First day.

Well, it's official. We've started another school year. The boys had their first day of LEAP yesterday.

LEAP is the new name for the same program we've been participating in...Options. Aside from a new location, most everything's the same. This, then, is our fifth year. Here are the first day pictures from the previous four (click to make them bigger):

2008: Asher started kindergarten and Noah was in 2nd (but in the 3rd grade classes). They look so little! ;)

2009: Jumping for joy at going back...Asher to 2nd grade (given his summer birthday, we opted to switch him up) and Noah to 4th (though technically a 3rd grader). Micah missed them while they were in class. 

2010: Micah was stoked to start kinder/1st, with Asher in 3rd and Noah in 5th (still in a class ahead).

2011: Asher was in 4th, Micah in 1st (but taking 2nd classes) and Noah in 5th (bumped him back to where was age appropriate given the mixed classes...since classes are grouped 4-6 anyhow...).

Yeah, we're complicated like that. ;) This year isn't any different:

As you can see from the photos, Noah was less than enthusiastic about my taking pictures. He's all mature like that, lol. ;)

Anyhow.

So, Asher stuck with the "normal" progression and is listed as a 5th grader this year, though I'm declaring him a 4th grader for any other purpose. (If he were in public school, he could be either 4th or 5th this year.) Next year, as we did with Noah, we'll list him as a 5th grader at LEAP again. He's pretty excited about his classes:

• Drumming (Really...was there any doubt he'd want to take this one?)
• PE
• Ameritowne (He's thrilled to take this finally since Noah's loved it so much.)
• Beginning Bells (He loves this and I love that all the instruments and equipment are supplied by the school and stay there, lol.)
• Elementary Spanish
• Guitar

Noah's "on track" now and is a 6th grader all around (and would be that if in public school...yikes, I have a middle schooler!). :) Just to keep things from being too easy, though, he got permission to be in two classes that are for 7th graders and up...

• Science & Technology
• Chemistry (This one's 7-8th grade and the teacher guarantees some explosions, so he's stoked, lol.)
• Cooking (Micah raved about it enough last year...)
• Time Travelers (This one's also an upper grades class, studying ancient Hebrew civilization. We opted into this one instead of PE based on the powers of good friends, lol.)
• History Quest (In studying Aztecs and Romans, apparently the class will get to build bridges and catapults and destroy each other. Obviously a hit.)
• Guitar

And Micah's listed at LEAP as a 3rd grader this year, being as he's already taken the 2nd grade classes. For all other purposes, I'm declaring him a 2nd grader. (If he were in public school, he'd be either a 1st or 2nd grader this year given his late summer birthday. Did you notice how that keeps them all nicely two years apart? lol) He was a bit worried about a couple of his classes but seems perfectly happy with them:

• PE
• Recorder Karate (He's loving being able to follow in his brothers' footsteps.)
• Art (Fortunately, Micah and his art teacher now know each other better and she gets his occasional moods, lol.)
• Cooking (Yup, he loves it!)
• Elementary Spanish
• Sound of Music (This is basically a choir-type class and he's decided it actually rocks.)

And that was our first day... ;)

And all the rest...

Okay, finishing up our curriculum plans now...

Art. I'm bound and determined to actually do art this year. ;) While the boys fortunately have still gotten at least some art through LEAP and miscellaneous outings, I haven't done a good job of working it into our regular routine. This year, using this book and this book as a basis, I'm taking a more realistic approach (for me). Rather than try to plan out an art project for each week and then failing miserably, lol, my goal this year is just one dedicated art project per month. So. With our three week sessions (we do three weeks on, one week off throughout the year), I'll teach about a building one week, an artist one week and then do a project one week. For the projects, I just poked around and picked a dozen or so that interested me. Keepin' it simple... ;)

PE. I'm fairly sure that we get enough physical education through outside sources. ;) Let's see...Micah has karate twice a week and PE at LEAP once a week and archery 1-2 times a week. Asher has karate 3-5 times a week, PE at LEAP once a week and archery 1-2 times a week. And Noah has swim team twice a week (though this may increase after September) and archery 1-2 times a week. (We opted to take him out of PE at LEAP in favor of a history class for various reasons.) All three boys still participate in the fun runs (and there's been talk of more 5Ks), and we go on walks and hikes and bike rides as a family...not to mention all the horseplay of brothers that happens in the basement on a regular basis. Yup. I think PE's covered, lol.

Music. Thanks to LEAP, this is covered. Micah has recorder/chimes and also a singing/acting class. Asher has drumming, bells and guitar. And Noah has guitar. (Both Asher and Noah also still practice their recorder and piano skills at home, too.)

First Aid. I decided that some basic first aid was in order. You know...in case a boy should break his arm again or something, lol. But. Red Cross classes are spendy (and the age appropriate one for Noah covered way more diapering than he would want, lol...and the appropriate class for the younger two isn't offered locally). So, instead, I picked up some Red Cross first aid and emergency preparedness books and will work through them with the boys throughout the year. Fingers crossed that it's not called for, lol.

Other. And then there will be the other LEAP classes that the boys have and the field trips with our homeschool group and everything else. 

Whew. I think that should be more than enough for this year. ;) Wish us luck!

So, because I'm nosy like that and always on the lookout for new materials, what are your plans?

History & Geography

Back to finishing up my curriculum plan... ;) Up next are two subjects that we cover altogether, though I'll be working on hopefully doing a better job of parceling out different levels of assignments to the boys as appropriate this year.

History. We really enjoy history. (You can read more about our history journey here, here and here.) As of last year, we cover both world history and US history.

For world history...In keeping with the classical approach, we use Story of the World and covered volume 1 last year, also utilizing a timeline book (that the boys added to as we learned things). We'll do volume 2 this year. (This will be our second time through the series for the older two boys but Micah's first time through.)

For US history...Last year, we just made our own sort of curriculum, reading books that interested us but without a true plan. (We added things to our timeline books, too.) This year, we're starting History of US by Joy Hakim (in part because I found a rockin' deal on a used set...yay!). Like with Story of the World, I've opted to break the series into four parts and will rotate through just like I do with Story of the World. (I broke it roughly into 1) pre-1800 2) 1800s 3) 1900s and 4) recent.)

For both of these, I tend to use the curriculum itself as a framework and then also focus each month on something of specific interest. For this coming year, sometimes that will be weaponry that correlates with the time. (Many thanks to this book, lol.)

Geography. As with history, we've now broken geography into world geography and US geography. 

For world geography, last year we started Expedition Earth. We're pretty happy with it and covered about 6 countries a week. (I would read the boys the information about that country...and have them locate it on a map to color...and then have them each write a sentence about that country to help them remember something about it. Randomly, I'd quiz them about the countries.) Last year, we made it through Africa, Asia and Europe. We'll continue this year to finish up all the countries and will then focus on reviewing each continent for a month at a time. 

For US geography, last year we used The Star-Spangled State Book. We covered the fifty states (I went in order of admission to the union) in a similar manner to the countries of the world. This year, I haven't really decided what we'll do. I've set aside time each week and will work on reviewing the map through games and books. (I particularly like this book, though it's a bit more in-depth than I'm looking for necessarily.) 

And that's history and geography. ;) 

Five x 5K

So. Last Saturday all five of us ran the Peach Festival 5K. Here's us in the starting area:

Originally, it had been Asher's plan/goal to run an actual 5K with me this summer instead of the mile fun runs the boys have been participating in. As we got closer to the event selected, though, Noah decided he'd join in and, of course, Micah then wasn't to be left out. So. We recruited Nathan to run as well so that both Asher and Micah could have an adult running with them. Except for Noah, we even managed a few practice runs ahead of time to discuss things like pacing, lol. 

On race day, then, Noah took off ahead of us and finished (having not really done any preparation and having not really had any regular exercise this summer) at about 33 minutes. (Note, we convinced him to not wear the jeans that he was insistent upon...woohoo!) Micah ran with Nathan and managed to finish in just over 35 minutes, having ditched Nathan with about half a mile to go. ;) (Nathan finished shortly thereafter, having done a walk/run combination to stay roughly at Micah's pace throughout.) Asher and I crossed the line in the 37th minute, which he was stoked about since his goal had been a sub-40 minute race (none of our practice runs had been that good). 

It was only the second year for the Peach Festival, so there were some logistics that could use improvement (in my humble opinion...yes, I'm drafting a nice little letter, lol), but overall we had a good time and the boys were all quite pleased with themselves. :)

Oh, and here's what we had on our feet:

Mine are the green laces. Proceeding clockwise from there is Micah, Asher, Nathan (in his FiveFingers) and Noah. Ta da! Don't you think Asher and I win for coolest shoes? ;) (Well, at the very least, ours are the most colorful, right?)

And after that, we went home and showered and had lunch...then headed up to Estes Park to enjoy one of the last weekends of the season. We rode the aerial tram to see the view:

Then we fed peanuts to chipmunks (it's a thing up there...yes, we know not to feed the wildlife generally) and walked to the summit. (Well, Asher and Micah and I turned around just before because they were anxious to feed more chipmunks, lol.) We rode back down to town for ice cream and drinks and throwing some rocks in the river...then the boys played a round of miniature golf...and we got a delicious dinner at one of our favorite places before heading home. Yup, long (good) day...and a lovely end to the summer. Whew. ;)

Back soon with the rest of my curriculum plans... 

Language Arts

Next up is Language Arts. This has notoriously been my weak area and the area of highest turn-over for us. See here, here, here and here for a summary of our journey thus far. Since we're now fully past the whole "learning to read" stuff (Asher and Micah each read more than 100 chapter books in the past year, so I think we're good, lol)...here's our plan:

We'll use Michael Clay Thompson's stuff for the basics. We used level 1 last year but only read through Grammar Island and Sentence Island together. I didn't do any follow through or put it into practice. I did, though, appreciate the program and see its potential. This year, I'll do Grammar Town and Paragraph Town and actually use the practice books and all. I'll also use Caesar's English I for vocabulary and Latin sorts of stuff. I want to really drill this stuff home and have high hopes. ;) (Yes, I'll work this with all three boys but will try to assign more or less work depending on the needs and age of each boy.)

Beyond that, I plan to incorporate aspects of the Brave Writer program for writing and reading. I'm thinking I'll assign a book to each boy each month. Using that, I'll work in discussions about main topics, character development, plot, setting, fact vs fiction, point of view, etc. I'll also work in the main tenets of the Brave Writer program (which, incidentally, mirror the basic premise of the Writing With Ease program that we've tried in the past but with much more flexibility in subject matter)...narration/summary, copy writing and dictation. I'm thinking book reports will be in order. :)

Given all that, I could REALLY use some help in brainstorming appropriate books to assign to boys. I like the list (and ideas) presented by Brave Writer's language arts program called The Arrow...but I know that not all of those books are going to work for us and would need three different books each month anyhow. Ideas? Pretty please? Honestly, I could use the most help for Noah...my 11 year old who much prefers non-fiction and technical writing to anything fiction. I have lots of ideas for the younger two, who are thrilled with adventures and stories and fun. Help?