Thursday, June 3, 2010

Our Homeschool : Year 3

About a month ago, I spent two days at CHAP (Pennsylvania's Homeschool Convention). It was a fun time away with a few friends. And then there was all the book shopping, which may be one of my *favorite* things to do. I'm such a nerd.

Next year, Hannah will be in 3rd, Will in 1st, and Peter in Pre-K.
And almost daily, I beg them to stop growing.


I did a lot of research before I arrived, so I had my choices narrowed down. There is just so much out there I would love to do with the kids.

Here's the plan so far...


Hannah : 3rd grade

Math:
  • Saxon 5/4. This works well for us, despite the dryness. She is excited about doing it more independently next year.
Language Arts:
Latin:
  • Hannah will continue to meet with her Latin class weekly (taught by a homeschooling mom/former high school Latin teacher).

Will : 1st grade

Math
  • Saxon 2. I already had it, so I went with it. If it's not a good fit, we'll go back to Horizons.
Language Arts:

Character through Literature: Beautiful Feet Books (we have all the books, I only bought the study guide)


Everyone

History/Geography:

Science/Nature Study:
Bible:
  • Bible Study: I'm not settled on what we will be studying.
  • Scripture Memory
  • Catechism
Music:
  • Composer studies starting with these books on Brahms / Schubert and then continuing on in this series.
  • Hymn studies
  • Piano lessons
  • Choir at church
  • Kennedy Center field trips
Art:
  • I will put together a schedule of artist studies and projects before the year begins. And hopefully I will stick to it.
  • Homeschool co-op art class.
Still thinking about... how to incorporate Shakespeare. And maybe Spanish....


Peter : Pre-K


This was a hard decision, but Peter will be going to a morning preschool program next year. It is a wonderful school with two fantastic Pre-K teachers. A couple of his buddies will be in his class. He is thrilled!

16 comments:

  1. I'm just a year ahead of you for all my kids - 4th, 2nd, K.

    Sounds like you have a great year planned! I love going to the conferences too. I'm headed to one in just a couple of weeks. I'm still trying to narrow down a few subjects. We used the Botany this year, and really liked it!

    Hope you have a great summer! :)

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  2. wow! would you mind sharing how you fit it all in? sonlight, beautiful feet, and apologia! i'd love to be able to do all that. also, i'd love to see your artists schedule when you've compiled it. thanks for this post!

    ellee

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  3. I also like Explode the Code for phonics and blog on it at http://www.pragmaticmom.com/?page_id=1932

    I also have a ton of children's book reviews if you ever need book ideas for your kids.

    Pragmatic Mom
    Type A Parenting for the Modern World

    http://PragmaticMom.com
    I blog on education, parenting and children's literature

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  4. Always enjoy your homeschool posts. Always. You encourage me more than you know! And I still long to live next door to you:)!!

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  5. Thanks for letting us peek into your upcoming year. We have used or will use several of the same selections this year. I have a 3rd & 5th grader. But I have referred back to your post several times for ideas. Thank you for all of your help.

    I'd love to see what you come up with for Art- we struggle with that one. I have planned our 1st week back to be a "field trip/ camp week" at home. With our days spent reading, art projects, art studies & music studies. I'm hoping by starting out this way it will be fun & easier to keep up with it.

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  6. Stopping by from the Not Back to School Blog Hop - your year sounds great! We have used quite a few of the curriculum selections you have chosen for this year!

    Thanks for sharing and have a great school year!!

    Alicia

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  7. Awesome Line-Up!! I love Beautiful Feet Books as well. I requested their catalog and go by that...and go to our local library for materials. Thanks for sharing!! ;)

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  8. What a great lineup! Isn't it SO fun to go to a convention and browse all those vendors?! I attended my first one this year and loved it~it was very helpful.

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  9. Hi! I'm here from the Not Back-to-School blog hop. :)

    You have lots of great things planned out for the year - I'm jealous of trips to the Kennedy Center!

    I haven't yet had the chance to go to a large-scale convention and indulge my own nerdy lust for book-shopping! Lucky you.

    Have a great year!

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  10. I love homeschool conferences, too. I don't usually buy a whole lot, but I love looking and attending the workshops.

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  11. wow - so much music, that's very inspiring! We have a piano and I'm always thinking about lessons but never follow thru looking for them!

    best of luck to a great year!
    Stef

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  12. Hi Jen! I had no idea that you homeschooled, I think that is awesome!! :-) Brad and I have been praying about what to do for schooling for our kids & my friend just today sent me a link to a homeschooling page (and I saw YOUR picture). I would love to catch up with you sometime. I was so blessed by your friendship at CBS when I first had Jillian!

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  13. We love Apologia too. Also we do a lot of Bible memory like you do - I was just posting about that too. It's so important to help our children "hide God's Word in their hearts" whatever their age (we have 7 kids age 1-12)

    What a wonderful privilege to train our children for Him! Thanks!

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  14. I love these blog hops! I am here from the Heart of the Matter Blog Hop! This is our first year homeschooling and I am learning so much! I look forward to following your blog!

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  15. We are also doing Sonlight this year (Core 1/2 Condensed World History) and have completed part of the Beautiful Feet's "Geography Through Literature" guide. The kids have loved working on it together, but I have set it aside until we get to Core 5 where Hollings "Seabird" is scheduled to be studied so that we don't have to do all the map work twice. We can just whip out our BF guide and get more in depth with the remaining geography material at that time. :)

    Blessings,
    Hannah (#196 on the Blog Hop)

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  16. Looks like a great year. I also bought IEW at my first conference---more years ago than I care to admit! Enjoy your kiddos and thanks for sharing your plans.

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