Plan, already edited since photo
I’m getting things together this year. I didn’t last year, because I was hugely pregnant with Perry and then dealing with a newborn with failure to thrive. I finally started actually encouraging schoolwork around March. They all did just fine anyway, of course. (The only thing they really need me to remind them to do is arithmetic, the study of which really does benefit from regular exposure.)
I’m going to have a sheet of paper each week with the bones of what we’ll be doing up where everyone can see. That was useful when Faith and Abby were my middle graders, so I think it will be the same for Gil, Trix and Glo. It’s fun to check things off!
I ended up getting an older used copy of Oak Meadow Year 5 for Gilbert for a song. He liked OM4 when we did it for a month or so, and would have liked to continue (but it was too much prep for me, with two babies at the time.) The Oak Meadow levels, especially in the older editions, don’t correspond to grades as much as ranges, so I doubt he’ll feel babied by Year 5 as a seventh grader. He really wanted American History, and that’s the middle grade year for it. He should be able to do most of it by himself with a little help from me.
Homeschool Connections are going to be where Faith and Abby are. We signed up for the unlimited recorded lectures, and I’m asking them to listen to the American History so Gilbert and I can discuss it with them.
Dorothy is so close to reading. I got her a Brain Quest Kindergarten workbook, just so she could have something, but honestly those things are so writing centered it’s mostly useless. I think actually Gloria nd Trixie will enjoy “teaching” her with it and that will be the value. In the meantime, the phonics section is okay and it has loads of stickers. As Dorothy’s fine motor skills progress she’ll be able to do more in the book, but right now she would be so frustrated and saddened to try and fail that I’m not even attempting it. It’s always been strange to me that the general approach to reading is to teach writing at the same time, when you needn’t. I got her a bunch of little wooden letters which we’ll Montessori it up with.
I think Trixie and Gloria will wander through ancient history and culture of Greece and Rome this year. That’s really great for all the subjects. And everyone will be doing nature study, and also whatever they want, because I’m really bad at interrupting them when they are doing something valuable to impose what I want them to do. But they like it, when I do. Amazing, they like my input and care, me being their mom.
Goodness what a meandering post.
