2014-15 Homeschool Plan: Language Arts

Next up is language arts. Here's what's what:

GRAMMAR: Analytical Grammar worked fabulously for Noah last year. He completed all three seasons and brought up his language arts score on the standardized test we do every other year considerably. Thanks to the program, he also was just two points shy of testing into college English at the charter high school he's attending (which is fine and dandy, as he's now taking high school English and it's a good fit...especially considering that we didn't really do any grammar before last year and that technically he's still a year shy of high school).

Given all this, I'm using Jr. Analytical Grammar and Mechanics with Asher this year (and will then have him work through Analytical Grammar with reinforcement over two years after that).

I figure Micah still has time but am having him watch the Cover Story grammar videos this year. I'll move on to the Jr. Analytical Grammar, etc in years to come.

SPELLING: Still entirely happy with All About Spelling. We're doing Level 7 this year. (We've already made it half way through the book, actually, but I'm going back to the start and reviewing.)

VOCABULARY: We'll work through both All About Homophones (grades 5-8) and Word Roots A2. Worked well last year. ;)

READING: As our summer reading program proved, my younger two have no issues with reading. :) (I'll do a post about book lists soon!) So. I'm just going to leave this alone and have them continue reading as they've been doing...requiring at least 100 pages a week (which has been absolutely no problem...Asher's actually been doing more than twice that). Every so often, I'll throw in an assigned book that relates to a unit we're working on, but I'm mostly letting them choose their material.

WRITING: I give up on trying to follow specific writing curriculums for now. I'm going to try to work this into our other subjects this year instead...having the boys write summaries and outlines and essays progressively as we go through the year. I think the key for us this year is simply to do more writing. :) (I have high hopes that this will be easier to accomplish without a certain teenager bringing us down and complaining about why we have to do things, lol.)

And that's language arts...

PS To those who have contacted me mentioning how much you enjoy seeing what other homeschoolers are doing, I'd love to see what you're up to also! Link me up! ;)

2014-15 Homeschool Plan: Math

I'll start with math. Look here for last year's information. This year, we're returning to having both boys doing the same thing.

The plan is to work through Discovering Math 7B with both boys, review Discovering Math 7A (which we worked through together this past year), and use some of the Key to Algebra books to review and reinforce topics as we go.

Having used both of these programs before, I can say that I like both. The Discovering Math books are very clear and easy to teach from...with plenty of sample problems, problems to assign and workbook reviews. We're still at the point where I work through the lessons with the boys, rather than leaving them to tackle it on their own. (But I can see that just handing these books to students to work through on their own would also work well, if that's what you're looking for.) The Key to Algebra program is excellent for concise summation of topics and quick review. (They'd probably also work as a step before introducing a topic...to lay the groundwork.)

To touch on what worked and didn't last year:

• Art of Problem Solving: Algebra...used this for Noah and definitely like this program. I'll use it again when the younger two get older.
• Teaching Textbooks...used this (Math 7 and then Pre-Algebra) for Asher for the first half of the year but then switched, as he decided it was not challenging and too repetitive. I'm still appreciative of the ease of using this program but apparently it's not a great fit for us.
• Life of Fred...had Asher read through these on his own last year (Decimals and Pre-Algebra 1). I think they were valuable as a supplement.
• Beast Academy...had Micah use these some last year but finally stopped, as we found that bouncing back and forth between material was unnecessarily confusing. I still really enjoy this curriculum and wish that they'd been around sooner.
• Hands on Equations...didn't use this as a curriculum but found the manipulatives and ideas behind this were valuable for setting up the introduction to equations.

So. That's math. ;)

2014-15 Homeschool Plan: Overall

Finally getting around to my somewhat annual homeschool posts. ;)

So. As I've mentioned, this year's different for us...because I'm only homeschooling two of my three. Noah's enjoying the charter high school he's attending. Meanwhile, Asher and Micah are homeschooling. Here's more about that:

• We started slowly (last week) and will use a roughly "6 weeks on, 1-2 weeks off" schedule. (Yes, this means that sometimes the younger two won't have school while Noah does, and sometimes Noah won't have school while the younger two do.)
• Both will still attend the Fort Collins Options program on Mondays. Today was their first day and everything went swimmingly. :) 
• Technically speaking, Asher will be in 6th grade and Micah will be in 4th. As usual, the schoolwork we do doesn't necessarily follow that; and, for purposes of Options, Asher is listed as 7th grade and Micah is listed as 5th.
• Given Asher and Micah's aptitudes and personalities, I'm looking forward to using a single lesson plan for both boys for most subjects this year and am truly excited about the possibilities.
• Given Noah's new schedule, we'll ALL be working to shift our routines...getting up and getting to bed earlier. (This is mostly an issue for Nathan and Noah, lol.)

Now, I'll continue by subject for the younger two. Feel free, though, to completely skip these upcoming posts. ;) (You can revisit past posts by using that "Homeschooling" category link over on the left...generally, curriculum reviews/plans are in June-Aug 2010, June 2011, August 2012, and July 2013. I'll also be working on updating the boys' curriculum pages on the left.)

Productive but not exactly fun...

See that 10 yard dumpster? Yeah, we filled that this weekend. The sad part is that this was actually the second dumpster. You heard that right. We started with the 8 yard dumpster. Oy.

Saturday morning, we borrowed an extra teenager (thanks, Deanna!) and we got to work. Nathan set Noah and Gabe to loading up and clearing out the 8x8x2' dumping ground in our back yard along with a rock pile leftover from our front yard yardwork earlier this summer (having first removed part of the fence so they could wheel their loads directly across the front yard to the dumpster). This took them most of the day, and we were quite thankful for this plan...as Gabe kept Noah on track and having them work together freed up Nathan to help me in the garage and around back.

Did I mention the garage? Yup. The younger two boys and I spent the morning emptying almost the entire garage out into the driveway (with Nathan handling all the things we couldn't reach, lol). We moved and purged and sorted and eventually started putting things either into the dumpster or back into the garage...working toward the goal of clearing enough space to fit both vehicles into the garage. We got rid of a lot of stuff. ;)

(It's not quite done. It'll be another couple weeks, as we're waiting for the free local hazardous waste disposal day to get rid of the piles and piles of old paint cans and such (most of which have been in the garage since we moved in). Also, Nathan still needs to actually sort through and reorganize his tool area. He's delighted about this, lol.)

So. We filled that first dumpster and called for a second one. Beyond the dumping ground and rock pile and garage purging, we also loaded in piles of leftover debris from our deck removal, pieces of fence that had been removed for painting and such (new fence will be installed Tuesday!), and branches that we cut off one of the trees in the front since we're going to have the new fenceline move forward a few feet. We worked pretty much all day Saturday, and Nathan and I finished up this morning before tackling our normal weekend chores. It feels awesome to have all that stuff gone, but OY. ;)

(BTW, on Saturday alone, we went through a dozen eggs, four large pizzas, an order of breadsticks, an order of chicken tenders, two rotisserie chickens, and about three dozen gatorade bottles. Everyone managed to stay hydrated and mostly injury free. Mostly. Let's just note that most of the wood that went into the dumpsters had nails or screws protruding from them. Nathan will be getting a tetanus shot tomorrow.)

So far, so good.

Noah's been at CEC for a little over a week now. It's going really well! I think we're all maybe a little surprised at how smoothly and positively it's going. ;) To be more specific, here are some of the random thoughts I've had over the past week:

• Yay! So far we've managed to get the boy out the door on time and with minimal fuss...showered, fed and with everything in his backpack. The fact that we've made him responsible for making his own lunches and checking that he has everything makes this even more happy. We've basically just made sure he was awake (which sometimes took multiple checks, lol), fed him breakfast and reminded him of the time to get out the door. (And, the younger two have generally been up and ready to go by the time Noah leaves, which bodes well for our homeschooling plans.)
• All homework has been completed and turned in on time so far. (The school's PowerSchool system enables us to see all the assignments and due dates, though I've been working on just talking it through with him.) It helps that he has a free period in the middle of the day that he can use to finish up assignments or get ahead, though there really hasn't been enough work thus far to fully utilize this.
• The boy actually requested and is routinely wearing a watch. He realized that, though there's a clock in every classroom, it's helpful to know when he's arriving at the school and such.
• A non-stick skillet makes making eggs soooo much easier in the morning. ;) Don't ask me why, but we didn't have one for some reason. Scraping the pan we'd been using after making eggs did *not* inspire us to want to make eggs often. But. Ten dollars later and we have a relatively quick, easy and considerably cheaper breakfast than the steak/sausage/bacon that Noah would prefer.
• Pretty darn happy with myself for having established the habit of debriefing with the boys. For the past five years of Options/LEAP, I've taken boys out for a snack after picking them up that one day a week. During that, they'd take turns going through each class with me...telling me what they'd done, whether they had any work, if they'd had any problems, etc. For the moment, it's second nature enough to Noah that he comes home and goes through each of his classes with me, knowing already that "fine" or "okay" is not acceptable as a response. ;) (I love that the boys share this stuff with me! For someone who's used to seeing them all day and knowing pretty much everything that they're doing, this makes it easier to feel good about the necessary letting go.)
• Silently stoked at how well Noah appears to be doing in his classes so far, particularly in his two math classes. He had pre-tests in each of those classes and feels fairly confident in his performance. In Algebra 2, they also had some timed problems just for fun and Noah finished first in his class for half of them (and second for the remaining half). This earned him the right to skip half of that day's homework but he still went ahead and did all of them...all on his own! (If you knew the issues I've had with Noah regarding self-starting, you'd see how freakin' awesome this is. It's lovely to see him realize that he actually is good at this stuff by other people's standards, too.) 
• When he shared this stuff with us, Nathan kindly pointed out that perhaps Noah should be thankful that he'd had such a wonderful teacher (me!) leading up to this. ;) (Thank-you-very-much! ;) Honestly, it's just a relief. I think all homeschoolers have moments of doubt...wondering how our kids will "stack up," whether we've actually been making a difference.) 

Whew. I'm breathing so much easier. :) I know there will still be challenges ahead, but it's lovely to start out on this note...