Curriculum 2011-2012

We are starting our 12th year of homeschooling next week.  Hard to believe!  It seems like I was just starting 1st grade with Erin, and now here we are at her Senior year.  Sniff...sniff....


This year we have an 8th grader, a 10th grader & a 12th grader.


Here is our list for this year (always subject to re-vamping!):

Religion:
Erin:

Apologetics – Gospel Worldview (1 book per term)

The Prodigal God, Tim Keller

Reason for God, Tim Keller

Generous Justice, Tim Keller

Missionary Bios – 3 YWAM International Adventure books (1 per term)

Austin:

Missionary Bios – 2 YWAM Christian Hero bios per term

Abigail:

The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places devotional

All:

Picture Smart Bible – finish OT Survey/NT Survey

Church History - Hearts and Hands Volumes 4 & 5

History/Geography:

All:  (US/World History – 18^th century to present)

Simply Charlotte Mason Modules 5 & 6  

Trail Guide to US Geography

History Scribe Notebooking pages 

Time Travelers – Early 19^th Century, Civil War, Industrial Revolution & Great Depression, WWII

Austin:

Switched on Schoolhouse NC History 

Math:

Erin:

Finish Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2, move on to Math U See Pre-Calculus

Austin:

Finish Math U See Algebra I (3x/wk), Math U See Stewardship Math (2x/wk)

Abigail:

Math U See Pre-Algebra

Science:
Erin:

Apologia Marine Biology

Austin:

Biology 101

Apologia Anatomy & Physiology

Abigail:

Apologia Physical Science

English:

Erin:

Vocabulary Cartoons SAT Prep I

Spelling Wisdom – dictation (2x/wk)

Literature from Simply Charlotte Mason lists
Writing - Narrations in Literature & History

Austin: 

Spelling Wisdom - dictation (2x/wk)
Literature from Simply Charlotte Mason Lists
Writing - Narrations in Literature & History


Abigail:
Vocabulary Cartoons
Spelling Wisdom - dictation (2x/wk)
Literature from Simply Charlotte Mason Lists

Writing - Narrations in Literature & History

All:
Our Mother Tongue - grammar review (2x/wk)

Foreign Language:
Erin:
Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish II


Abigail:
Memoria Press First Start French

Electives:

Austin: 

Computer Based Cartooning & Animation II

All:

Picture Study - Simply Charlotte Mason Picture Study Portfolio - Giotto;  Albert Bierstadt (Hudson River School - our local art museum has a display of Hudson River School artists); Norman Rockwell

Extras-

Both girls participate in a teen girls monthly book club
Hopefully we will be participating in Springs Christian Theatre drama again this year




See more Curriculum posts at:

Catching up...

Life has been busy, so I am going to try and play catch up here. :)

April

We started off April with Chick Days at the local Southern States. Dh & Abigail came home with 6 little babies! Three White Leghorns and three Rhode Island Reds. (Sadly we only have two of each now - we have lost a total of 5 chicks. Two were out of this original set, plus three that we bought to replace those two.) Chicks are so, so cute!

Growing, getting feathers...

Spring semester, oldest dd participated in a drama class. Mid-April was the show. Erin played Lady-in Waiting 1 in "The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood". It was loads of fun, though the last show was cancelled because of tornadoes in the area!!

The "Castle Cast"

Still growing...now to the ummmm...awkward looking stage, lol! By the end of the month it was warm enough to move them to their new outside coop.

Yummmm...fresh strawberries from my FIL.

By the end of April the babies are getting bigger. Silly chicks know their "Momma" Abigail. Eating out of her hand, climbing up on her legs and arms.

The last weekend in April our small group participated in a 4000 step walk to support a Pregnancy Support center. We walked 2 miles around a local town.

In early May our homeschool support group held their annual field day. Relay races, softball throw, long jump and more! I was only able to get a few pictures...

The backwards three-legged race did not go exactly as well as thought...though lots of laughing followed. :)

May book club meeting...

Erin got her license!!

A great example of stink-eye from our little ladies...

This week 3/7 - 3/11/2011

This week has been a busy one - something going on just about every day!

Monday - A pretty regular school day. Abigail discovered that it was loads of fun to make soap bubbles with her hands - and the bathroom floor got some cleaning in the process! Also, when dh & I arrived home from small group, we were greeted with the wonderful smell of Erin's yummy soft pretzels!

Tuesday - Short school day - drama class for Erin that afternoon. She has been practicing hard to learn her part - Lady in Waiting. One of her biggest challenges is to overcome her very country accent so that she sounds like a refined "lady". Haha!

Wednesday - Revamped the school room Wednesday morning. Replaced our workbox set up with stacked drawers. I love the workbox system, but very few of our books fit in the boxes, most were bending. :( Erin has 12x12 drawers and the younger two have 8 1/2 x 11 drawers. The drawers are numbered just like the boxes were. They have laminated pages on clipboards where they attach their tags after they finish a box.

Wednesday night we kicked off a month long prayer focus at church. It was an awesome service! Lots of time spent in prayer - Loving God, Loving each other and Loving our world!

Thursday - Field trip day! Because of rainy weather we ended up having our field trip classes at our church (they were so kind to let us use the kid's area!). The classes were about "Oceans and You". Our older kids did activities to learn about oil spills. They tried to contain and clean up an "oil spill" using different materials like straws, foil, nylon, hair (yucky!) and droppers. At the end of the class the instructor had the kids do a short activity about trash in the ocean and told them how long it takes for some of these trash items to break down.

While the girls were at small group Thursday night, Dh, Austin and I went by B&N where we found this book for Abigail. Anyone who knows Abigail will understand that there has been a great amount of high pitched squealing going on around here since last night. :)

Friday - a quiet day at home. After finishing their school work, Austin & Abigail decided to trek down to the creek to see how all of the rain we have had affected it. The creek has been bone dry for so many months!

School this week:

Math - Erin is happily plugging away at Geometry with Fred (Life of Fred). We recently bought this book after she got bogged down with TT Geometry and its gazillion proofs. Erin has used all of the LOF books (except the newer pre-algebra), and has really enjoyed Fred's antics. :)

Austin and I have started from scratch in Algebra I. He was not getting it working somewhat independently, so we are starting over with A LOT of one on one time.

Abigail worked on dividing decimals in MUS Zeta this week. I let her test out of the chapter after two practice pages because she was complaining about how easy it was. I am really beginning to think that we need to go ahead and finish this book and move on to Pre-Algebra, because she needs more of a challenge.

Science - Erin tells me every week that her favorite part of Chemistry is the notebook she is making based on studying The Elements by Theodore Gray. She creates one or two notebook pages per week for each element. I found this idea earlier this year on this blog.

The youngers & I are kind of between science studies right now (outside of Nature Study).

Bible/Character study - Erin finished TobyMac's City on our Knees and began reading his book, Under God. She is also reading a biography of William Carey. Austin is currently reading a YWAM biography of Jim Elliot, and Abigail is reading Ten Girls who used their Talents. We also took Wednesday lunchtime to pray through the prayer guide our church provided.

History - sigh...we did not get a lot done in this area this week...we will be starting a study of the Civil War soon...I hope.... Erin and Austin are studying Africa in World Geography.

English - spelling lists, vocabulary studies, reading, writing, vocabulary and spelling games, more reading. The girls have book club Monday night -Erin has finished the book (The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate), Abigail needs to get started on it and I am reading it in the mornings while I walk on the treadmill. While I really like the nature study part of it, I am not sure I like the rest of the story...will hold final thoughts until I finish the book.

I need to get next week planned out today. Dh & I have been in foster care training for the last few Saturdays (6 hours per Saturday!). Our Sundays have been busy as well, leaving me with very little planning/prep work time. I end up feeling like I am already three steps behind on Monday morning. We have two more weeks of class, so I am going to try to get all my prep work done on Friday afternoons.

See more weekly wrap-ups at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Have a great weekend!