Miss Green Starts High School. Ack!

I have been worrying about high school for years, but now that its here, I'm not worried. I had planned a more challenging year, a la Well Trained Mind, but she needs a different pace and that's fine.

Math: She has been asking for Teaching Textbooks Algebra for quite a while, and I finally found it for the right price on Homeschool Classifieds.  I'm so happy we did. She is loving it! This is working so well, I hate to say anything to jinx it.

Language Arts: I decided to give Rod and Staff another try for her and purchased Preparing for Usefulness. I was a mean mom when it came in the mail and teased her about how much she was going to love what was in the package. When she opened it, she literally cried. I felt horrible, but she's starting to come around a little. She has asked to start doing the tests, so I plan on starting them this week. She really learns more if she knows there's a test coming. I also need to get the next level of Vocabulary from Classical Roots, but I've dropped the ball. She also asked to get a spelling curriculum to review, but I don't know what to get yet. I had her do the Sequential Spelling placement test, and she only missed one in the uppermost level. I'd love suggestions!

History: She asked to use Mystery of History 1 instead of Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World. I've decided to roll with it, since she's planning to beef it up and write weekly papers. We'll see how that goes.

Science: I had planned on using Apologia's Biology, and when I found out our local homeschool group was having a science co-op using the same, it was a lock. Miss Green wasn't so sure about it, but she is loving it! Well, she loved it up to the Chemistry module. Hopefully it will go back to loving it now that we're done with that module. I bought her the audio as well, and it helps tremendously to get it done in the car.

Latin: She is doing First Form Latin with Mr. Blue and Miss Pink.

Logic: Together, we settled on Fallacy Detective combined with the Art of Argument. She really likes Fallacy Detective, but she doesn't think she's retaining what she learned. She liked the look of Art of Argument, so we'll try adding that in.

Rhetoric: This past year she discovered Public Speaking and fell in love. She won the county 4-H competition and went to state where she got the highest honors possible at her level. She wants to start a speech and debate club and really wants to develop her public speaking skills. She likes the look of Argument Builder, and we both think it will help develop her speech writing.

Art: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in our little co-op.

Electives: She has asked if she can independently study Soil & Water Conservation. I'm excited to see what she comes up with!

Mr. Blue and His 7th Grade Year

Mr. Blue is probably my most challenging child academically. He's incredibly bright, but also lacks concentration skills. I've discovered that I can't leave him to do his work independently. I used to think parents who said that had a lack of discipline in their homes. I'm learning differently. Isn't it great what homeschooling teaches us as parents? I'm hoping that if I can stay on top of him, he will gradually develop a slightly longer attention span. We'll see.

Math: We have done 2 things this year. I started with the Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra. I really like this curriculum. I like that its challenging, but the challenge is more in thinking about the math than actually doing a difficult problem. This is the kind of curriculum that would have been perfect for me as a kid and will probably be perfect for Mr. Yellow when he gets to that stage. However, it didn't quite cut it for Mr. Blue, so we switched to Teaching Textbooks Prealgebra. This is working perfectly for him. He especially loves getting graded on every lesson, go figure. He has quite the competitive streak and likes to find out how he did versus his sisters scores for the day.

Language Arts: He's doing Following the Plan with Miss Pink. It's going really, really well. Rod and Staff is quite challenging, so even though its 2 years behind where he is grade-wise, I don't feel too bad about it. The important thing to me is that he's learning new things. For spelling, I have him now doing Sequential Spelling on dvd. He really didn't learn anything the years he did Spelling Workout, and Sequential Spelling seems to be helping. I'm going to look at their apps next and see if they'll be a good match for him.

History: Story of the World Ancients as a spine, with added reading.

Science: This is my first time using Apologia's General Science. I have found that the audio CD is worth its weight in gold for Mr. Blue. Oddly enough, he's resisting doing the experiments. Since his retention seems fine, I'm not going to force the issue. I see they have a new notebook, which looks intriguing, but not for the $33 price tag. I have him taking the tests at our science co-op with another family doing the same curriculum. It helps him tremendously to have that accountability.

Latin: First Form Latin with Miss Pink and Miss Green

Art: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in our art co-op.

Miss Pink's 5th Grade

Miss Pink is starting to resist school a little more, but for the most part it's still easy to work with her. I can usually trust that she'll get assignments done, even if I don't stand over her shoulder the whole day. We've changed a few things for her this year, but overall we've just moved on to the next level of what she was doing.

Math:  She didn't finish all of Math Mammoth 4 last year, so I had her start this year with Teaching Textbooks 4 and just take the quizzes until she got less than 90%. She's now on Lesson 90 of 119 and will then start Teaching Textbooks 5. I found both on Homeschool Classifieds for great deals. It's my latest favorite site. She's also reading Life of Fred Apples and will go on to the other books in the series soon.

Language Arts: This year we've moved to Rod & Staff's Following the Plan. I do the lesson with her and Mr. Blue. We do a lot of even the written review orally, especially since she broke her finger. We don't have the workbooks or tests, but I'm thinking they'll be a helpful addition. She has continued on with Spelling Workout Level G. I have started having her and Miss Purple write the rules for the day in their new Spelling Notebooks.

History: As I mentioned in Miss Purple's post, we're doing Story of the World Ancient Times. I think I'm going to add the tests in this go round for Miss Pink though.

Science: She's going to the science co-op with Miss Purple and also doing Zoology 2 with her and Mr. Yellow.

Latin: The 3 oldest kids have started First Form Latin. I really like it so far. It's challenging for Miss Pink, but I think she'll do fine. That was another purchase from Homeschool Classifieds.

Art: Miss Pink is going to our little art co-op where they are studying Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.. Once again, this is a little challenging for her, but the teacher is very patient and kind. I think she'll make it through with wonderful results.

Miss Purple's 2nd Grade Plans

Miss Purple is still at the stage of loving school work, so she goes through quite a few workbooks.

Math: Math Mammoth is going great for her, so we're sticking with that this year. I'm also adding in the Life of Fred Elementary Series, starting with Apples. 

Language Arts: First Language Lessons 2, Writing With Ease 2, Spelling Workout D, and Sequential Spelling 1 when she feels like doing it with Mr. Blue.

History: We have completed one 4 year cycle and are now starting the 2nd. We are using Story of the World Book 1 again. I started out switching to Mystery of History for a change, but they all rebelled and missed Jim Weiss' voice.

Science: We are doing a couple of things this year. The 2 little girls are going to a science co-op once a week, which they're enjoying but isn't as in depth as I'd like. So, another co-op mom and I decided to add on Apologia's Zoology 2. We meet once a week before the other co-op and do the experiments and notebooking. We have finished Chapter 1 and are moving on. I think it will be a fun year, culminating with a trip to an aquarium.

Latin: I've been putting off starting this again. She has finished Song School Latin, but I wasn't able to do it with her. She didn't retain as much as I would like. I can't decide if we should redo that or do Prima Latina. I love Memoria Press products, but I'm not sure if I have the time to devote to it at the moment.

Art: We are doing Artistic Pursuits this year in a co-op with another family. The older kids do a different curriculum, but the littles like Artistic Pursuits so far.

So, that's her 2nd grade plans. I'll get back to you and let you know what actually got done!

Not Filing This Year

I really liked having my whole year planned out, but I discovered that different kids worked at different levels than I expected. So, I was constantly having one work on a week or two ahead, another 2 weeks behind, and our together stuff could be anywhere. There were some things that consistently didn't get done, so I ended up starting a file for each book that I ripped apart to put them back together eventually (still haven't got that done.)

The other problem I had was the teacher's manuals. It was a pain to have to put things back into binders at the end of the week and I ended up having months to do at one time.
I think filing is awesome, and if I didn't have so many kids to homeschool I would continue to file our year at one time. This year though, I'm going electronic! My tablet will replace my instructor's binder. It should make my bag a lot lighter to carry around.

I love that Peace Hill Press offers almost all of their curricula electronically. I am purchasing the instructor's manuals to put on my tablet. We also buy the mp3s of Story of the World to put on our iPods and my iPhone. I can't put everything on there (Rod and Staff I don't think will ever go electronic,) but I will put everything I can find in that format on my tablet.

Our Math Mammoth is pdf based, so I have put that on there. I'm still printing Miss Purple's papers, but at least I can view what she's doing.  I haven't put the Sequential Spelling dvd on, but I think I could. I just wish Teaching Textbooks had an app of some sort.

Mr. Yellow Starts Kindergarten

Mr. Yellow is 5 now. I don't know where the time went, but here we are starting Kindergarten. I love that I don't have to follow a traditional time to start school with each child. He wasn't ready for Kindergarten at the start of the traditional school year, but he is now. We are following his lead and really letting him choose which days to do school and what to do when, totally different than I did with Miss Green her kindergarten year. I'm still paying dearly for my control issues those first years homeschooling. The only thing I "make" him do, is review is OPGTTR poems. He doesn't mind too much, but I like to review them at least 3 times per day. It distracts him from the important work of playing, which no 5 year old enjoys.

We base our Kindergarten work on the traditional 3 Rs, Reading, Writing, and Math, but I've found he's a science buff. He sits beside Miss Green while she does biology, and at the end of every page asks her what it was about. So, he is doing science with Miss Purple and Miss Pink and thoroughly enjoying it. He does get frustrated when he can't remember things that they do, but we are working on that. I try to make sure I ask questions of him first that he's able to answer.

Without further ado, here's his list for Kindergarten.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Explode the Code: Books A, B, and C
Math Made Easy
Miquon Math
Developmental Math
Writing Fundamentals
Apologia Zoology 2