Peanut (8, going to be 9 in September) - third grade
- English - we'll be using The Prairie Primer as the base of our Language Arts this year!!! We'll be reading through the whole Little House series together and doing worksheets that I pull off of the web for each book. Spelling words will come from The Good and The Beautiful language arts levels 1 - 3, as will grammar lessons.
- Handwriting - a combination of Handwriting Without Tears level 3 that I received from a good friend of mine and practice books from the Dollar Tree.
- Reading - this is an area we'll be focusing on quite a bit this year as Peanut struggles a little with reading. We'll be using some of the stuff from The Good and The Beautiful levels 1 - 3 and a selection of books by reading level from our local library. Our goal is for her to be reading completely independently by the end of the school year. We may also pull out Phonics Pathways again and go over it once more.
- Math - Math Lessons for a Living Education level 3 and some Life of Fred (starting with Apples) as we've not done any of the younger levels of Life of Fred. We've also been given a complete set (!) of Math You See Beta!!!!! Which we'll be working through. As math is one of Peanut's favorite subjects we'll see how this program works for her (we were also gifted parts of both Gamma and Delta sets as well).
- History - Notgrass America the Beautiful ... we received this set for free for review towards the end of last year, we'll be using it for the spine of our history (with The Prairie Primer as gap fillers) and I'll be writing a more in depth review later in the school year.
- Science - We'll be doing physical science this year from a book I was given for free that spans k - 8th grades ... we'll be picking and choosing units to study from it and I'll figure out which one we'll be starting with just before we head back to school on September 5th. We'll also be pulling science lessons out of The Prairie Primer. We'll also be doing nature journaling with Exploring Nature With Children, a full year long program.
- Physical Education - Family Time Fitness !!!! We've been given a free year of Family Time Fitness to check out and do a review on! I'm very excited about this because it'll be easier to keep active during the cold Michigan winters with this AND my one exercise DVD lol ... Peanut will also be doing soccer in the spring and possibly ballet classes
- Art - this will be pulled out of The Good and The Beautiful that we'll be doing as they have excellent art ... I'll also be pulling up how to draw videos off of YouTube to go along with whatever she wants to learn how to draw
- Bible - Just for Me, The Bible and catechism classes through our local parish
Peanut is our autistic angel so it's an amazing thing that after having to redo both preschool and kindergarten levels during her first grade year because she had forgotten everything (and redoing first grade year so she's a year "behind" by Michigan standards but right on track due to her birthday by many other states standards) that she's where she is now!! We don't worry about being behind or ahead with any of the campers, because we go at their pace. Peanut has just made very big strides in learning over the last couple of years and we're very proud of her! What a wonderful thing to be going into third grade with our youngest!
YCJ {Younger Cracker Jack (12)} - sixth grade
- English - we'll be using The Prairie Primer as the base of her language arts this year as well. Spelling will come from The Good and the Beautiful level 5, as well as her grammar lessons.
- Handwriting - we'll be doing copywork of our Bible study and select passages out of the Little House series as well as more practice with a workbook on our cursive
- Reading - YCJ still struggles with reading due to her dyslexia, but she is nearly on grade level now. So, we'll be concentrating on working on reading comprehension with her and letting her pick a new chapter book from the library every couple of weeks where she'll be required to give a book report on each one.
- Math - Saxon math 7/6 ... this is the only subject that she's advanced in so she's actually doing seventh grade math this year. We'll also be using the early Life of Fred books with her so that she'll be prepared to go through the Life of Fred pre-algebra books starting in the fall of 2018, she'll probably do Fractions over the summer of 2018
- History - Notgrass America the Beautiful with Peanut and pulling some studies out of the Prairie Primer
- Science - she'll be doing the same science as Peanut with just more required out of her work wise ... like research papers and extra studies. And of course, nature journaling.
- Physical Education - Family Time Fitness. YCJ will also likely be joining a ballet class during the spring and possibly softball
- Art - this will be pulled out of The Good and The Beautiful and she'll be working through a few how to draw books that we picked up
- Bible - Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul and catechism classes through our local parish
YCJ is our lovely dyslexic child who wouldn't let her diagnosis become what her definition is. She's worked hard on her reading over the years and is very close to being at grade level, which is such an achievement! Of course we'll be working on her reading still this year but I have no doubt that she'll be up to grade level by the end of the school year. We're very proud of her!
ECJ {Elder Cracker Jack (15)} - tenth grade
- English - this year I've made up the curriculum for his language arts. He'll be reading through a book of classic short stories, writing in a writing prompt book (that I found at a local store) that has over 200 writing prompts, and going through American Literature through Easy Peasy All in One High School. Also, going through Life of Fred Language Arts books. (1 credit)
- Math - he'll be working through three Life of Fred books, starting with finishing up Fractions (as a review), moving on to Beginning Algebra and then Advanced Algebra. Using Easy Peasy All in One High School Algebra 2 as well. (1 credit)
- History - The Good and The Beautiful History Level 1 (1 credit)
- Science - he'll be working through a Physics book that we were given for free (way older edition) and Easy Peasy All in One High School Physics with Lab ... if this doesn't work then we'll be using Guest Hollow's High School Conceptual Physics (which doesn't include the math aspect) (1 credit)
- Physical Education - Family Time Fitness and PE/Health 2 from Easy Peasy All in One High School (1 credit)
- Spanish - Easy Peasy All in One High School Spanish 2 and Duolingo (1 credit)
- Bible - Easy Peasy All in One High School Bible 2, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, and daily Bible readings (1 credit)
- Drivers Education - going through a local driving school (half a credit - fall class)
- Computer Coding - Going through Easy Peasy All in One High School using CodeAcademy (1 credit)
- American Government - the Everything American Government book ( half a credit - spring class)
This gives ECJ nine credit hours this year. He requested Computer Coding or it wouldn't be on his schedule this year. With his ADHD we've found a mixture of online and book learning to be perfect for keeping his attention, so we're going ahead with the same type of mix that we had last year. Some of the courses look like a lot for one kid to do (like how much is scheduled for language arts) but it's a subject that he excels in and will fly through the information.
Something that all three campers will be using this year again is Discovery K12 ... we don't do everything that they have scheduled each day but it's a good place to touch base to make sure that we're covering what needs covering. And often times it works for a great reinforcement of subjects already covered in other places that we work through. We'll also be using CNN 10 (formerly CNN Student News) for YCJ, ECJ will be watching the regular news with us nightly to keep up with current events, and Peanut will just get the highlights so she doesn't have to deal with the more depressing parts of the news just yet. CNN 10 is a fifteen minute daily news program whose target group is middle school and up, YCJ began watching it every day last year and ECJ began watching it several years ago. We'll also be working through, and reviewing Exploring Nature With Children year long nature study!!!
So, that's our current curriculum choices for the upcoming school year. Things for ECJ could change just depending on what ends up working for him. If the language arts curriculum that I've come up with doesn't work for him then we'll be moving on to The Good and The Beautiful high school level of language arts if it is released in time ... if not he'll be doing level 7. And I already listed above his options for Physics this year (another course that he requested). The girls will pretty much stay the same no matter what, if the unit study approach with The Prairie Primer doesn't work for us we'll simply drop it and move into the appropriate level of The Good and The Beautiful all the way.
Here's hoping that we have a wonderful and exciting year!!!!!
Looks like a great plan!
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