I love going back through my old homeschooling posts, especially my plans for each year. I have one post about how challenging the upcoming year was going to be because I have some number of school-aged children plus a little one. Whatever. This year blows that one out of the water. This year I have two middle schoolers, two elementary schoolers, a pre-kindergartener, a two year old (enough said), and a crawling baby. And a new dog.
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| Evie: Age 8, Third Grade |
We've made a huge change in our schooling by switching to a new school district. We are still using a parent partnership program, but this new one still covers lessons and field trips! The lessons and field trips come with limitations, but the deal breaker for me was that they cover Homeschool Fridays at Camp Seymour. Ordering materials is different and strange for me, but I'm sure I will adjust. Whether or not I stay with this particular school district after this year will depend on how they treat me and how obnoxious their policies are.
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| Fiona: Age 6, First Grade |
We went to Homeschool Fridays at Camp Seymour the first year we lived here. Ian was in second grade, Shane was in first grade, and Evie was a four year old tag-a-long. Fiona was a baby and I was pregnant with Daniel. Shane and Evie have only faint memories of the fun we had that year. Ian grew up so fast that I'm anxious to provide fun homeschool experiences for the middle kids before they too are all grown up. I know, I know, school isn't about fun. Life isn't about fun. But after last year, this kids deserve some serious funschool. I am going to expect them to work hard and learn how to learn on their own, and that will be about 75% of our day, but we are going to go out and about much much more.
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| Shane: Age 11, Sixth Grade |
So, here's the line up: We are on the third year of the four year history cycle, so my younger set will be learning early American history while my older kids will learn early modern world history (1650 to 1800). We will also learn about Native American tribes and half of the 50 States; the other half will be covered next year. I'm planning on lots of little hands on projects and notebooking so we can have a nice portfolio (or two or three) of our work by the end of the year.
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| Ian: Age 12, Seventh Grade |
Chemistry is the main science topic, but because of Homeschool Fridays and the two youngest kids, we will also include some outdoor environmental education and other general science topics. I'm using the same curriculum as the last time we went through Chemistry and will be having Shane serve as my lab assistant. He will do all the experiments while I hold the babies. Ian will be working independently on his own Chemistry kit and writing up his results.
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| Daniel: Age 4, Pre-Kindergarten |
The bulk of my day will be teaching Fiona and Evie reading and writing and keeping Daniel busy. Daniel is going to be an interesting kid to teach. He is bright, there is no doubt about that. But he cannot be taught directly. He is an indirect learner and I have to know everything so when he asks his questions I am ready with an answer. Like why he can hear his own voice when he shouts in the back yard (echo) or why his voice sounds funny when he shouts through the fan (the blades are chopping up his sound waves). The other day, we shared a quarter watermelon and talked about the letter W. He then ran off to color a big green and red W and wrote his own W's. I can't plan these things; I have to be opportunistic. I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm glad he is my fifth child and not my first! I know so much more about teaching little guys than I did when Ian was four.
