2017-2018 Homeschool Plan

First Wednesday of our school year is in the books!

As has become custom, here's a description of our plan for the year (which can also be found under the Curriculum tabs over on the left for each boy)...

First off, though, in general...continuing to homeschool both Asher and Micah. At present, Asher wants to just continue homeschooling with me, so our plan is to do that for high school. Micah wants to do high school at CEC like Noah but needs to wait till he turns 14. In our homeschooling, we continue with our mostly six weeks on, one week off approach...so six sessions throughout the year with a bit of a summer break. On a daily level, we tend to do independent work in the mornings (things like math and language arts primarily) and group work in the afternoons.

This year, I'm really trying to simplify and focus on quality over quantity...going for depth.

Now. For the specific plan...

MATH
- Geometry, Harold Jacobs

So. I've tried various combinations over the years...having each boy have a separate math program, having them do the same thing, having them to some together and some separate. This year, I've decided to have them do it together again. I'm also switching gears a bit. We've been doing pre-algebra and algebra for a few years now and probably need to reinforce that. But. Since math isn't a favorite for either of these two, I'm going with geometry this year and will return to algebra next year, in the hopes that we can establish a better attitude toward math in the meantime. ;) I've not used this particular textbook before but have read good reviews so am hopeful.

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Wordly Wise, books 7 & 9
- Analytical Grammar, seasons 1-2 plus reinforcements & Jr Analytical Grammar & Mechanics
- Writing & Rhetoric, books 6-8
- selected reading

We've not embraced language arts in the past so are probably still doing a bit of catching up (though we made some good progress last year which makes me happy). :) So, this year we're working on the basics. For vocabulary, we'll continue using Wordly Wise. We did this last year and it was good.

For grammar, we're using Analytical Grammar. I was happy with this awhile back when I used it with Noah...I like the repetition and straight-forward-ness. It's not hugely fun but I felt it really did the job and covered what I wanted covered. Asher will be doing seasons 1 & 2 of the main curriculum, plus using the high school reinforcements book. Micah will use the junior set of curriculum.

For writing, I'm proud to say that we actually did some last year (a major accomplishment for us!). We finished out last year with the Writing & Rhetoric curriculum (starting from the beginning and using books 1-4 for some accelerated review). This year, we'll continue with that...using books 6-8. (Honestly, I feel like we probably still need more in this area but haven't settled on what just yet.)

And, for reading, we'll continue with required but self-selected reading. Boys each need to read at least 600 pages per six week session on their own time. Usually they end up reading much more than that, particularly since I offer an incentive of $10 per 1000 pages. :) I'll probably also assign some books to be read (that tie in to other subjects) throughout the year.

SCIENCE
- Science for High School, Biology
- The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way, Joy Hakim
- The Story of Science: Newton at the Center, Joy Hakim
- The Story of Science: Einstein Adds a New Dimension, Joy Hakim
- First Lego League team

Asher will be studying biology this year. The curriculum I found has an approach I particularly like and hope works well. He's assigned questions at the beginning of each lesson. He spends the week researching and finding the answers on his own (he can use the internet, textbooks, books I have around the house, etc) and typing them out. At the end of the week, he'll present his findings to me, I'll give him a quiz and we'll do the lab for that lesson. Cool. (And, for the record, I have a dead frog in my office currently awaiting dissection. Awesome.)

Asher will also be doing an elective--History of Science. I'm assigning him to read about four chapters a week (using the three Story of Science books that we didn't get to last year since Science Olympiad took up more time than originally anticipated). He then needs to write up a summary for each chapter along with answering a couple questions for me (like what he found most interesting and what he'd be interested in knowing more about). I figure both of these will also help with writing. ;) I'll also have him do some sort of project (as yet undecided) at the completion of each book. 

Micah, meanwhile, won't be doing science with Asher this year...and our Science Olympiad team disbanded after their great successes (some started public school and they don't allow mixed teams). Micah, though, was invited to join a First Lego League team with friends. (We've looked into this before but couldn't ever convince any of the boys to actually participate. Noah was interested in the robotics aspect but not the team aspect. Asher and Micah weren't interested in the robotics aspect. Micah's desire to spend more time with his friends has over-ridden any lack of interest in robotics, lol. He'll figure out the robotics in no time, though.) He's been meeting with them on Tuesday mornings...which means that Asher and I have all day Monday and the first part of Tuesday for one-on-one work. Everything else, then, fits into Wednesday-Friday.

WORLD GEOGRAPHY
- Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall

Rather than history this year, our humanities/social studies course will be based on this book. We'll go through the ten chapters, discussing how geography affects politics and the world (and also learning our geography better). 

PE
- Karate (twice a week throughout the year)
- Karate demo team (1-2 practices/week plus roughly monthly performances)
- Gymnastics (once a week, just Asher)  

We've got physical education covered. ;) 

HEALTH
- Our Whole Lives

Though they're not fans at all, the boys and I will be covering sex ed through this program. (We have a number of friends who use this, though we're using it as a homeschool curriculum since the local meeting times for this class don't work for our schedule.) We're using the program designed for 7th to 9th graders. (We've actually done the program for 4th to 6th graders in the past. I appreciate the organized approach to prompt needed discussion.)

OPTIONS (one day a week enrichment program)

This year, only Micah will be attending Options. (Asher's too old now, as the program only goes up to 8th grade.) Classes haven't started there yet, but he's pretty excited to see friends next week. 

And that, I think, pretty much covers our homeschool plan for the year. Whew.