Homeschooling for next year

I've just finished collecting all of our homeschooling materials for next year. I can barely wait to start! We will be primarily using Ambleside Online (Year 1) but replacing their history sequence with Linda's history suggestions for the main texts: This Country of Ours and Hillyer's classic A Child's History of the World.

We are working off of a 36-week schedule but I'm hoping to stretch it to a year-round schedule.

Here's what we plan to do:

Art (weekly)
Correspond history reading with a timeline or century book and map.
Picture study: 1-2 artists per term from the Ambleside artist rotation list. (Suggestions: Rubens, Cassatt, Caravaggio, Larsson, Grandma Moses, Renoir.)

Bible (daily)
Memory work (at breakfast)
Psalm (at breakfast)
The Child's Scripture Catechism
Reading (with daddy)
Wisdom and the Millers (Mildred Martin)

Foreign Language (daily)
Spanish: Learn 2-6 new words daily. Use picture lessons, audio cassettes, songs with actions, and occasional games. (We have a number of Spanish vocab/picture books, and I'm hoping to utilize the library for the audio/songs unless anyone has any wonderful suggestions?)

Geography (weekly)
Paddle to the Sea, Tree in the Trail, and Seabird (Holling C. Holling)

Handicrafts (weekly)
Help with housework and gardening. Knitting, sewing.

History (daily)
Child’s History of the World (V.M. Hillyer), World History
This Country of Ours (H.E. Marshall), American History

Literature/Tales (daily)
The Aesop for Children (Milo Winter)
Tales from Shakespeare (Charles Lamb)
The Blue Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling)
Parables from Nature (Margaret Gatty)

Math (daily)
Math U See

Music (weekly)
Hymn study, using Then Sings My Soul (Robert J. Morgan) and listening, here.

Narration (daily)
Narrations from The Aesop for Children. (One per day for a few weeks, and then slowly apply to other short passages from history or nature books.)

Natural History/Science (weekly)
Handbook of Nature Study (Anna Comstack)
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children (James Herriot)
The Burgess Bird Book for Children (Thornton Burgess)
*Keep a nature notebook

Penmanship/Copywork (daily)
10-minute lesson: Work on one letter or one word each lesson. Emphasize accurate letter formation, not quantity.

Reading/Phonics (daily)
I will likely come up with my own Phonics work, but I may consult Phonics Pathways if needed. (*I checked it out at the library after some of you recommended it and like it much better than 100 Easy Lessons).

Poetry (daily)
A Child’s Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Now We Are Six/When We Were Very Young (A.A. Milne)
Oxford Book of Children’s Verse (Iona and Peter Opie)

Recitations (per 12-week term)
Longer passages from the Bible
A Psalm
One poem of child’s choice

13 comments:

  1. Looks like a great year ahead!

    I have read Wisdom w/the Millers books and my kids love them!

    Look forward to reading more as you go along.

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  2. I know how much you have been looking forward this and planning/preparing for it....I can't wait to see you get started!!! I think a "field trip" to Indiana would be a great thing to work into the school year! =) (I know that will have to wait awhile...but fun to think about it! ) I am very excited for you!

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  3. Wow that looks fantastic!!
    I am so impressed. I'm in the midst of rethinking & researching. Linda is an amazing resource isn't she?

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  4. This looks so inspiring, Stacy! Wanna do school together? :)
    We are attending the local homeschool conference in June, so I plan on taking my lists and stocking up for next year at that time! It's really good to read over what others are doing, to give me a feel for what we can handle!
    Thanks!

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  5. Wow, Stacy! You have chosen some really fun stuff to learn with your kids! I'm impressed and (maybe since I'm tired tonight) a little overwhelmed thinking of what I should/could be or shouldn't be doing next year...
    Are you planning on kind of including all the kids in as much as they can be included in each subject? Are you planning on doing some of these subjects with only your eldest one? How do you forsee that working?
    My oldest is 4 and 1/2 so I know I really do have some time to get my brain around all this stuff but wow, how long did it take you to come up with all of these resources/ideas etc?
    Oh, and I majored in spanish in college... if I can be of any help, let me know. I'm trying to think of any fun ideas I know of for learning/teaching spanish...
    with love,
    rebecca

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  6. Have you tried Mona McNee's Step by Step Reading? It's amazing - 50 simple steps and they can read!

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  7. Looks like a wonderful year ahead. I am a product of homeschooling, so I'm excited for your children! I love Wisdom and the Millers, and the literature that you have chosen.

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  8. You are so organized.... impressive! I'm thinking of using Ambleside too. Lindafay has really inspired me to use CM, and after reading Karen Andreola's Companion I'm convinced. Now I just need to start reading CM herself! We're also going to use MathUSee, and I bought The Easy Spanish. We probably won't start Year 1 until 2008 though; Peregrine is only going to be five next November. It's exciting, isn't it?
    Have fun!
    Rebeca

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  9. Wendy,
    We love all the Millers storybooks, too. :)

    Michelle,
    HA! To fit in a field trip to IN, we'd have to do a fundraiser, first. In looking over this schedule of what we're doing I'm not thinking we can squeeze in a fundraiser! But I would *love* to-- don't get me wrong!

    Dana,
    Thank you. And yes, I am so grateful for Linda! She is a wonderful resource!

    Elise,
    Well, YEAH I wanna do school together! :) Ooh.. I can't wait to hear about the homeschool conference. I've never been to one.

    Rebecca,
    I look at this list and feel a bit overwhelmed myself, honestly. It seems like a lot to add onto what we're already doing (laundry, meals, cleaning, etc). Yet, all of these lessons will be SHORT lessons (10-15 minutes per subject, so that seems doable. *And* much of it is read-alouds, which we already do (we're just getting more purposeful about the books we're reading aloud!) As for the resources/ideas, I didn't come up with ANY of them on my own. Ambleside has a Book list and a 36-week schedule posted on their site (created by a group of homeschooling moms who have used Charlotte Mason's methods with their children), and Linda was my other resource.
    I will only "officially" be homeschooling Ella next year, but I foresee that for many of the read-alouds the boys will be there, snuggled on the couch, with us! (Until they get distracted, anyway!) And for the Bible time, that's for all of them. For the hymns, I foresee them doing that, too. I'm not really sure yet what it will look like, yet (I'll be sure to keep you posted!), but we'll roll with that as it comes. That's the beauty of homeschooling to me-- if this is way over-achieving we'll do it in two years, not one! Or we'll focus on a few of these subjects and set the others aside for a bit.
    As for Spanish, well, YEAH. Will you move closer already so you can come TEACH us Spanish? :)
    Love to you, dear friend!

    Nick,
    I haven't even heard of that resource! I'll have to see if our library has it so I can look at it.

    Beverly,
    I didn't know you were homeschooled! I'd love to hear some of the things you did or plan to do with your children (when the time comes!) I'm so glad I *met* you, Beverly!

    Rebeca,
    Nah. I'm not organized. Others are and I'm gleaning from them. It really is all laid out for you on Ambleside. Yes, I really liked Karen Andreola's Companion, too. CM is so literature-rich, and being such a reader myself, I can't really envision us doing anything else! :) I really am so excited to get started, mostly because I get to learn right alongside my kids! Let me know what you think about The Easy Spanish.

    Blessings to all of you!
    ~Stacy

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  10. Thats grate you can homeschool your kids. Here in Serbia we don't have such a choice but i wish we do :)

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  11. We use Ambleside also.
    Year 2.
    I am also going for a year round schedule, since we take off at various times throughout the year.

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  12. Stacy,
    We are doing Year One this year following Linda's schedule and loving it! You are doing well by getting organized ahead of time! I hope to lay out a similiar plan on paper before next year! Thanks for sharing! Christy

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  13. Stacy,
    I would so love to live closer to you! We don't plan on living where we are forever... We'll see what God has in store for us. Wouldn't it be fun to teach spanish to our kids together?
    love,
    Rebecca

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