School Plans, part 3

Still working a little at a time to get everything planned out. I like to be flexible, but I really need to have a detailed plan in place this year. Flexible was not my friend last year.

Most of our work will be done together, but some things just need to be worked on one on one.
Levi will be working through Saxon Math 54 this year. I found a good deal here for the kit with the DIVE cd-rom. He's very excited about getting to do some math on the computer and I'm very excited about avoiding the 9 year old boy power struggle. He's also ready for Spelling Workout D. We didn't do C last year, but he's a natural speller and it just looked much to easy for him. Last year he chose his own spelling/vocabulary words everyweek and looked them up in the dictionary. It worked well for him and we'll probably do it again in the future, but this year I opted to simplify. And Spelling Workout teaches the actual spelling rules, which I think will be good for him to know. For handwriting he's working through the Classically Cursive books.


Along with academic subjects, we're going to work on practical skills this year, too. I mentioned before that I love Doorposts. Their Plants Grown Up book is going to be perfect for us this year (and for many years, I think!). I already have lots of projects marked for Levi to choose from and the extensive scripture references will be perfect for copywork.
Brenna is going to use the Polished Cornerstones book from Doorposts. Actually she and I have already worked on a few projects - I've had this book for awhile since finding it at a used booksale. For math she'll be using Saxon, too, Math 3. She really enjoys Math which leads me to think she may have been switched at birth. If it weren't for the millions of lists written in crayon that I find, I'd really be concerned. For spelling she's going to work through the Spelling Workout B and for handwriting (in addition to copywork) I really like Reason for Handwriting. She and I are also exited about the Homestead Blessings videos. So far we're planning projects from the sewing, gardening, and dairy delights dvds. She wants to start with making ice cream, but I might have to insist on trying out the mozzarella cheese!
For Jack, I keep reminding myself that he's only 5. I plan on encouraging him to stay with us while we're all studying together, and then working with him by himself just a little each day. I'll probably work through some of the Saxon Math K book with him and we'll start Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons this year. He has several Kumon Workbooks to work through, too. I also printed out the Blinky Bill Alphabet Coloring Book for him and that will take care of handwriting. But his favorite part is the animal study he helped me plan. We're going to study two animals every week using mostly information from National Geographic and Answers in Genesis. They each have kid-friendly animal websites. Jack loves animals - especially the scary ones...alligators, dinosaurs, lions, komodo dragons. I also got the the first volume of Jonathan Park cds for him to listen to when he's not up to "big kid" school. I'm sure we'll all listen to them during car rides or quiet rest time, but I knew Jack would especially enjoy them.
I even found a few new things for the little guys. Some lacing and building toys will fascinate Christian. Signing Time and Baby Einstein dvds usually hold their attention and teach something. Kumon also makes First Steps workbooks that we might get later in the year. For now Christian is very content to color on whatever.
Again, I need to remind myself that this is a whole year's worth of work! It seems like such a lot when I write it all down in one place. This will be very handy for that mid-year review, though, when I think oh yeah, I wanted to do so-and-so this year....
Hopefully I can still write out a post about history sometime soon.