With activities winding down - and my longing for an end to the running and a return to a more peaceful routine - it's definitely time to start thinking about back-to-school.
We wrapped up second grade back in May with Rachael's first standardized test. She took Seton's CAT-E test, which includes only English and math - the only two subjects that must be reported to the county school board. (There are longer, more thorough standardized tests to be had, but I'm not a fan of providing them with any more information than they require.) Since she is registered with the school board according to where she "should" be, age-wise, instead of where she actually is, capability-wise, she took the first-grade test - so it was no surprise to anyone when it returned from being graded with a perfect score.
I mailed her test scores off to the school board along with our Notice of Intent to Homeschool (NOI), and we're all "legal" for the 2011-12 school year. She is technically of age to be in second grade this year, but we'll be doing third grade work, with some higher level subjects thrown into the mix.
It took me a while to piece together this year's curriculum, since she requested one change (math) and I knew that we need to make others (Bible, science.) I finally made all of the decisions and ordered our books this morning. They're scheduled to arrive on August 4, and our first day of school will be August 8.
Here's what Rachael will be using this year:
- Bible Study Guide for All Ages. This is described online as a comprehensive Bible curriculum for ages three to adult, which admittedly made me a little wary at first. The more I read, though, the more I fell in love with it. One teacher's guide includes everything you need to teach children of different ages, but student pages can be ordered for beginner, intermediate or advanced - so both of my girls will be able to use the same Bible curriculum this year. It doesn't just teach Bible stories (which Rachael has heard so many times that she can recite verbatim, and is a little tired of re-learning each year.) Instead, this guide is made up of 416 lessons, which will last for four years if you study two lessons per week. It's broken up so that some Old Testament and some New Testament is studied each year - and it's much more in-depth than just Bible stories. For instance, the first questions for Rachael's level is: "Name the four parts of the New Testament." Huh? Four parts? I had no idea about that one myself! There are the Gospels, of course, but then...? The answer, in case you're wondering, is Gospels (Matthew-Mark-Luke-John), History (Acts), Letters (everything else until), Prophecy (Revelation.) I'm honestly not sure how Milly will do with it, although she's always an attentive student in Sunday School. Her questions are more simple, of course, and her student pages filled with more pictures to color - so maybe she'll enjoy it too.
- Learning Language Arts Through Literature. We've used this curriculum for the past two years and absolutely love it. It's an all-inclusive English curriculum - reading, spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, grammar, etc. We'll be working through the orange (4th grade) book this year. Because LLATL focuses less heavily on spelling than on the other topics, we'll supplement with...
- Spelling Workout. We used this for the first time last year and, although the sports theme wouldn't be Rachael's first choice, we both really liked the layout of this workbook. She'll start on book E (5th grade) this fall - a few spelling words on the ChristianBook.com sample page include questions, mechanic, inquire, and character. Rachael is, thankfully, very much like me in that reading and spelling come quite naturally to her - it frightens and amazes me that I'm ordering a 5th grade book for my 7-year-old, but she's up to the challenge!
- Wordly Wise 3000. I actually ordered this completely on a whim when I was shopping for our other curriculum. According to the product description, "three thousand carefully selected words taken from literature, textbooks, and SAT-prep books are the basis of this exciting vocabulary series that teaches new words through reading, writing, and a variety of exercises. Each lesson's alphabetized word list gives pronunciations, parts of speech, and concise definitions, and uses each word in a sentence." So yeah, vocabulary. Rachael loves trying new books, so this should be an interesting addition for her. Not having seen it in person, I ordered the 3rd grade book.
- Miquon. Although I liked Math-U-See, Rachael never enjoyed it and practically begged for a different math curriculum this year. I had decided on Math Mammoth, after we printed and enjoyed several free worksheet samples back in May. After a lengthy discussion with her pediatrician (and a fellow homeschooling mom) at a museum visit on Memorial Day, though, I've decided to give Miquon a try instead. Miquon has six workbooks to work through, and I've ordered the first three, even though that will mean backing up for a bit of review at first. I was impressed with Miquon's more holistic approach to teaching math - all four arithmetic operations plus fractions in the first book, which (according to their website) "gives children the basic tools early so that they can be independent problem solvers from the first day of school. Miquon encourages children to explore a variety of learning styles without freezing them with rigid rules or algorithms. Many children develop unconventional ways of arriving at correct results through their own investigations." Well, amen to that! I'm looking forward to the new curriculum, and will supplement with more worksheets from Math Mammoth if need be.
- Switched-On Schoolhouse Science, Grade 3. I'll admit, as far as teaching goes, science has been my very worst subject. I don't know if it's because I was never a big fan of science or because our old curriculum (Apologia) just wasn't a good fit for it. (I tried to like Apologia. I did. I love it in theory, but in practice...not so much.) And it's because I recognize my own lack of motivation in this particular subject that I looked more closely at Switched-On Schoolhouse. This is a primarily computer-based course, although a) it will be supervised by me (not required of the program, just my own intent) and b) there are plenty of non-computer based assignments and experiments as well. The 3rd grade software covers plants, animals, energy, body systems, matter, time, sounds, seasons, rocks, and more, complete with quizzes and tests. I love that I can do so much customizing to the program before she starts using it too. This curriculum is definitely our biggest risk this year - at $81, it's much pricier than anything else I've purchased. I'm fairly certain that it will prove worthwhile, though, since SOS will teach her better than I likely would - and I know she'll love it since it means using the computer to do her schoolwork.
- Story of the World, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages. Although I debated a new history curriculum for this year too, Rachael was admant about sticking with SOTW. She adored the first book, even though we didn't do many of the activities and mostly read together. (It still surprises me that she doesn't mind sitting and listening to me read, even two or three chapters at a time. Even though she's capable of reading these books on her own, by the way, I read to her so we can discuss as we go.) I think I'll enjoy it more this year since we'll be learning about the middle ages - the fall of Rome, the Byzantine Empire, great kings of France, Vikings, the Crusades, Martin Luther, the rise of the Renaissance. The history nerd in me is loving this already! I did order the accompanying activity book, as well as the quiz/test book - something we've never used before, but third grade seems like a good time to start.
- Around the World in 180 Days. Another new addition to our curriculum that I'm looking forward to! ATW is a geography curriculum that teaches on a continent-by-continent basis - a little about the continent's history, plus major countries, geography, and culture. More than being a textbook, it's described as "a series of questions that the student must research in order to answer." I can already see the dusting-off of the encyclopedias on her bookshelf, learning how to more effectively search online, and the checking out of lots and lots of country-specific library books!
- Draw Write Now. Another book purchased on a whim, Draw Write Now is an art/handwriting collaborative effort. The first book is farm themed, and teaches children step-by-step how to draw chickens, pigs, etc. There are handwriting assignments to go with each story - and I don't think Rachael will mind the extra practice, as long as she gets to draw too. Just a fun little add-on for this year.
- Latin's Not So Tough. I struggled with this decision before ultimately deciding to go for it. We've toyed around with languages in the past - a few words in sign language, some Spanish basics, salutations in French - but this will be our first actual foreign language curriculum. Why Latin? Because Latin is the basis for five romance languages, so learning Latin first will make it easier for her to learn other languages later on. At least half of our English words come from Latin as well - studies suggest that knowing Latin improves verbal SAT scores later on since the student is better able to make educated guesses. Also, Latin grammar has very few exceptions in phonics or syntax, so it's supposedly easier to learn than English - yet makes English easier to understand once you know Latin. Learning Latin also helps develop the mental ability to sort and analyze logically - and that's pretty important. So, I went with the most user-friendly Latin program I could find - to include workbook, quizzes/tests, answer keys, flash cards and pronunciation CD. This may be our biggest challenge this year, but I think it'll be a lot of fun too.
The only "traditional" subject that I've left out is health - and that's because I can't find a single health curriculum that I really love the look of. So I've decided to teach health on my own, with the help of online resources and library books. I'm fairly confident that I can handle it. :)
In addition to her "book work," Rachael will continue piano lessons through the school year, Girl Scouts will start again in early September, and so will dance class. Yes, I finally put her back in dance! We're both very excited about this - she loved gymnastics, but her build is much better for dance. And since she twirls everywhere she goes anyway, it seems like a natural choice for her. She's enrolled in a different (more reputable) dance studio than the one she attended at ages 3 and 4, where she'll learn ballet and tap (no jazz, no tumbling, no baton - I think her old studio just tried to incorporate too much!) I've so missed leotards and tutus and can't wait to shop for her new dance gear!
Side note: dance is being funded solely by Scentsy this year. Need any? :)
What about Milly, you ask? Well, I'm not completely sure. We're going to attempt to do preschool this year, since (according to her and Rachael) she was in pre-preschool last year. However, I fully recognize the differences in my girls, and know that Milly may not be ready for preschool at 3 1/2 the way that Rachael was. She is less mature and less cooperative, but very smart - she can do preschool "work" now; it's just a matter of whether she will. So we'll take it day by day - if she wants to "do school", fine. We'll do school. And if she doesn't - well, that's fine too.
As far as curriculum goes, we'll be using the Bible curriculum that I told you about earlier, as well as Happy Phonics (Rachael and I adored it, and Rachael was reading before she was four because of it.) I also ordered the very first book in the Explode the Code series for her - Get Ready for the Code - which teaches beginning letters, sounds, visual tracking, writing, etc. I'm sure she'll eat this up since she loves workbooks (I have to MAKE her stop, or she'll finish one off in a day.) She already knows the alphabet, so it won't be a huge challenge - just something schooly for her to do during school time. We'll continue to point out math in everyday things - counting, sorting, patterns, etc. And of course, we'll read like it's going of style, which we pretty much do anyway.
Milly is the absolute star of her swim class, so chances are excellent that I'll enroll her in the next class once this one finishes up. Girly is fearless in the water, and does everything the instructor tells her to do, without hesitation. I love seeing this, since she's uncooperative about 75% of the time at home. I'd love to put her in a dance class too - I think she'd enjoy it, and it'd be super stinking cute, but dance isn't cheap. (See above Scentsy link!)
I've gone over a calendar and counted out our required 180 days - we can be finished in mid-May even if we take a whole week of at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, one week for Spring Break, and a few days for each girl's birthday. Truthfully, we'll take extra days off too, just "I don't feel like doing school" days, so I can likely stretch it through the end of May.
So, there's our 2011-12 homeschool plan. I can't wait for "box day", to see and hold and look through all of our new books - that's definitely one of the highlights of the whole school year!
One other goal for this coming year: to keep up with this blog. That's been my goal for the past couple of years, actually, and one has only to scroll back through my previous posts to see how well that went. But I have newfound motivation in my hopefully-someday-homeschooling dear friend Danielle (not to mention my must-homeschool-because-she'd-be-so-awesome-at-it friend Melanie.) And of course, I'll want the documentation someday for myself - it's so easy to get caught up in the everyday routine that I just don't think to write about it. If I slack off again, girls, please give me a virtual kick.
Here's to a great 2011-12 school year...coming very soon!
