2010-2011 school year

School is starting soon. I think we will wait to start school until September 1. The girls will go to Friday school before then though.

This year we will be using:

Learning Language Arts through Literature for Annie and Emma. Annie used this in 4th grade and liked it better than the made-up curriculum I did for her last year. (In my defense, she picked last year's English program, which turned out to be just grammar and how boring is that every day! I picked books that went along with our history studies and bought reading guides. ) Emma will be starting the 3rd grade book, since the 2nd grade book in this series is still teaching how to read, and she is well past that. I am hoping to focus on comprehension.

Spelling: Wordly Wise. This is a neat little series that has 5 lessons a week that focus on 20 words for the older level, with crossword puzzles, synonyms and antonyms, etc. I recently found the website where they can do more activities to reinforce the lessons. Plus its on the computer and therefore playing, right??

Languages: Annie has requested learning Latin this year. Emma will continue with Spanish. We will use Power Glide. This is more of an extra subject and I don't force them to do it. Heck, I don't speak anything but English, so exposure to other languages is a bonus.

History: Emma will be using The Story of the World Volume 2. She was very intrigued by this book when she was in Kindergarten and is excited that she will be the main one using it this year. On a side note, I took it to a local copy shop to have the lesson question/teacher portion spiral bound and the activity pages hole punched. They mutilated my student pages, which really irked me, since I did pay for it. Seriously, it looks like they took a drill to it.
Annie will be using Switched on Schoolhouse for the first time. It is on the computer and has a homepage thing for her, tests, a place for her to ask me questions, etc. Hopefully its good.

Science: Emma will be getting the Scott Foresman science from the school. I am not sure how much we will be using it, she seems to learn more from lapbooking.
Annie will be using Switched on Schoolhouse 6th grade science. Scott Foresman, through the school, only goes up to 5th grade. Plus, as a 6th grader, she has to use the science book her Friday teacher uses for those assignments.

Math: Ahh, math. Annie will be finishing up her Saxon math 76 book, then progressing on to the next one. Emma will most likely be switching over to Horizons math and beginning with 1.5, or halfway through 1st grade. She wasn't really retaining much from Saxon 2. I figured instead of trying the same book over, we could go with another approach. If this one isn't her thing either, I may try a mastery method as opposed to spiral.

Geography: This is included in SOS for Annie. For Emma I purchased a map skills book

Typing: Free online typing tutorials! There are great games which Annie enjoys. We will introduce them to Emma soon and I am sure she will master the keyboard very quickly.

For Sarah, we will be using FIAR or Five in a Row, a system in which you read the same book 5 days in a row and learn different subjects based off that book. For instance, The Story of Ping. One day we could learn about China, where the story takes place. Another day we could learn about ducks, another day we could learn about the art used in the book, another day we could count all the ducks, etc. Sarah also wants to attend preschool. I just need to go over to the place, let Sarah look around, pay the fees and that will be that.

For music, I'd like to have the girls take piano, but we don't have one yet, or have a teacher in mind. Until then, I 'd like to use the Meet the Great Composers series.

Our schooling area has been cut in half due to renovations. We are debating using the desks or just a table. I am thinking of making some big floor pillows for cozy reading. I think we will also need a laminated wall map, since our paper one is very crinkled.

What will Laura and Adam be doing during all of this? Well, napping, blocks, coloring, hearing stories with the older kids, playing with playdoh, dolls, practicing sitting, all the good stuff little kids do. And I am sure there will be some crying, paper stealing, maybe some biting. Maybe even some Elmo.