Back to School
2023-24 here we come
I had hoped to blog my planning process a bit over the summer, but events intervened, so instead, you get the outcome of the process. Here’s the plan:
The so-called content subjects - science and social studies - everyone studies the same thing every year. This year we’re all doing biology and world history, ancient through 1492 for the younger kids, a little later for Benedict, who hit the Age of Exploration pretty hard a couple of years ago.
Agnes (“1st grade”): After the first week of lessons, I got on Rainbow Resource and ordered her stack of workbooks to do independently because she keeps asking for more schoolwork. What I really just want to do with her this year is the next couple of Miquon books, Webster’s Speller, Learning Handwriting through Literature: Primer , and memorize “Hiawatha’s Childhood” (a rite of passage for all six-year olds here). I was on the fence about having her do some light biology output with her older siblings, but I think I am going to have to make that work. I have a list of history- and biology-related picture book read alouds to work through with her.
Nicholas (“3rd grade”): Nicholas is catching up to his brother in math, and I’m a bit unsure about how to handle that. Maybe it would be no big deal for them to continue in the same program even if Nicholas starts to move ahead of his older brother, but I don’t know that want to chance it. On the other hand, I like Math Mammoth, I’ve taught it four times now and am comfortable with it, and the thought of learning another curriculum is not appealing. I have a little time before Nicholas would completely catch up, so I’m just going to keep thinking about that one for now.
Nicholas is also doing the LHTL: Primer, but in cursive. He’ll be reading the Horton-Carey 4th Reader with me and sharing a stack of old narrative history books with Edmund - mostly Mary Macgregor’s two books on Greece and Rome. They’ll just read and narrate those. I’ve got lists of books to check out from the library for biology and some very simple research templates for each of the five kingdoms (I know, I know, I’m sticking with five kingdoms, sue me). Nicholas will also continue piano lessons with my mom.
Edmund (“5th grade”): He should get through at least Math Mammoth 5A and 5B this year, the Baker and Carpenter Fifth Year Language Reader, a mash-up of Montessori materials and KISS grammar, and a lot of copywork. He has his own biology research templates and is particularly looking forward to some botany studies. Finally, he is playing trombone in homeschool band again this year
Kateri (“7th grade”): Kateri should finish up Math Mammoth 6 and move on to 7 at some point this year. Also planned for her: the Everyday Classics Seventh Reader, KISS grammar, Model English Book 1, biology research (including putting together a vet care reference notebook), and ancient history studies using some of the OUP World in Ancient Times series and Dorothy Mills’ books on the Greeks and Romans. She’ll also continue with Familia Romana - my goal is to get through the second third of the book and have her take the Beginning Latin NLE in the spring. And she will continue with the violin.
Benedict (“10th grade”): Benedict will continue his math studies with a local friend who is teaching precalculus this year. She has warned the kids to expect a significant increase in difficulty this year, so we’ll see how that goes. Also on the more time-consuming side, Benedict is preparing for the AP Latin exam with me. Biology will be a mix of a conventional textbook and some hopefully engaging trade books, plus a few homestead-oriented labs (eg. doing fecal parasite counts). For history, he’s reading the first half or so of Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s world history textbook with various supplementary readings. I’m, um, still finalizing his English reading list, but he’ll be practicing composition with Model English Book 2. Rounding out his sophomore year, Benedict will be finishing Athenaze, playing flute, singing in Honors Choir, volunteering at his dad’s school, and, yikes, learning to drive.
I also have some plans for a few more posts around here beyond week-in-the-life round-ups. I’ve long wanted to make myself really think through and articulate what I’ve taken away from a few key educational thinkers. Also half-written are some musings about how science fits into general education, the strange history of the teaching of English, how we use Familia Romana, and an overview of my thus-far successful method for teaching children to read.
I look forward to reading those posts-in-progress when they are ready!