What is the Plan?

I keep reading posts on blogs that list out and explain what their curriculum choices are for the coming year. I always feel a bit overwhelmed when I read these because they sound like they have their act together and I feel like I am winging it.  I do have a plan of sorts but if I know how I work I tend to mix things up later, add and drop things here and there and yet somehow my kids seem to know how to read, do some math and write. The rest (History and Science) just falls into place because of the environment we create in our home.

But just for the record. We do have a plan.

Sophie - 8th Grade
She is taking a full class load at Williamsburg Intermediate.
 Here is her book list. I have been trying to read the ones I hadn't read already and these are some challenging texts for me to get through. They certainly stepped up the reading for 8th grade.

This should cover all the subjects so I am more of a cheerleader in her schooling rather than the teacher. However, I am not overly excited about Williamsburg's use of Khan Academy as their Math program so we will be using it mainly as a supplement and working through Saxon Algebra 1.

Sophie will also continue to take piano lessons. We will have to fit in some Physical activity too. Once the weather cools down we should take more bike rides and trips to the tennis courts again.

Ian - 5th Grade
Ian is taking two online classes with Leadership Education Academy. I signed him up for a Writing course and the Literature class. I know these are not his favorite subjects but I figured if he wants to be ready to start Williamsburg Intermediate next year he needs to get used to the idea of taking classes like these.

This leaves me with History, Science, Math and any other electives.

Ian is doing Saxon Math 65 this year.

History and Science will be done with Henry. We should be covering Modern history. I have Story of the World on the shelf and we may use that but I really want to focus more on American history. So we will cover the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution this Fall.

Science will be Elemental Science Physics for the Grammar stage.

Ian will also have piano lessons and he is already half way through his Mod design class with Youth Digital.

Henry - 4th Grade

I signed Henry up for his first online class. He is taking the Science Explorers class with LEA. It is an experiment to see if he can handle online classes. In the past he just wanted to type in the chat box and do silly things so we will see if he is mature enough to handle classes now.

He will be doing Saxon 54 for Math.

Doing history and science with Ian. We had to do some California History again to appease the charter school we are a part of but that shouldn't be hard since we just did it last year when Ian was in 4th grade. Maybe we will take a trip up to Sacramento this time to visit Sutter's Mill and such. We have done the California Missions in the past and don't need to repeat them.

I will need to figure out what I want to do with Henry's Writing and Language arts. I know we will be doing Spelling and finish up IEW most likely but I haven't commited to anything yet.

Henry also has piano and this Fall he will be on a Soccer Team. This of course means we have two practices and a game every week for the next 12 weeks. Should be fun!

Molly - Kindergarden

I am really not planning on doing a whole lot with Molly's Kindergarden year. We will focus on learning to read mainly.  We have 2/3 of the IEW Pal Reading and Writing left to get through. We will continue with that program.

I don't have plans for anything formal for Math. I haven't started Singapore math until the kids are reading pretty well. I don't want to have to read every math problem to them and they usually jump into Singapore math 1 pretty easily sometime in Kindergarden or 1st grade.

Molly will sit in on history and science with the boys but not have the writen assignments.

Reading and writing is pretty much it for Molly. She is such a tag along kid, I feel bad sometimes.


Other
We will be doing scripture each day and have some piece of poetry we are memorizing. We were doing great with Shakespere before Summer distracted us. I would love to continue. It is just too cute to see Molly recite Shakespere and all the kids love to talk about the characters and tell the stories of Shakespere's plays.

The boys have cub scouts and Sophie has Young Women's activities.

I would love to have an artist and musician each month but haven't planned it yet.  I also have Latin sitting on the shelf which should be a part of the schedule.

We will just have to see how it all fits into our packed full days.

I may not have everything completly planned out but at least we have somewhere to start.

At the moment I need to ween my kids off of the t.v. or computer screen. I find screen time is harder and harder to keep control of. It usued to be so easy when each kid got their hour of play and a movie every once in awhile. Lately it has become an all day affair as Ian does his Mod Design class or is "programming" his Mindstorms. Sophie is "checking her email" and chatting with friends on the computer. Henry just wants to have as much screen time as everyone else is getitng and Molly is always in need of easy entertainment. It is the major dilema in our home at the moment. I wonder what would happen if we went without screens for an whole week. I can't really commit to that since I have to be in communication with people (There is always drama going on in Primary!).

Like most things we will just see how it all plays out.
I try not to stress too much about it. It always works out in the end.