A Little Rebellion Every Now & Then

I’ve been lurking over at the WTM boards again… they suck me in more than I would like to admit, from time to time.

At any rate, there have been a spate of posts recently about planning - how people do it, what people keep in their own “teacher notebook” and so forth. I’ve never really been content with how I had things planned. I either had computer files or handwritten notes, but I never have managed to keep it all in one place, and since I made my schedules dependent on dates, it was too easy to need to scrap the whole thing before the school year was even a fourth done.

One of the posts I read gave me an idea, though. Schedule 180 days, and number the days. Then, if we’re “off schedule,” I have to redo exactly one schedule, the one that shows what date corresponds to what number day. That’s it! All the other schedules would remain exactly the same!

I’m also going to keep my state forms in the same notebook. This sounds like a really good idea, since I tend to forget them.

So far, then, I’ve planned out all of next year’s grammar in an excel spreadsheet, with a column for each particular resource, and the numbered days in the leftmost column. I’ve managed to schedule about half of the math (I don’t have the rest of the math books yet to schedule those!). I’ll probably take a stab at spelling and Latin sometime in the next few days. Then I’ll move on to some of the weekly subjects, before coming back to reading/literature. I have to put together what titles I want Gillian to read, and then figure out the scheduling, so that’s the most complex.

The main thing, though, is that I think this will really work. Beyond that, it will enable someone else to pick up my notebook and find everything they need to get Gillian going on schoolwork without my having to detail exactly what’s expected for that day in person.

I sketched out more details for our summer of history tonight, and it appears that we will finish SOTW2 by or on Thursday, July 10. This is a good spacing; if we have supplemental reading, it can be available for the remainder of July and all of August, and there will be almost two months without SOTW to whet her appetite for more come autumn!

I don’t have history planned out well for third grade. I know that I want to continue doing SOTW and covering world history, but I also know that she needs to have more in-depth study of her own country’s history. Not because I’m particularly USA-is-better-than-everyone-rah-rah, though I do have a healthy dose of patriotism at times, but because I know that the standards for testing and what people are ‘expected’ to know do contain a lot of American history. I also feel that being informed about your country’s history and government is an essential part of being an involved citizen - which I hope all of my children aspire to be.

With that in mind, I’ve essentially decided not to supplement world history, just covering it through SOTW3 with the accompanying map work, coloring pages, and review questions/narration assignments. The difficulty, though, is that I am sure there will be at least a few things for which I’ll want to make exceptions! I did decide to concentrate our reading comprehension and literature primarily on historical fiction focusing on early American history. That will make some decisions easier, but there are still so very many excellent children’s history books. I also have Zinn-for-kids, want to buy Hakim, and have the Children’s Encyclopedia of American History. Oh, and she got The American Story for Christmas last year!

The difficulty may be finding enough time to read all of these wonderful books.

I also am having doubts about grammar. I don’t really want her doing a fifth grade grammar book in fourth grade. While I know she could handle it, there’s no real advantage to it and I don’t want to push push push for it to happen. Ideally, we’ll add in some supplemental workbooks from both Critical Thinking and Evan-Moore (editing, punctuation), and take the remainder of GWG Grade 3 (just Chapters 4 and 5 remaining, so a total of forty lessons and two chapter reviews) a little more slowly. We’ll still begin GWG Grade 4 soon after finishing GWG Grade 3 (around January?), but take plenty of time to finish it. If she absolutely is bored silly, then we can start GWG Grade 5 in late fourth grade. I do want to add supplemental diagramming workbooks, too. So we’ll still do grammar four or five days a week, but only three days will be in GWG, and one or two days will just be supplemental workbooks. I think the Evan-Moore workbooks are designed to be done daily, so we may do those all grammar days.

The big thing is that it puts us ready for grade five, logic stage grammar on target with fifth grade. I will have to decide between continuing with Growing with Grammar in logic stage or switching after fourth or fifth grade to something like Hake (Grammar and Writing, 5-8). I can see the advantage to switching, to make sure that there are no retention-type problems. I can also see the advantage to staying with what works! Two more years before I have to make that decision… thankfully.

x-posted from my personal blog

I can’t believe it’s already time to start planning in earnest for next year.

I’ve started on my list of items at which to look during the convention. I don’t really want to hear any of the speakers, so we’re just going to pay for entry into the vendor hall. I think that the fee will be worth it both in terms of saving on shipping costs and by the fact that Sam will actually attend with me and look at the materials.

So, at what to look?

I know I want to look at RightStart. At the very least, I want to get the Math Card Games Kit and the Fraction Puzzle. I want to take a look at the scope and sequence of Levels C through E. I don’t think I’ll change programs for Gillian at this point but I haven’t totally decided against it. Finally, I’m seriously considering going ahead and purchasing Level A. I know I want to use it with Jacob starting at some point during his “K3″ year (especially as he’ll be 3 1/2 before we ever start “K3″) but I also thought that some of it could be “fun” for Gillian without her really realizing it’s a form of review.

I know I want to go to the Classical Home Education table. If I haven’t purchased it by then, I want to get R.E.A.L. Science Life (Level One), for use during the remainder of this school year and over the summer. I’m also definitely going to purchase R.E.A.L. Science Earth & Space (Level One) along with the supplemental materials.

I’d like to check out the poetry memorization program that Institute for Excellence in Writing produces. I want to find out more about Phonetic Zoo, too.

I’m waiting on the Sonlight catalogue to see if there’s anything I want to purchase from them. I’m seriously considering purchasing Core 2, or at least parts of it, and using it as a supplement to SOTW 2 (and possibly 3 & 4, since it does cover from the “Dark Ages” onward to modern history). I don’t know. Even though I hate having something scheduled for me, I’m not sure that I don’t need something scheduled for me.

I’m hoping to take a look at various modern language programs. I really still want Gillian to learn Spanish, but I need something that requires little to no teacher interaction. On top of that, I’d prefer something that wasn’t computer-based. I know I’ll have to compromise on at least part of that, which is another reason I want Sam with me. He’s a good sounding board, most of the time.

Luckily I already have what I need for spelling, handwriting, writing, grammar, and history. I have a few “real” books I want to buy for both history and classical studies, but I will do that via amazon. I really have what I need for mathematics as well; the Math Card Games Kit will be a supplement, and it’s highly unlikely I’ll ditch the Miquon/Developmental Math combination with Gillian.