Sunday, September 23, 2012

Planning for 2013

WOW!  The past year has zipped by at a VERY rapid rate of knots! It's time to plan and purchase for 2013 already!

Flossy will be year 4, Bugsy year 2, Chicky Pre-Primary (US K equivalent) and Possum will be 2yo.

So here is what we have planned for a super fun year -

Flossy age 8, year 4 -
Galore Park Junior Maths book 2* & 3
Kumon Word Problems Grade 3* & 4
Khan Academy
Logic workbooks & games
IEW SWI-A*
Galore Park Junior English Book 2*
Classical House of Learning History & Literature (SOTW4)

Bugsy age 7, year 2 -
Rightstart C
Kumon Word Problems 2
Khan Academy
Logic workbooks & games
All About Speling 2* & 3
Explode the Code 6, 7 & 8
I See Sam Readers*
Writing With Ease 2

Chicky age 5, Pre-primary -
Rightstart B
Kumon Word Problems 1
Logic games
All About Spelling 1 & 2
Explode the Code 1, 2 & 3
Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book
I See Sam Readers*

Possum age 2 -
Speech Therapy
Occupational Therapy

Together -
Auslan using various resources from Bilby Publishing

Engineering is Elementary which i will flesh out to include cultural study for Bugsy & Chicky as their 'program' for the year.  We will spend 2 weeks on each book, which will include the engineering project and geography/culture for the country.

Lego Mindstorms, Snap Circuits 750 & other STEM programming activities as listed here.

Come & Look with me (art appreciation)

Various art and crafts as instigated by the children

Nature study

Music appreciation (classical)

Swimming, surf club & Scouts

NOTES -
Bugsy & Chicky will not 'tag along' with Flossy for SOTW4 this year.  I think it is too heavy for them at their ages/maturity and Flossy will follow her own course of study mostly independently for the year.  Bugsy & Chicky will instead have a STEM focus for the year and Flossy will join in as her science.

Yes, we are changing up our maths.  Flossy completed the entire Miquon line up as per our maths scope and sequence posted here.  You learn a lot about a program when you complete it from start to finish that you wouldn't know without using it in it's entirety.  Whilst i love Miquon and what it has to offer i have learned that it isn't going to be the right fit for Chicky and i think Bugsy is far enough into it that it's time for a change for him.  He's set off on the right foot as Miquon is such a solid foundation that it's the right time to change him.

We are also dropping Latin.  This has been a really tough decision for me.  I can see and completely understand the benefits that Latin has however it is taking up a significant portion of my time working with Flossy and understanding it all.  Possum needs to learn more Auslan as he doesn't talk.  So we will be switching Latin for Auslan for the time being.  I already have Latin Prep from Galore Park which is what we were going to do after Getting Started with Latin.  I will now shelve this and hand it on to Flossy to complete independently maybe in year 5 or 6.

Items marked * are programs that we have been working on this year which need completion.  As we school year round we start new books as and when required, not necessarily at the beginning of the year which means that some books hang over to the following year :)

Tentative plan for 2014 is an Australian History year for everyone before beginning the 4 year history cycle again in 2015.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! You are organised!!! I have a basic idea in my head of what I plan to do next year, but that's as far as I have got... I'm thinking of incorporating Auslan into our learning next year. Thanks for the link :)

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  2. Hi Again! What Auslan resources did you get from Bilby? We are new to signing, so would probably need a DVD and flashcards. Any recommendations? Thanks :)

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    1. Hi April :)

      We have a few DVD's. A Time to Sign, Sign Baby and Hands Up and Sing. You'd be aiming a little higher than me. I'm aiming at Possum who is 2 now although we are all learning along with him.

      A Time to Sign is probably a good place to start. It covers lots of nouns and verbs and there is a booklet to go along with it. It has a practice part incorporated into the DVD and is broken down into segments so you could master a segment before moving on if that's what you wanted.

      Have you looked at your library at all? I have a friend in VIC who gets alot of AUSLAN resources through her library. We've not bothered to address the grammar of it as our focus is keyword signing for Possum as a primary method of communication.

      Hope that helps
      Amber

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    2. Thanks Amber for the info!

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    3. Sorry...it's me again! How did you go about purchasing Engineering is Elementary? I like your idea of incorporating the cultural aspect. Did you get the teacher manuals or just the story books? Thanks :) :)

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    4. Haha, no worries :) I've not got them yet and i'm still working on the best way of getting them here. I enquired direct and their cheapest shipping price is USD$186, THAT is a lot of postage. I'm looking at Shipito at the moment, i have used them before but just making sure there is nothing else i want to consolidate before shipping. I will only be purchasing the storybooks. Whilst the teacher units would be nice, at $50 a pop it would be a very costly program! The storybooks have a basic project/activity in the back and i'm sure i can bump it up a notch if i need to using their online resources and google :)

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    5. Let me know how you manage to get them to Australia. I'm very keen to buy the storybook set also. The information on the website is excellent...I think the teacher books would not worth it :)

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