The Plan

I've got the general plan for the 2009-2010 school year. Blake is going into 7th grade at the Public School. Since we've moved he'll be one of the "new kids". He's made a few friends in the neighborhood though so it won't be that bad. He started football camp this week and boy is he CUTE in the uniform. Growing so fast!

Brooke is coming back home for the third grade. We'll be somewhat following a Classical approach to homeschooling. It seems to work well for us.

Math - We'll be using Singapore. This will be new to us but my husband (the mathematician- not really but he is in this family) helped me research several math programs. He was really impressed with the mental math approach. He always impresses me with his mental math abilities so we'll go with it.

Spelling - We're using SpellWell. Judging by the samples, she is going to love this. Spelling is one of her favorite subjects.

English and Writing - Rod and Staff English 3. Their English is top notch in my opinion. It's very thorough.

Science - Zoology 1 Exploring Creation Series - Just ordered the Experiment Supply kit from CreationSenesation today. Those experiments actually get done when I don't have to find obscure items or empty out my mayonnaise jar to get it done!

Penmanship - We'll finish up her Zaner-Bloser book that she didn't finish in public school last year. When she finishes that we'll order the next one in the series.

History - We're using Truth Quest American History Exploration-1800's. We'll read lots of great books and do some notebooking, narrating, map work and maybe some lapbooking too. We're using This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall as our spine.

Reading - We'll be reading lots of literature from the period of History that we're studying. Lots of discussion and narrating.

I'd like to add some Latin and Art to the mix later in the year. She'll be spending more time on her Figure Skating as well.

I will be working with Benjamin on Reading and Writing (Zaner-Bloser) and Math. For math we'll just use library math books. After Christmas I'll re-evaluate and see if he's ready for a more formal math program. Benjamin will kind of tag along with Brooke on Science and History but I think he'll end up playing monster truck with Bradley during that time!

We're going to follow the public school schedule (minus the snow days!). That puts us starting on August 26th. Just a few weeks left of summer!