I just finished our schedule for school this coming year. I feel very accomplished!
We aren't going to have a whole lot of days off this year, but we have to take an extra week off in December for my court case. So here is the dates I have planned:
- September 13, 2010 - Start school
- November 22-26 - Thanksgiving Break
- December 6-10 - No school for court
- December 20-31 - Christmas Break
- April 18-22 - Spring Break
- June 10 - Last day of school
I have also split the year up into quarters because it made it easier for my to plan. So here are the quarters, they are each 8.5 weeks, as we are in school 34 weeks.
- 1st Quarter September 13-November 10
- 2nd Quarter November 11-February 4
- 3rd Quarter February 7-April 5
- 4th Quarter April 6-June 10
And here is how I split each day up:
- Bible 10 min.
- History 20-30 min.
- Writing & Journal 10 min.
- Phonics 15 min.
- Independent Reading 15 min.
- Language Arts 30 min.
- Math 20 min.
- Classes that are split up during the year (Science, Music, Health, Social Studies, Arts) 30 min.
I also have written down what we will be studying each week for those classes that are split up and Language Arts. So the only things that are left for me to do as each new subject comes up is choosing how we will study that subject.
For example, when Personal and Dental Hygiene comes up in Health, I will have to choose what books to read, what activities to do and anything extra for that. I don't want to do that much planning all now, because I enjoy the planning process of school. I really want to make that last through the year!
I feel like I am really set for school this year. The kids want to start early, so we might just do that. Who knows. That's the beauty of home schooling! If you'd like to read what subjects that we will be covering this year, read this post here.
We have been doing school very sporadically lately. I haven't even done enough to blog about! I have not been disciplined either. But that's really ok, because I planned on doing school through most of the summer anyways. We are almost done. We will still be doing Kindergarten with Kyle, so his school years may be off for a bit. But he wasn't supposed to start until this school year, so I'm not worried about it at all.
Amanda will be done with her math soon. Then we will just keep on working through the Hooked on Phonics and reading. Kyle will do the same basically. We'll start other subjects in September. I am going to sit down here really soon and detail my plans. But I do have tentative plans on what I want them to learn next year. They will do all subjects together but math, phonics and reading. Here is what I have so far:
Health & Safety
- Personal Cleanliness
- Dental Hygiene
- Basic Food Groups
- Neighborhood Safety
- Safety (Fire, Earthquake, etc)
Social Studies
- Holidays and Festivals
- Patriotic celebrations
- Basic Geography (Oceans, Continents, etc)
- Map skills and using a compass
- Manners
Visual Arts
- Lines
- Sculptures
- Landscapes
- Animals in art
- Abstract art
- Architecture
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Van Gogh
- Michealangelo
- Picasso
Music
- Many Kinds
- Patriotic Music
- Folk Music
- Classical music Mozart
- Other great composers
- Families of instruments
- Writing music down
- Notes
- Pitch: High & Low
- Scales
- Hymns
- Beethoven
History
- What is history?
- Creation
- Adam & Eve
- The Nomads
- Egyptians I
- Sumerians
- Jewish People
- The Assyrians I
- India I
- China I
- Africa
- Egypt I
- Phoenicians
- The Assyrians II
- Babylon
- Crete
- Greeks I
- Medes & Persians
- Sparta & Athens
- Greeks II
- Alexander the Great
- People of Americas
- Rome I
- India II
- Chine II
- Rome II
- Jesus' birth
- Jesus' miracles
- Jesus' parables
- Jesus' Crucifixion & Resurrection
- Rome & Christians
- Barbarians
- End of Rome
Science
- Life cycle
- Dinosaurs
- Weather
- Seasons
- Climate
- Water cycle
- Air & atmosphere
- Magnets, forces & simple machines
- Gravity
- Earth
- Sun. moon, planets
- Simple constellations
- Scientific method & scientific inquiry
- Human Body
- Scientists
- Anton van Lesuwenhock
- Florence Nightingale
- Daniel Hale Williams
- Elijah McCoy
- Liquids & Solids
- Rocks, clays & soils
Language Arts (Kyle only will be doing the one with a star next to it)
- Poetry*
- Charlotte's Web*
- Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing*
- Sentences
- Nouns-Singular & Plural
- Verbs-Past and present
- Adjectives
- Antonyms & Synonyms
- Contractions
- Abbreviations
- Using Capital Letters
- Letter writing
- Silent reading
- Oral reading
- Quotation marks
- Punctuation
- Learn how to use a dictionary
- Spelling
- Writing
- Journal
- Mummies in the Morning*
- Learn about books and how to look them up in a library
- The Borrowers*
- The Boxcar Children*
- Pirates Past Noon*
- Beezus & Ramona*
- The Sign of the Beaver*
- Superfudge*
- The BFG*
Phonics for each child is Hooked on Phonics program
Math for Amanda-Using Math Mammoth book
