A Little Closer to Getting Organized: Our School Year

August 7, 2007

So today I finally sat down and ordered the rest of our curriculum for this coming year. (I wanted to see just how much money we could spend in two days. See yesterday's post.) That's the biggest step to getting things organized in my head, and now I have the basic list of what everyone is doing:

Jesse (9th grade)
History (1 credit) and Bible (1/2 elective credit): Sonlight Core 100 (American History in Depth)
Science (1 credit): Apologia Biology (This he takes with a bunch of other kids in our support group from an awesome homeschooling dad who is also a public school science teacher. They meet Tuesdays and then do the rest of the work at home.)
Algebra 2 (1 credit): Saxon Algebra 2 (This is also an outside class taught by a homeschooling dad. They meet Fridays and do their weekly assignments at home.)
English 1 (1 credit): Survey of American Literature (Taught by me at our group’s weekly enrichment classes on Mondays. We’ll meet for 2 hours each week and read and discuss 9 novels; have units on poetry, short story, nonfiction, and drama; and round it out with writing, grammar, and vocabulary. He’ll also continue with Spelling Power at home.
Geography (1/2 credit): Trail Guide to U.S. Geography
Other: He’ll also be doing some ACT prep (1/2 credit) by doing Wordly Wise 10, Word Roots, and at this free prep site, and he’ll do some computer courses online to get another 1/2 elective credit. He’ll also continue in Boy Scouts and with his guitar lessons.
So at the end of this year, he’ll have 8 of the required 21 credits (he had a math and science credit last year).


Laurel (5th grade)
History and Bible: Some Sonlight 3 (American History) combined with lots of hands-on, supplemental material including activities from the Pioneer Sampler, Colonial Kids, and various History Pockets; the American Adventure books and Dear America series; and the American Girl: Kit class (taught at our Monday enrichment program).
Geography: Trail Guide to U.S. Geography and Which Way USA (Highlights).
Science: Nature studies and a monthly science day with friends as well as monthly classes through Oak Ridge National Laboratory (hopefully).
Math: Saxon 5/4.
Language Arts: Easy Grammar 5/6, Spelling Power, Wordly Wise 5, Writing Strands (maybe—Jesse didn’t like this, but Laurel might. If not, I’ll go back to Spectrum), A Reason for Writing, Word Roots, journaling.
Art: Enrichment class on Thursdays.
Other: American Sign Language, Hands-On Shakespeare, and sewing at our enrichment class program; piano; swim team (twice weekly), dance, and horseback riding; and of course American Heritage Girls.


Duncan (1st grade)
History and Bible: Same as Laurel
Geography: Trail Guide to U.S. Geography and Which Way USA (Highlights).
Science: Hands-on science, Animal Habitats, and Wilderness Wildlife classes at our Monday program. Also nature studies at home.
Math: Saxon 2
Language Arts: Explode the Code, early readers, and First Language Lessons; handwriting, journaling.
Other: Book Cooks at Monday Fun; soccer and swimming; and Cub Scouts.

I'm probably missing something critical, and I'll probably discover all kinds of goodies that I picked up at McKays Used Books sometime during this past year, but for now, I am moving onto the next stage: cleaning out the cabinets.