 

Music - Piano lessons 

Extras - Archery; Architecture; Woodworking; Chess

10th Grade Curriculum Choices

I posted our 10th grade courses here and now will go into depth with what we are using for each.

Image Credits: RainbowResource; WinterPromise; CompuScholar; Notgrass


Core Subjects

English II - Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind RED book; Writing With Skill; Vocabulary from Classical Roots; Book List

Algebra II - Saxon Algebra 2; Saxon Teacher CD's; Art Reed DVD's

Astronomy - Survey of Astronomy pack

World History - Notgrass' Exploring World History (Book List)

Latin II - Henle Latin



Electives

Bible II - Memoria Press' Christian Studies IV; New Testament and Old Testament flashcards

Graphic Design - Schoolhouse Teacher's Graphic Design course

Game Design - CompuScholar Unity Game Programming course

Equine Studies - Equine Science

Home Economics - Christian Light's Home Economics I

10th Grade High School Courses

We've already planned out 10th grade, though we won't start till the fall.  My daughter got a lot of credits her 9th grade year, so by the time 12th grade rolls out, she barely needs any and can pursue her passions more in depth.

Core Subjects
English II
Algebra II
Astronomy
World History
Latin II

Electives
Graphic Design
Game Design
Equine Studies
Home Economics

Total Credits - 8
Total High School Credits - 18

Extracurricular Activities
Violin lessons
Church Youth Group
Church Devotional Reading (Public Speaking)
Horse Riding Lessons


* Graphic Design and Equine Studies are 1/2 credit, the rest are full credits.  She took 2 years of violin lessons years ago and has missed it ever since, so we are hoping to incorporate them back in if time (and money) permits with also doing horse riding lessons.


Go here to see a detailed post about what we are using for each subject: https://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2019/02/10th-grade-curriculum-choices.html

9th Grade High School Courses

9th Grade will be the fullest year with the most credits compared to the rest of high school.  She was just so interested in doing so many things!


Core Subjects
English I
Algebra I
Latin I
Biology I
American History I

Electives
Bible I
Information Technology
Intro to Aviation & Aeronautics
Computer Keyboarding
Sewing
Physical Education
Health

Total Credits - 10

Extracurricular Activities
Flight Lessons/Hours
Aviation Clubs
Church Youth Group
Church Devotional Reading (Public Speaking)


*Sewing, Computer Keyboarding, PE and Health are 1/2 credit each.  Every other subject is 1 full credit.

High School Math Credits with Saxon

I'm so thankful for Art Reed and his book, Using John Saxon's Math Books.  I've owned this book and read it for the middle school years but hadn't read it for high school.  I'm glad I did because I learned that the Advanced Mathematics book, counts as 2 high school credits and will take about 2 years to complete.  I've redone our math plan for high school since learning this and cut out Calculus for 12th grade, although she may be able to start it if she finishes Advanced Mathematics early.

9th Grade - Algebra I

10th Grade - Algebra II

11th Grade - Geometry w/Advanced Algebra (1st 90 lessons of Advanced Mathematics)

12th Grade - Trigonometry & Pre-Calculus (2nd half of lessons of Advanced Mathematics)

This gives us 4 high school credits and should prepare her well for the SAT in her Senior year.  I'm hoping as she works year-round, she can finish Advanced Mathematics by the middle of 11th grade to take the PSAT.

We will continue using the Saxon Teacher CDs with each book and also adding in Art Reed's DVDs.

High School Math & English Plans

*I've revised our math plan here:  http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2018/04/high-school-math-credits-with-saxon.html

It seems very surreal that I'm writing about high school.  It seems like just the other day I was writing about what we were using for 1st grade!  I decided to go ahead and show you the progression in the subjects we have already planned the progression for, math and English:

Math
9th - Saxon Algebra 1
10th - Saxon Algebra 2
11th - Saxon Advanced Mathematics
12th - Saxon Calculus with Trigonometry and Analytic Geometry

English (Grammar + Writing)
9th - Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind 2 & Writing With Skill 2
10th - GWTM 3 & WWS 3
11th - GWTM 4 & Institute for Excellence in Writing, basic course
12th - IEW Advanced Communication Series

*We may change the last 2 years of English writing and not do IEW but rather use Thomas Kane's
The New Oxford Guide to Writing

Plans for This New Year

I've posted that we did a January start this year for 4th grade mainly because I took a LOT of time off for my pregnancy and the new baby last year.  Looking over our new schedule of doing school 5-days a week (before we only did 3-4 days a week), it will have us finishing a lot of 4th grade subjects before summer, that is even with breaks!  So what I'm planning on doing this year is going ahead and diving right into the next curriculum in whatever subject it is that we finish.

That means that this year of 2014 will actually be our 4th grade and 5th grade year but 5th grade will continue over into next year as well.  So I'm starting the planning for 5th grade materials and will purchase them probably next month or so to have on hand because some subjects will be complete in April and we will need the next level.

Things like history and science, which are we are not on schedule with, will help us get back on schedule by the end of this year, starting in January the history and science for 5th grade.

However........there could be some very big changes for our family this year and we don't know when they could happen but if they do, that changes everything!  That is one reason why I've decided to redeem the time the next few months and school every weekday to really get a lot done in the case that we may need a month or so off to adjust to some new changes. 

Those are my plans for this uncertain year - forge ahead until the detour comes up!

Finishing Up 3rd Grade Plans

We won't be starting 4th grade until January as I laid out in this post, Homeschooling With a January Start.  We are finishing up some 3rd grade materials and then going ahead into the next level before our "official" start because K is ahead in some things and other things she needs more practice.  One of these she needs more practice on is dictation, so thanks to advice from Susan Wise Bauer's curriculum advisors for Writing With Ease, K needed to go back through WWE 2.  They stated that if the child can not get the dictation after just 2 recitations - you need to stop and go back until they can.  I know several that just forge on ahead and they find themselves ignoring the rules and their child hits a wall around 5th grade.  Even Susan Wise Bauer's own son, Dan who was 13 at the time, had to go back to WWE 4 because he also struggled with dictation.  K also had some issues with spelling but is advancing with All About Spelling (AAS) and we really love this curriculum!  She also does Spelling Workout (SWO) on the side as extra practice but the meat of our spelling program is in AAS.

K is very strong in math and science, and we do hope to advance further ahead and eventually and even skip a level if need be to feed her love of math.  With science, I needed something more scheduled, so we recently switched over to Elemental Science's Chemistry and it is a good fit for us but we won't finish it until next summer most likely but that is OK because science (and history) are content areas.

Here is what we have left and what we plan on starting early for 4th grade and when we will complete what.  We have 15 weeks left of schooling until Thanksgiving and we don't plan on taking any weeks off, so that we can take off from Thanksgiving until January 6th.

Bible
Christian Studies 1 - finish September 20th
Christian Studies 2 - start September 23rd

Latin
Prima Latina - finish by Thanksgiving
Christiana I - start January 6th

Grammar
First Language Lessons 3 - finish by Thanksgiving
First Language Lessons 4 - start January 6th

Writing
Writing With Ease 2 - finish by Thanksgiving
Writing With Ease 3 - start January 6th

Math
Saxon Math 3 - finish October 18th
Saxon Math 5/4 - start October 21st

*At this rate we are moving through Math since it is K's strongest subject and if all goes according to plan, she will start Algebra 1 in 6th grade - finishing up high school math with Advanced Mathematics by 8th or 9th grade and able to go on to the higher maths for her high school years in Calculus, Physics & Trigonometry if she chooses, but I will probably hire a tutor lol.

Spelling
All About Spelling 3 - finish September 13th
All About Spelling 4 - start September 16 & finish January 24th
Spelling Workout D - start August 19th & finish January 24th

*You can see with spelling that we will finish AAS 3 & 4 mainly in "3rd grade" and then finish AAS 5 & 6 in "4th grade."  We will also finish SWO D in 3rd and E and F in 4th.  Giving us only SWO from 5th grade on because we will have completed all levels of AAS by the end of 4th grade.  So less time in spelling comes in 5th grade!

History & Science
*We aren't really concerned when we finish these because we like spending more time than just a year in Story of the World and we love doing science kits, etc..  However, for planning purposes, I went ahead and gave an estimated time of completion but we have a lot of detours due to interest in a certain topic or time period almost always!

Story of the World 3 - finish March 21st
Story of the World 4 - start March 24th
Elemental Science Chemistry - finish May 9th
Elemental Science Physics - start May 12th


There is my plan and how everything is flowing currently.  I like to do this every so often to gauge our progress in various areas.  I do plan on doing a 4th grade curriculum post to show you what we are using for the next levels in all subjects.

Homeschool Planner Free Printables & Video

I did a short video today of what my homeschool planner is looking like so far.  I showed a lot of free printables and listed where to get them below, plus some more that I haven't used yet.  The main one was free at one time, or at least I got it free somehow (maybe a giveaway or something?), but now she charges $20 for the planner.  I LOVE it because it was almost like the ones I was using that I made myself, but it allows you to prefill and save on the computer and then print.

Free monthly menu planner
http://www.noordinarymomentsblog.com/2012/01/monthly-menu-planner-editable-pdf.html

Free Yearly School Calendar (one you can highlight/label)
http://fivejs.com/free-printable-school-calendar-2012-2013/

Free Homeschool Planner Printables
http://highland.hitcho.com.au/Forms.htm
http://homeschoolcreations.com/index.html
http://fivejs.com/category/homeschooling/free-study-charts-worksheets/homeschool-planning-free-study-charts-worksheets/
http://donnayoung.org/forms/
http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/gettingorganized/printable_planner.php#.UCVqpqNmOSo

Other Free Homeschool Planner Printables I haven't used
http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/07/free-downloadable-homeschool-planners.html
http://carianthony.blogspot.com/2011/07/free-homeschool-daily-planner.html
http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/hs/homeschoolforms.html
http://oklahomahomeschool.com/forms.html
http://www.printablehomeschool.com/
http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/files?csearch=Organizational
http://homeschooling.about.com/od/schedulingforms/Homeschool_Scheduling_Forms.htm
http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/recordkeeping/qt/reckeep.htm
http://www.holdthatthought.com/free.php
http://freehomeschoolresources.info/free-resources/printable-homeschool-forms/
http://peacecreekontheprairie.com/large-family-homeschool-forms
http://eclectichomeschool.org/resources/downloads/default.asp
http://new-bintexas.webs.com/freecurriculumplanner.htm
http://www.quickstarthomeschool.com/freebies/homeschool-forms/
http://thelifeinbloom.wordpress.com/printables-3/

Online Free Homeschool Planners
http://www.homeschooltracker.com/tracker_basic.aspx
http://www.homeschoolskedtra

3rd Grade Daily Subjects Schedule & School Times

I wanted to show you all how I plan what we do each day, how many days we do each subject and the estimated times for the school day.  You can view our yearly schedule and how I laid out the 36 weeks and time off here: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2012/07/3rd-grade-yearly-schedule.html

First, I plan how many days of what subject we need to do each week.  This is all according to how many lessons were in each book and then doing the math to figure out what we needed to do to finish within 36 weeks.

Days per Week per Subject

Bible - daily

Reading - daily

Spelling - 4 days

Grammar - 3 days

Writing - 4 days

Cursive - 3 days

Latin - 3 days

Math - 4 days

History - 2 days

Science - 2 days

Art - 1 day

Music - daily practice; 1 day of composer/orchestra/instrument study

Home Economics - 1 day

Then, I sort them into a daily plan:

Daily Subject Plan

Monday - Bible, Reading, Grammar, Writing, Cursive, Spelling (both), Latin, Math, History and Music practice

Tuesday - Bible, Reading, Grammar, Writing, Cursive, Spelling (both), Latin, Math, Science and Music practice

Wednesday - Bible, Reading, Grammar, Writing, Cursive, Spelling (both), Latin, Math, History and Music practice

Thursday - Bible, Reading, Writing, Spelling (AAS only), Math, Science and Music practice

Friday - Bible, Reading, Art, Home Economics, Music, Projects and Music Practice

K's heavy days will be Mon.-Wed.  Thursday is lighter but she has music lessons that day, so really it is full as well.  Friday is more of a fun day with art, crafts, home economics and history projects.  However, every weekday she will be doing bible, reading and music practice.  The weekends are free days or occasionally we will use Saturday to make up for a day we may have took off during the week due to appointments, sickness, etc.

As you can see, we only need to do grammar, Latin, spelling (Spelling Workout), and cursive 3 days a week.  We do writing and math 4 times per week and then history and science twice per week, alternating days.  You may notice that some days say we do both spellings, this is because we do 2 spelling programs: Spelling Workout and All About Spelling.  We can't seem to let go of either, so we just work them in.  We plan on finishing all the levels of All About Spelling by the end of 4th grade, and then we will continue on only with Spelling Workout from then on out.

Next, I plan in time per subject needed.  These are estimates as I don't know yet how fast or slow K will work in these new curriculums.

Estimated Times per Subject per day

Bible - 15m

Music Practice - 25m

Reading - 30m morning/60m evening = 90m

Spelling - 30m; 20m on AAS only day

Grammar - 20m

Writing - 15m

Cursive - 10m

Latin - 30m

Math - 30m

History - 90m
Science - 90m

Art - 60m

Music study - 20m

Home Economics - 30m

Finally, to get a daily time estimate, I plug in these estimated times per subject above into each day to estimate those days school time:

Daily School Time Estimates

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - 5hr 45m

Thursday - 4hr 45m

Friday - 4hr 20m + any project times

We will be pretty much aligned with the estimated times in "The Well Trained Mind" for 3rd grade, which is 4hr 52m per day.  Those times DO include reading, an hour of which is done in the evening after dinner. 

Free Printable Homeschool Subject Weekly Planner

I've used these for years and had them on another blog, but realized I hadn't put them on here.  I also uploaded them to my Scribd page.  It is a simple weekly planner that has room to include up to 9 subjects.

Homeschool Weekly Subject Planner Printable Page

2nd Grade Completion Planning Update

It has been a fight to finish 2nd grade after many setbacks with this pregnancy but we are nearing the end!  We finished up Saxon Math 2 last week and are taking a break from math until August.  I decided to do a quick update to show our estimated completion dates for each subject leftover:

First Language Lessons 2 - this Saturday or Monday
All About Spelling 2 - July 10
Writing With Ease 2 - July 18 or if I do it on Saturdays, we will be done by July 14

With science, we will keep doing it through the summer and starting chemistry in September.  With history, we have anywhere from 18-30 days left, depending on if we want to expand the chapters, do crafts or if we miss some days.  I think we will spend more time on history and science once the above subjects are all done and complete.

With K's reading lists, she only has one more book to read on her 2nd grade morning reading list and then a few left on the evening list and she will probably finish both lists by August and start the 3rd grade lists then.  We have loads of parent read-a-louds we are reading and plan on reading, so we won't finish that list until possibly mid-August to close the book on 2nd grade.

*Here is K's list of all the books she read in the morning assigned reading time, books that were at or above her reading level: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2011/09/2nd-grade-independent-assigned-reading.html

2nd Grade Completion Planning

Since I found out I was pregnant, we decided to forgo our plan to start 3rd grade in January 2013 and go ahead and start it as soon as possible.  That way, I will have time when the baby comes around Thanksgiving to take off about 3 months.  We had a schedule of completion for 2nd grade by the end of June, with most things completed by the end of May but since I was on bed rest for about 5 days and just now regaining my strength, we didn't do full homeschool for the past week and a half.  So, today, I re-evaluated and came up with new completion dates, we do plan taking off a week in late June for my freezer cooking.

Finish by.........
WWE 2 - July 13
FLL 2 - June 18
Saxon Math 2 - June 6
AAS 2 - June 29
SWO C - this is on hold till we finish AAS 2

With history and science, we aren't entirely concerned about finishing those up in a hurry.  With science, we should finish Astronomy by the end of summer and start Chemistry in August.  Chemistry involves a lot of experiments, so I want to complete the majority of it before the baby arrives.  With history (SOTW 2), we will probably not start SOTW 3 until mid-August.  It will be easier for me because K will be reading SOTW 3 independently and can do that even during my "break" with the newborn.

Completion & Next Level Planning

We will be going right into the next level in each subject as soon as we finish the one we are on now.  I went ahead and did a completion planning on what we are using now and then also planned projection dates for our new curriculum.  However in science, we are waiting until next January to start (chemistry), I like to spend as much time as can on each year of science.  I also like to take my time with history, so starting a few months earlier with the next grade helps us keep it at a slower pace.

Here are start dates for our new curriculum, we will finish the ones we are on now the week before we start the new one:

1. Spelling Workout D - April 30th
2. All About Spelling 3 - April 16th
3. Saxon Math 3 - May 14th
4. First Language Lessons 3 - June 18th
5. Writing With Ease 3 - August 6th
6. Story of the World 3 - September 3rd

2nd Grade Language Arts Planning

Language arts (LA) includes spelling, grammar, reading and writing.  K will be spending 2 hours completing the four-fold LA, here is a breakdown per component:

Spelling - 15 minutes
Grammar - 20 minutes
Reading - 30m 4th grade and above reading level books; 40-60m books below reading level
Writing - 10 minutes

We will keep a binder for LA with a section for each of the four components.  I've outlined some things I wanted to remember for this year with each subject:

Spelling - test spelling lists weekly and keep a list of trouble words and trouble rules;  K copies rules she has trouble with and reads them out loud; two times a week review trouble words and trouble rules.

Grammar - write down K's narrations and read it back to her; towards the middle of the school year she should be writing the first sentence down by herself;  Memorize 12 pieces.

Reading - oral reading for fluency once a week with McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader;  two times per week K is to give me two to four sentences about the plot of the book she is reading for her challenging reading; no narrations on fun books; only filing her imaginative reading in this notebook - stories, myths, fairy tales, poems and novels; factual books and biography reading goes in history notebook.

We still review phonics from the OPGTR to make sure K grasped all the phonics rules and we will continue to review them occasionally.

Writing - practices cursive daily for 5 minutes; dictation daily using WWE 2; once a month writes penpals

With writing, it is not only a skill but a content area.  We are laying the foundation that makes a good writer, that is why I don't have my daughter doing creative writing until the logic stage.  I like how Susan Wise Bauer puts it "The creative writing is a natural gift; the ability to think through information, organize it, and put it down on paper needs to be taught."  Our writing program consists of:

1. Narration - in literature, history and science
2. Copywork
3. Dictation

K narrates twice a week from whatever book she is reading from her challenging list.  She also narrates as it comes up in the grammar book.  When we do our history chapter, she narrates to me.  Lastly, when we do science, she narrates to me after each lesson.  This year we will be concentrating on improving her narration to the point that she can identify the most important element or central thought of the passage.  She will also start dictation and she has already had some practice in dictation with small sentences out of All About Spelling.  By the end of 2nd grade, she should be able to write two long sentences from dictation after only two repetitions.

Revised - 1st Grade Completion Planning

I've done a lot of thinking and reading lately and decided to hold off on finishing Saxon Math 2 this summer.  Even though it is K's best subject and she has no issues with it, I didn't want to be in Saxon 3 at the start of 2nd grade and then move her on too quickly.  I would rather cement in her the basics, to where she knows them like the back of her hand, so to speak.  Repetition is a good teacher!  So she is doing her Saxon 1 math fact cards 3 times a week along with the back of the worksheets in Saxon 2.  We never do the backs of the worksheets but I thought it was good review for her to make sure she knows the concepts before we move on.  I also plan moving on very slowly, instead of doing 2-3 lessons a day, I want to just do one lesson at a time and do both sides of the worksheet like suggested, once in the morning and then the back of it in the evening to make sure those concepts are really sticking.

With grammar, we are almost finished with the parts in Rod and Staff English 2 that are review for us and I don't plan on teaching new material from the book, such as adjectives, paragraphs, etc.  We will save those for a review after she learns them this year in FLL 2.  However, I do want her to finish the last unit that is on alphabetical order and dictionary skills because she is very interested right now in what words mean and how to use a dictionary.  R&S English 2 is great review or extra practice work for FLL.

We will finish up SOTW 1 by the end of August or possibly sooner.  I've learned that saving history or science for the end of the school day is a big mistake with K!  She is so tired and almost falls asleep during the lesson.  However, if we do it as one of the first subjects of the day, she is alert and remembers more and its not like pulling teeth for me lol.  So, our schedule is changing and more on that later.

Oh science, how I loathe thee!  I really have been slacking in science as we still have 2 lessons on the human body to finish and the whole animal book to complete by the end of August.  Our plant study was reading and learning about plants and doing a vegetable garden, which surprisingly is doing exceptionally well.  I think the hands-on aspect with the garden really helped her understand plants more than reading it in a book.

We will finish up writing sometime in mid-August.  She pretty much gets it and I feel like moving on and not finishing all the lessons in WWE 1 but I really like to finish things, so we are going to do so.  I'm amazed at how K can narrate, understand and form her own sentences now.  The program really works and I love that it uses classics and not some little passage from a book that isn't good quality.

Spelling is our big subject lately as K is starting to have trouble spelling words out of SWO B.  We are keeping a "trouble words" list and re-testing once a week on those words and then she is playing games with those words on Spelling City.  With AAS 2, it is going really well and she gets all the words correct usually and even gets them correct in review tests!  Looks like we will finish SWO B by the end of August and AAS 2 is behind schedule, so we will probably carry it over into the start of 2nd grade and finish it sometime in October.

K does a lot of crafts and artsy stuff in her free time by her own choosing, but as far as the art curriculum we are moving at a snail's pace.  It just isn't on my priority list but I hope to incorporate it more into our week this coming year.

With piano, K is doing well and she is going to be beginning violin lessons along with her piano lessons.  We will see how that goes and which instrument she wants to play more and will concentrate on.

If everything goes as planned, we will finish this school year on August 26th.  I don't plan on starting 2nd grade until September 19th, so K will have a lot of time off between there.  She gets 2 weeks off this month (July), so that is plenty of time to enjoy summer!