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.

Gearing up for the London Olympics

Are you planning anything special for your homeschool over the London Olympic Games?  We are!  I've been scouting around and here are the resources that i have found.  I'm sure we won't use all of this but I thought i'd share :)

Homeschool share printables including suggested book list

RIC Australian Olympic Team in London Teacher resource book

Australia Post Letter Link

Australia Post Primary Curriculum Support relating to the  Olympics

Scholastic 'Go for Gold'

Books i have to use are -

G is for Gold

Hour of the Olympics

Ancient Greece and the Olympics

You Wouldn't Want to be a Greek Athlete

Usborne The Story of the Olympics

The Story of the Olympics

Pop-Up London

The 2012 London Olympics

London 2012 Games Activity Book

I don't have any specific plans yet except watching lots of the games and enjoying the literature to go along with it.  I'm sure we will pick and choose through lots of the other materials.

Things have been a little quite around here ...

I can assure you that is because we have been BUSY!  That and my internet connection dies in the evening :(  Thought a change in service provider would solve all my problems, sadly, they have returned! Looks like i will have to change my blogging habits.

So what have we been up to?

I've been busy in the kitchen mostly.  Some of the recipes have made their way onto the blog some more need refining and then i will post them too.  At the moment i am working on chickpea chocolate biscuits, or maybe that should be chocolate chickpea biscuits.  I'm using some 'different' ingredients as I am trying to fill up Possum (he eats like a bird) and also put some weight on him so we are going for high energy foods.  If he had a full tummy he might actually sleep, that would be bliss!

We ended up taking some time off school over Anzac Day and the following week as my niece came to stay then we had a bunch of appointments both in the city and at home.  We are back to regular programming this week although we are heading to the city Wednesday as i am talking the kids to the symphony cushion concert.  Should be loads of fun!

Anzac Day was great.  The kids enjoyed the march followed by wreath laying.  Then everyone went into the town hall for an hour long presentation.  There were various speakers speaking about their experience at war, playing the last post, hymns, prayers, songs, poems etc.  It was a really lovely way to honour those who fought for us and one of the best services i've been to.  Afterwards everyone had a sausage sizzle for breakfast before heading home.

It's never too early to buy books for next year, right?  Here are some new Anzac books that have arrived.  Many thanks to Jeanne @ A Peaceful Day for recommending these new titles.

Flossy has been busy reading.  No surprises there it's her favourite pastime.  She's recently found the author Michael Morpurgo and is really loving his books.

Bugsy has been busy riding his bike!

Chicky has been busy with her reading and maths.  She read her first I See Sam reader this week!  She's been working more in Miquon too.  Mini Math Monday should be back next week if i can tare Chicky away from Miquon long enough to fit in some living maths!

Possum has been playing and trying to take a few more steps.

Rusty has finished up his local work and has now gone to the city.  It will be hard with him working away but we have been there before.  Hopefully this time it won't be for very long.  We have plans afoot for our move back to the city later in the year.

Sadly our much loved Jasper was hit by a car last night.  He is in surgery as i type having his shattered pelvis and fractured hip repaired.  I'm busying myself waiting for the vet surgeon to call and let me know how it went.

Well, back to the books with the kiddies before packing to go to the city for the concert.

Math Progression

Here is my basic plan -

Living math throughout all years
Living math books throughout all years including Life of Fred Elementary series and Charlesbridge Math Adventures

Begin Miquon Orange when showing signs of readiness
Miquon Red
Miquon Blue
Miquon Green
Miquon Yellow
Miquon Purple

Whilst working with Miquon red to purple also complete simultaneously
Kumon Word Problems 1, 2 & 3
Kumon Geometry & Measurement 1, 2 & 3

Pit stopping where necessary with Math Mammoth possibly
Add & Subtract 2B
Clock
Multiplication 1
Fractions 1
Division 2
Australian Money
(these are areas that i feel may need consolidation after introduction in Miquon)

Whilst working with Miquon Purple begin Beast Academy grade 3
Beast Academy grade 4*
Beast Academy grade 5*

Whilst working with Beast Academy grade 4 & 5
Key to Fractions
Key to Decimals
Key to Percents
Life of Fred Fractions
Life of Fred Decimals & Percents

Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra
I am hopeful to begin Pre-Algebra at age 9, 10 or 11 depending on the child.

I'm not prepared to plan any further than that at this stage :)

*Beast Academy 4 & 5 have not yet been released.  If they are not available when we are ready to move on we will most likely pick up Singapore Maths to bridge the gap.

Planning

I've just come across two excellent posts on planning out your own history/literature program so that you can make it exactly what you want it to be.  I'm putting the links here so they don't get lost in my bookmarks because i want to be able to come back to them later in the year and use their words of wisdom.

We do our own thing now, but it's not nearly as a complete or cohesive as i would like moving forward.  Especially with Flossy heading for the logic stage and wanting to keep everyone in the same history period but cater to each child.

http://missmoe-thesearethedaysofmylife.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/planning-your-own-curriculum.html

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358108
The second post in this thread is a real winner in my opinion.

Hope this might help some of my homeschooling friends :)

Guy Fawkes - Fun in History

Some people love to plan.  I like to have a plan, but i never stick to it.  So, i've given up having a proper plan and instead work to our natural rhythm and remind myself that homeschooling is a marathon, not a sprint.  Today I knew we would cover history but i didn't have any idea exactly how it would unfold...

We started off reading from Story of the World 3.  Today's section covered King James VI of Scotland and Guy Fawkes.  The kids thought it was great but when it came time to see what was in the activity book they were very disappointed to find there was no colouring in page for this section :(  I set up Bugsy and Chicky to draw pictures of a bon fire and fireworks whilst I did a narration with Flossy.  It was an awesome CM style narration.

While she was busy copying her narration into her history notebook i quickly looked at the activity suggestions feeling like the kids had been short changed with no colouring in page.  I came across Parkin, so off we went to the kitchen and made some Parkin.  It was in the oven by lunchtime and ready for afternoon tea.  Everyone LOVED it!

Whilst having lunch i thought, hmm, wonder if anyone's got some filming of their bon fire or fireworks on You Tube.  I just put in Guy Fawkes and was offered a plethora of clips along with one from BBC.  We watched it and the kids LOVED it!  In all honestly you'd want to pre-watch this one, it's definitely PGR.

Who knew that was how our day would unfold when we got started this morning.  What a great day!  I love homeschooling :-)

Look What We Did Today!

We had a massive toy purge and reorganised our main learning space, yay!  Just in time for school to start back on monday.  So here's what it looked like when we emptied EVERYTHING out ...

and here's what it looks like now.

School supplies and curricula are on the Ikea shelving unit.  Dressups are all hung nicely on the clothes rack.  Thanks D for this great idea! 

Some bigger extras that i couldn't find a better home for. 

LOVE the Ikea Trofast frames housing cars, threading 'stuff', trio, little people, playdough 'stuff' and duplo.  Smaller unit to the right housing baby doll clothes, Possum's toys, train set and doll house 'stuff'.  Probably need to move the world map and multiplication charts a bit higher on the wall now. 

Finally the top of this sideboard looks neat.  Mostly taken up with books, the CD player, the mouse house and a ready supply of paper and pencils in the draw units.  The crate with wheels at the end is our new library crate.

Our workboxes all loaded ready to go, science in a nutshell kits to the left and ontop of the Trofast frames are out BUILD materials.

You might be wondering about the desks.  We usually school on the kitchen table which is just on the other side of the half wall where the workboses are.  Although i was talking with Rusty this evening about getting a large table that we can all sit around so that we don't have to pack away at mealtimes.  We will see what happens there.

We are all really looking forward to getting started with school this year.  Just a few more things to finish organising tomorrow and we will be back to our full schedule on Monday!  We have really enjoyed schooling 'lite' over the summer.

Warm wishes

Amber

BUILD

A while ago i briefly put this up on my blog to remind me to come back to it for 2012.  Well, i've been busy today and we have BUILD sorted at our place.  If your not sure what i am on about you can look here and here which is where i pinched the idea :-)

So, what will BUILD stand for at our house?

B - Buddy Games
U - Using Manipulatives
I - Independent Work (Logic)
L - Learning About Numbers
D - Developing Strategies

You can see, i have tweaked the titles to work with what i want to cover.  We will still have our normal math sessions each day, the BUILD boxes will be in addition.  We will only be covering 1 box each day cycling through.

BUILD set up ontop of our workboxes.

So, what's in the boxes? (OK they are not actually all boxes yet, but that's the plan)

B - Buddy Games
Dice in boxes, playing cards, UNO, craft sticks, Rightstart skip counting envelopes, playing cards, hand cards, craft stick cards, square cards.

U - Using Manipulatives
Flashmaster, cuisinaire rods, counting bears, Rightstart abacus, fraction cards and tiles, clock cards.

I - Independent Work - Logic
Critical thinking activities, Lollipop Logic, Logic Safari, Analogies for Beginners, 10 minute brain workout, Primary Logic, Logic Countdown.

L - Learning About Numbers
Life of Fred, The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat.

D - Developing Strategies
Sort n Shapes, Castle Logix, Pirates hide & seak,  Lokukus, IQ puzzler, IQ cabin.

Of course putting everything in boxes and getting organised creates a wish list :-)  On my wish list is -
Geared clock
Wooden fraction tiles
Australian money
Times Tales DVD & flip book
Geoboards & lackies
More 'Smart Games'
More 'living' math books

Hopefully you can use these ideas to change things up in your homeschool.

Amber xxx

Home Grown Geography

Our focus for geography for this coming year and into the future (until we work through all the goodies i just purchased) is physical and political.  We will not be addressing cultures formally, apart from a tid bit from Material World, but i do have some other books on hand for the children to explore on their own if they choose.  We have the World Book series People & Places and they are a bit heavy when our aim is a world geography overview, not a country by country in depth study.

Here are the wonderful books we will be using.

DK Complete Flags of the World
Usborne Flags of the World Sticker Book (1 each)
Geography from A - Z
Maps & Globes
DK Geography of the World
A Child's Introduction to the World
Material World
Around the World in 80 Tales

We will begin the year learning a bit about maps.  We will read through Maps & Globes and also look at the first half of A Child's Introduction to the World.  Once we have completed the foundation material we will move on.

From there I plan to use Around the World in 80 Tales as our spine.  We will read a story at the beginning of each Geography session.  It's a beautiful book with stories from all over the globe.  They are segregated by continent.  Here you can see the cover and a sample story.

Once we have read the story we will locate the country on our world map which hangs on the wall.  Then we will colour a map of the country which i will find here.  We will take time to look at the countries topography and see if there is anything special or interesting we can look up in Geography A-Z.  Then we will again locate the country in DK Geography of the World and read what they have to offer.  We will pay particular attention to where the country is located, which countries it boarders and features it shares with it's neighbours such as rivers and mountain ranges.

Next we will look in DK Complete Flags of the World to find out about the countries flag and what it means.  Here is what it looks like.

This book offers excellent information on the meaning behind each part of the flag and other historical and/or political information about how the flag came to be.  Where relevant there are also state, territory, provence etc flags illustrated.  Then we will find the flag in our Usborne Flags of the World Sticker Books and stick it in the right place.  To conclude our session we will have a look at Material World and chat about what we have found out.  We will be narrating and note taking along the way.

How will school work for us in 2012?

Loosely my plan is to do content subjects after circle time, first up in the morning so we all have a bit of fun and get the wiggles out.  I know the morning is the most productive part of the day both for the kids and myself but i find i really need the patience to get through the content subjects and by the time afternoon hits my patience is waning for anything group related.

Monday - Science
Tuesday - Literature
Wednesday - Fine Arts
Thursday - History
Friday - Geography

I have early risers and most morning we are ready to get started around 8am so i would think we will be finished with content subjects around morning tea, approx 10.30am.  Then we will move into Maths and Language Arts.  Hopefully we will get in a hour or so before lunch so that we only have another hour at the most after lunch.

At this point I still see it as very reasonable that we will be finished by lunch or 1pm on most days thus allowing plenty of play time :)  I think in 2012 i will be a little more precious with my time, not booking swimming lessons or other regular activities in the morning time slot.  School just doesn't work well when you have been out all morning and try to get into it after lunch.

I realise that we will only hit those content subjects once per week, but we will go deep during that time.  We also school pretty much year round so hit somewhere around 45 - 47 school weeks.  Taking both of those into consideration i am not at all concerned about not spending enough 'time' on the content areas.

Science 2012

I am SO EXCITED about science for 2012!  We just received our Science in a Nutshell Kits from Delta Education and they look unreal :D

Here you can see the 5 kits i purchased - Vision & Hearing, Body Basics, Weather Wise, Destination Moon, Energy & Motion.  There are MANY more kits available however i chose things i thought would interest my children.  I was also conscious of import restrictions on anything organic and considered a bio-security risk.  I didn't want the kits ripped apart at customs!

When planning for science for 2012 i was inspired by this post.  So i decided we would take a similar approach.  I looked through TWTM logic stage recommendations for science and decided to go with their book recommendations.

Here they are sitting nicely on my shelf waiting for next year.  We have the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science, Usborne Science Encyclopedia, DK Science (a visual guide) and The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.  I'm really pleased with all of these books and feel they will be excellent reference books for us not only for next year but well into the future.

Back to the kits :)  The kits are presented in a small plastic tub with a handle.  Inside each kit is an Activity Guide and 3! Activity Journals.  The guides provide step by step instructions on how to complete the 'experiments' and the journal provides a place to record details.  The kits also have EVERYTHING you need to complete each of the activities.

My plan is to use the books to thoroughly explore the concept before we conduct the 'experiment'.  We will do lots of reading and narration.  Hopefully i will be able to share more of how it plays out for us next year.

BUILD

Just found this post and wanted to put it here so i can come back to it. Food for thought.

Homeschool Plans for 2012

Flossy Aussie Year 3 -

All About Spelling 5, 6 & 7
First Language Lessons 4
Reading & narrating/notebooking from history & literature selections
Institute for Excellent in Writing Student Writing Intensive A
Unjournaling
Writing With Ease 3
The Poetry Pad
**Writing programs are not used in their entirety. They are used to complement each other and provide diversity.**
New American Cursive
Miquon yellow & purple - will move to Singapore from SGBox once completed
Math Mammoth - used as a supplement to help cement Miquon understanding where needed, topic books only
Kumon Word Problems grade 3 - used a grade below instructional level to ensure thorough understanding of the arithmetic needed so the focus is on decoding the problem
Getting Started with Latin - continue

Bugsy Aussie Year 1 -

All About Spelling 1 & 2
Explode the Code 4, 5, 6 - will use 1/2 books as necessary
I See Sam readers - needs more confidence then moving onto 'real' books
Writing With Ease 1
Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me & My Printing Book - needs more confidence
Miquon red & blue
Kumon Word Problems Grade 1 - again used a grade below instructional level

Chicky Aussie Kindy -

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Explode the Code Primers
Reading Eggs
Bob Books
Nora Gaydos readers
Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School & Letters and Numbers for Me
Activities for the AL Abacus unit 1
Miquon Orange

For everyone -

Literature selections -
Adventures of Don Quixote
Great Expectations Stepping Stones
Gulliver's Travels classic starts
Les Miserables stepping stones
Moby Dick Classic starts
Robinson Crusoe classic starts
Three Musketeers stepping stones
The Princess and the Goblin
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Tom Sawyer
A Pilgrims Progress
Favorite Jane Austen Novels
Perrault's Fairy Tales
Anne of Green Gables
Around the World in Eighty Days
The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin
Children's Stories from Dickens

Story of the World 3 with Activity Guide
Go along books -
American Revolution MTH
Amos Fortune, Free Man
Eyewitness Ancient China
Boston Tea Party
Carry on Mr Bowditch
Eyewitness Castle
Civil War on Sunday MTH
The Door in the Wall
Explorers News
Ginger Pye
Meet a thomas Jefferson
Night of the Ninjas MTH
Eyewitness North American Indian
Peter the Great
Pirated MTH
Pirates Past Noon MTH
Revolutionary War on Wednesday MTH
Sign of the Beaver
Squanto's Journey
Thanksgiving on Thursday MTH
Tigers at Twilight MTH
Who was Ben Franklin?
Witch of Blackbird Pond
You wouldn't want to be Mary, Queen of Scots
You wouldn't want to be Sick in the 16th Century
Norwegian Folk Tales
The Boy Who Held back the Sea
The Village that Vanished
The Cat who went to Heaven
Folk Tales from India
Russian Gypsy Tales
The Best Book of Pirates
The Gold Coin
Famous People of Mexico

Geography - home grown studies
Geography of the World
A Childs Introduction to the World
Around the World in 80 Tales
Material World
Maps & globes
Geography A to Z
Complete Flags of the World
Flags of the World sticker book

Science in a Nutshell kits fleshed out with science encyclopedias to form unit studies
The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
The Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia
The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science
DK Science
Vision & Hearing kit
Body basics kit
Weather wise kit
Destination Moon kit
Energy and Motion kit
Snap circuits

Nature Study
Keeping a Nature Journal
The Nature Connection
Local field guides

Harmony Fine Arts - art appreciation, artist study, art creation, music appreciation, composer study all relating to our history time period

Institute for Excellence in Writing Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization

Swimming Lessons

Logic games and workbooks

Mid Year Review

So it's July and it's time to have a mid year review just to check how things are going and see if we are on track.

Flossy -
She has completed Math Mammoth Addition & Subtraction 2B and has really cemented those concepts. She is about half way through Miquon Blue. I had planned on her being further along in Miquon but we needed to pit stop so the delay is to be expected. In saying that she has a solid understanding of multiplication covered in Miquon and is probably working on a late 2nd early 3rd grade level. We have shelved Kumon word Problems for a little while as it was presenting some concepts that we had not yet covered. We will be getting back into it in the second half of the year.

She has been motoring along in AAS3 and is almost done. She very rarely makes a mistake and really enjoys it. I'm hopeful that we will finished AAS4 and be part way through AAS5 before the end of the year. That would see only AAS6 & AAS7 for next year.

WWE2 has been going well. She narrates well and rarely makes a mistake with the copy work. I am starting to have her write the first sentence of her narrations. I'm thinking of changing things up a bit with writing and might take a look at Galore Parks Junior English books. I've also got a book about writing poetry on the shelf and we might have a go at that. We won't drop WWE2 just mix things up a bit. It's good keep it fresh.

REAL Life Science is proving a hit. We are right on track with that. I honestly feel that this is below her level. She isn't learning too much new material, but it is getting done and it is fun.

With SOTW2 we are a little behind. I'd like to see us do a few more projects in the second half of the year and be a little more consistent with narrations. I'm thinking of posting them here so she can see them published, she'd think that would be neat. She has been reading plenty of the go along books and enjoying them. She is also loving our literature selections.

We have not been consistent with MCT or GSWL. We need to change that moving forward. With MCT I'm going to have to think about how to be more proactive with it. It is enjoyable but I'm not sure if it's sinking in properly. I'm sure consistency will help. With GSWL we need to make a vocab chart so that we can remember all the nouns we are learning.

She has been swimming well and passed level 3.

Bugsy -
He is flying through ETC, he completed book 1 and is now half way through book 2. That's ahead of where I had planned him to be.

He is right on track with Horizon K math book 1. At this point I think we will switch back to Miquon at the end of this book and see how he handles it. If we need another pit stop book 2 is on the shelf.

Reading wise I had hoped we would have finally completed 100EZ but we still have a few lessons outstanding. He has been reading plenty though and that is coming along well. He seems to struggle with silent e words.

We have not been putting much time into AAS1 but will focus more on it in the second half of the year. I would like to see him complete level 1 by the end of the year.

He has been swimming well and making great progress with his kicking.

Fav HS Programs

I have found a useful bunch of programs that I am using as HS tools and thought I would share :)

Anki - FREE memory system software, we are just getting started with this

Planbook - lesson planning software, LOVE this

Delicious Library 2 - library catalogue system, can't believe I didn't know about this one sooner

Educational Videos Online FREE

Don't we HSers love that word, FREE :) Over at TWTM people are often talking about the Magic School Bus Videos and Bill Nye The Science Guy. Well, I do remember the Magic School Bus from when I was in school, but Bill Nye?? Anyway thanks to the lovely people over there I now have links for a number of educational videos online which are absolutely FREE. My kiddos enjoyed their first episode of Magic School Bus this morning, they are begging for more! We will try out Bill Nye next. Here are the links -

Magic School Bus Videos

Bill Nye: The Science Guy

Newton's Apple

NeoK12

More new materials arrive

This week we received -

Story of the World 2 : The Middle Ages

Story of the World 2 Activity Guide

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding

So now that I have these in my hot little hands I will be pre-reading and planning for next year. A somewhat mammoth task as I plan out our go-alongs and materials at the same time. Flossy has also requested a more exciting notebook so I will be searching for some pre-made goodies or going the whole hog and making up some pages myself.