Good-Bye Old Friend: Five In a Row Bible Supplement

We are done now with FIAR, so to keep the clutter to min we are selling off all our stuff. So sad, but it can bless another family.

2010-2011 Homeschool Curriculum HOP

Thanks to the good folks at Heart of the Matter for hosting Not Back To School Blog Hop. This always helps me organize my thoughts and plans.

So here we go……………….

We are introducing new math, grammar, spelling and History program this year. Also we are going to start to focus on more home education and a little less roadschooling.


This is our planned curriculum for homeschool for 2010-2011 2nd/3rd Grade Years:

Core: Five In A Row
Our primary curriculum will be Five In A Row Volume 4. I wanted to move to Winter’s Promise for a theme program because I simply didn’t have time to plan, print and organize FIAR this year. But after going to the local homeschool conference I realized that FIAR can work for us just modified. In the seminar about gifted children the speaker did warn changing everything from year to year. After the BIG MOVE last year where his whole world changed, I think we need to limit the amount of changes this year.

After much prayer we thought it best to leave the spine of FIAR but altered it to fit our needs. FIAR has a bible curriculum which I will be using and adding lapbook elements for scripture.

Grammar
Introducing Grammar with Winter’s Promise Language Arts curriculum and living books from the series “If you were” .



Mathematics
We are excited to start Right Start Math this year. The box arrived last week and we can’t wait to get our hands on the manipulatives.

History
This will be our first year of formal history study using the Story of The World program Volume I, Ancient Times. It covers history from the First Nomads, Egypt, the Jewish People, Abraham and Joseph, Hammurabi and the Babylonians, the Assyrians, Ancient China, Ancient Africa, Exodus, the Phoenicians, the Greeks and Rome.



Physical Education
We are enrolled in a Homeschool Physical Education co-op class, basketball class, swimming and martial arts.

Art
We are enrolled in a local co-op class and visiting museum exhibits throughout the year.

Music/Drama
We are enrolled in a local co-op class and taking part of in free concert/play venues in the area. The search is still on for individual instruction but we do have an at home drum program.

Science
We are enrolled in a accelerated local co-op class and visiting museum exhibits throughout the year.

I am so excited!!!!!!


You can read more curriculum plans and add yours at the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

A Change Is Gonna Come

I have been in prayer about what is to become of this blog. It has become clear that this should be a virtual space to record our homeschooling journey. Which means it will be incorporated into our school year plans with timely updates.

To that end let me share that this is planning season. Planning season for homeschoolers is exciting time because everything is fresh with new possibilities and grand goals. The trick I have found in my three years of homeschooling is to embrace those grand design, explore them and put them down in revision 1 of the plan. Then back off, give it a day and think about your life. Who are you? Who are your kids? How many outside activities do you plan on doing? How long will they really take? Where are the potential rabbit holes or unexpected cool field trips likely to happen? How your household actually functions? Then adjust the plan to this reality. Thereby avoiding complete homeschooling meltdown when things do not go as planned. Remember it is homeschooling so keep it SIMPLE and FLEXIBLE.

Part 1: What worked and what didn't work last year.

FIAR kinda worked last year but is planning intensive in order to support ds's learning style.

I honestly didn't think I had the time this summer to pull all of it together. But the other options are outside our budget right now, so I made a choice to slow down our summer plans to incorporate planning days. That is right days because I had to adjust my expectations of getting it done all at once.

Here is my attempt to plan with Five In A Row (FIAR). All items highlighted in gray were completed in 2008-2010. Items in green are planned for this year.
Five In A Row 2010-2011 School Year Plan

FIAR: Owl Moon Lapbook

This was book was a struggle at first. Reading about snow when there is about 30 plus inches outside your window was not a good move. I think it added to his cabin fever. The great thing was we were able to get out and take a fieldtrip to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Naturalist Center. We got to spend one on one time with the staff and explored owl pellets collected by the staff as well as see giant mouths. The day also included working with rocks, minerals, bones, and learning about animal tracks.

I will include the photos later...Blogger is having issues uploading them tonight.

Lapbook Resources

Homeschool Share

The Homeschool Mom (THM)

Enchanted Learning