10th grade curriculum choices for 2013-14 school year

HISTORY/ BIBLE
He will be using Notgrass curriculum: (http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/home.php).
 (sorry picture quality isn't good)
He will be participating in a once-a-week class where they will discuss the reading AND take and grade the quizzes that go along with the curriculum (in the quiz and exam pack). He will complete the Bible study questions posted each day for a full credit of Bible as well. 

LITERATURE/ WRITING
Luckily, the Notgrass curriculum also includes writing assignments and novels to coincide with the lessons! A goal of mine is to be diligent with grading the writing assignments each week and providing immediate feedback. I can address any issues I see in private lessons with him. He has a lot of novels to read!


Here's a link to all the titles: http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/Exploring-World-History-Literature-Package.html

VOCABULARY
Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power (finish volume 1 and then move to volume 2)


MATH
Teaching Textbooks~ since we started Geometry half-way through last year, he will  have to finish that up before moving into Algebra 2. I have done a lot of research on this curriculum, and I know there is a lot of criticism of the high-school levels. I just can't switch from this because it solved our number one problem in homeschooling: math. I was still undecided about this when I went to a homeschool convention in May. Somehow, I ended up in conversation with a lady on a bench beside me, and she happened to mention how her now-in-college son had used TT all through homeschooling and was doing great in college. It was a random comment and I chose to see that as a sign. When my son reaches his senior year (if TT doesn't come out with another year), I will make sure he takes a class (either at a local college or through a homeschool high school program right near us) to better prepare him for college.


PE
Family Time Fitness High School Fitness Foundational Strength
http://www.familytimefitness.com/fitness4homeschool/Fitness4HomeSchoolHighSchool.php
They frequently offer $15 off or other sales. He will combine this with treadmill a few times a week. This has him keep a training record, etc. and teaches basic strength training.

SCIENCE
Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry


SPANISH
Rosetta Stone Spanish Homeschool Edition (continuing from last two years)


He will continue with learning computer programming, etc. on his own time. For now, I don't have other electives planned.  I hope some others share their high school curriculum; this is scary because it's so important! 

Our 9th Grade Curriculum for 2012-13 School Year

First off, let me state what will become obvious: I spent a lot of money on curriculum this year. I've been hoarding gift money and spent all of it on curriculum. I am chronically tired and I really wanted my hand held this year as I navigated our first year dealing with high school. So, we went with Winter Promise "Quest for the Ancient World." We are using their history curriculum, as well as their Language Arts, which includes some writing, grammar, and novels that tie into what is being studied in History. 

Here are a list of the core books for Senior High: (copied from the Winter Promise website:

http://www.winterpromise.net/product_info.php?cPath=21_38&products_id=1260&osCsid=a04e76d6cecfd1c891d6aa66c77b7b94)

The Mystery of History - 2nd edition
Encyclopedia of the Ancient World
Great Ancient China Projects
Holman Bible Atlas
Archaeology for Kids
Unwrapping the Pharaohs & DVD
Story of the World, Vol. 1
The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone
Ancient Greek Challenges
Ancient Roman Challenges
Tools of the Ancient Greeks
Tools of the Ancient Romans
Augustus Caesar's World

I am excited to be using Mystery of History!

Here are the novels he will be reading:

Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
The Golden Goblet
Victory on the Walls
The Iliad
Bronze Bow
Gladiator
Hittite Warrior
God King
Adara
The Odyssey

In addition, he will read these novels for La. Arts:

Mara, Daughter of the Nile; Shadow Hawk; Hadassah; Archimedes & the Door of Science; D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths; Galen & the Gateway to Medicine; The Ides of April; Beyond the Desert Gate; Ben Hur

In addition to history, reading the novels, and grammar, he will also be reading from this:

For Math, he will finish up Math-U-See Algebra 1 (the last 9 weeks to be exact; Math was a struggle last year and we detoured a lot.)

After he finishes this, we will move on to Life of Fred Geometry:

For Vocabulary, he is beginning SAT prep. We are using this book because he is a visual learner:

He has to do two words per day. He has to copy the words into a notebook along with the definition and a "hook" (either a picture or a phrase based on the info in the book).

He has additional Bible work each day, and will work through this book: (The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study)

A special thanks to this website, which I will use as a reference for lesson plans for this book:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/bible-lesson-plans/

He will do Spanish twice per week; he will continue with Rosetta Homeschool Spanish.

For the other two days (we do a 4-day week due to co-op), he will do an art appreciation class for this workbox. I got my lesson plans from here:

http://harmonyfinearts.com/section/rhetoric/

It uses these books:

Another of his workboxes is Music Appreciation. I am using the free curriculum also found on harmonyfinearts.com. Here are the main resources:

For Science, he is using Apologia Biology.

I buy the curriculum from My Father's World so I can use their lesson plans, which are already typed up and bound so I just include that in his box. He also will be doing interactive notebooking and lapbooking with science. I want it all to be in a big 3-ring binder, so instead of using a regular notebook, I am printing off pages that look like this:

from this website: http://www.printablepaper.net/

It is lined paper that runs the long way instead of the short way. I will fold each piece in half and then open it up so it is divided into a clear left and right side. On the right side, he will take notes. On the left, he will apply the information in a creative way. I've given him a list of things to choose from, some of which are ask ?s, draw a picture, create a chart or mini-book, or do a chart/graph to help remember the material. Usually this is done in a spiral notebook (search for "interactive notebooking" online), but this way, I can punch holes in it and include it in his Biology binder so everything is together. Later in September, some other moms and I are going to try to start a Biology co-op so we can do the labs together. 

I am using lapbooks from http://liveandlearnpress.com.

He will also be doing some spelling. We will do a combination of All About Spelling and the suggested words in Winter Promise. 

I think that is everything! Here's hoping for a good first year of homeschool high school!!

Not Back to School Day!!

Wish me luck! Tomorrow (Monday, August 6, 2012) is our first day of our new homeschool year!!

It was supposed to be last Monday... nothing like messing up the pre-planned school year first thing, but I have had a major mental block concerning our school. I have tried to do small steps, but have mainly felt completely overwhelmed. I know the main reason is that we are basically doing all new curriculum for all but 2 things (and there are 20 regular subjects between my two boys). Also, my oldest is NOW A 9TH GRADER. Thinking about transcripts, the SAT, high school course credits, etc. makes me want to go and consume large amounts of chocolate protein to get through the stress.

Here's our set-up for tomorrow for my 9th grader:

We are not numbering the boxes this year, but just labeling them by subject. The labels have to go sideways on these boxes. I got my subject cards here:

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/02/workbox-school-subject-cards.html

I will do a separate post on his curriculum.

Here is my 5th grader's boxes (I finally splurged on the IKEA Trofast system:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30171123/

with these boxes/bins: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60094072/#/80089239)

He has 10 boxes (which I will explain in a different post). Again, subjects and no numbers. The first 3-4 boxes will be the "Work with Mom" boxes so we can get to those at the beginning of the day, with his independent work for the afternoon. (You can see my 9th grader's boxes in this picture also; they are right beside each other). The bit of red you can see at the top of the photo is a bag that I taped on that contains 10 laminated tags that say "Finished!" Each box has a velcro dot on the far right. When he is finished, he just adds the "Finished!" label. This way, he still has a visual for what work he had completed and has yet to complete, but I am not dealing with stacked boxes everywhere. Also, this way he can just remove the contents of each box instead of the entire box if he chooses (which presumably he will then return to the correct box!)

Last week, while we didn't officially begin our new school year, we did a mini-unit on the Olympics and finished up a few things from last school year that my extreme fatigue prevented me from enforcing. I also typed up and went over a "Welcome" letter to try to make things more official and hold ALL of us more accountable. It includes our subjects, schedule, and a few other things.

Here is that:

WELCOME TO J & J ACADEMY 2012-13 SCHOOL YEAR!!

Jason- 9th Grade    Joel- 5th grade

SUBJECTS:

Bible

History (Ancient World)

Spelling

Math (Jason: finish Algebra 1 and begin Geometry)

Art and Music appreciation (composers, artists and their works)

Science (Joel: Zoology, Jason: Biology)

Vocabulary

La. Arts (Grammar, Writing, Reading)

Others may include typing, Spanish, PE, Logic, Handwriting

In History this year, we will be learning about the cultures of ancient peoples from the beginning of history to the Roman Empire. We will study these civilizations: Mesopotamia, the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Time lines and time line cards will be a key component, and our novels will reinforce what we are learning. 

Notebooking will be used in many subjects. Notebooks should have a table-of-contents for the first few pages. Take notes on the right-side page, then go back and apply that information on the left-side. You can draw pictures, ask ?s, do a chart, or any other creative thing you can think of to help you learn and remember the information. You can also print things off of the Internet or do mini-books.  

DAILY SCHEDULE (usually 4 days a week plus SEEK)

School from 10-12 and 1-3, with a one hour break for lunch/ free time.

REQUIRED: a daily conference with me. We will go over what you've done and learned that day, grade anything you've completed, and prepare workboxes for the next day. You can choose to do this when you finish for the day (before 3) or in the evening after dinner (and before 8:30 PM).

You will be given a responsibility grade based on completing your morning routine and this conference. Grades will also be assigned for each subject.  Corrections are expected; you will earn back half the points taken off for each correction corrected correctly. 

Note: SEEK is our co-op. I am very excited about using "Interactive Notebooking" in a few of the subjects. I think it will really help my 9th grader get ready for note-taking in college. You can search for this and find lots of ideas online. 

Also, since I need all the help I can get, I am going to pay them for doing their morning routine (make bed, straighten room, brush teeth, get dressed, comb hair, and eat breakfast) and for the conference. Also, some additional $ for a really clean room. I made a ledger so instead of paying cash (which I never have and which has defeated every allowance attempt I've made) I am keeping a running balance and they can either have us buy something for them or cash out when I go to the bank. Here is what the top of that says:

JASON'S RESPONSIBILITY LEDGER

Completing morning chores= 50¢ per day

Teacher conference= 50¢ per day

once a week perfect room= $3 once a week 

Swiffer floor (dry then wet cloth) $2

date morning chores teacher conference perfect room Dry/ Wet Swiffer floor Running Balance

1

2

3

4

5

So, this is how we are beginning our year. I'm sure some of this will change/ slip by the wayside, but this is where we stand now and I am dreaming big!!

Have a great school year other homeschoolers!! 

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

It's been so long since I blogged that we couldn't remember our password and had to reset it. Yikes!

Homeschooling can be very overwhelming. I got to the point where I had to put aside some things, including this blog, to try to stay afloat. A week off at Thanksgiving and a week off last week helped our mental state a lot. I wish I had done more homeschool work, but I did get some planning done. We are doing just our core subjects this week (Bible, Reading, Science, Math & Social Studies plus Vocabulary/ spelling). This only takes us about two hours. We were originally planning to have this week off, but decided to take a trip to Disney in February so we need to get instructional time in this week in order to take that one off.

Homeschooling often feels a lot like planning and preparing a Thanksgiving meal. It takes hours, and then is over lickety split.
 I spend so much time planning and preparing for their next school day, and then they finish it in less than two hours. Something that has helped  me enormously is making myself plan for the entire week over the weekend. Then, each night I just have to refill each box and grade the work they did that day. In this way, I usually spend an hour or two getting ready for the next day. I am also getting better about keeping my grade log up-to-date. This will be a great  help when it's time for our second report cards to come out!

Here are some goals/ areas for improvement I need/want to work on:

*Adding more electives (again, so overwhelmed just planning our basics that I am scared to add more). Jason needs to do *Spanish.
*Add more logic- I have the materials but need to fit it in to the schedule.
*Joel needs to start cursive... maybe next week? He also needs typing.
I have lots of *review centers/ file folder activities made or laminated and ready to be cut out. I need to work these into our schedule.
We need to do *final copies of our writing. I am not pushing this because it seems drudgery to them and I am so happy with how excited they are about writing and thus don't want to dampen that. Also, in real life, we don't always do final copies of our writing with the huge exception of those who make a living at writing! Plus, Jason's current story is very long; it will take forever to do the final copy. I hope he can dictate it to me while I type it up and vice-versa.
**ANY IDEAS OR SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!!**

Next year, I want each core subject to start off with answering review questions in a notebook. Repetition is great for ensuring they don't forget things. With homeschool we definitely have the luxury of reviewing the material since we are not as curriculum driven as public schools.

I am very excited about attending the Southeast Homeschool convention in March. My goal there is to really evaluate Social Studies, Grammar, and Spelling/ Vocabulary curriculum for next year. I am happy with the Math and Science curriculum we currently use. I wouldn't mind something that tells me exactly what to do; less planning will help me!!

Jason loved the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. We watched the movie when he completed it. He turned around and read the entire novel again. It really made an impression on him. Joel started My Side of the Mountain  this week. I ended up having lots of teaching materials on it even though I never taught it, don't remember where the material came from, and it is not even in the 6th grade curriculum, which is the only grade I ever taught. One of many weird times where sometime in the past I unknowingly prepared for the future teaching of my own children. What would I do without all the files I compulsively saved even though I am not a saver??

There was a time before Christmas when I completely lost it and screamed, "I QUIT!! YOU ARE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL AFTER CHRISTMAS BREAK!" (As Joel described it at our Apex Baptist Homeschool Christmas party to another mom, "My mom sometimes throws a fit." Did I mention this was the first time we'd met these people??!) What precipitated this (and a few mini fits earlier) is Jason and Math. Jason decided he didn't like math. He would become angry every time he got to his math box. I'll spare the details out of respect for him but I will tell you my ugly thoughts: "I spend so much time planning and preparing and this is the thanks I get? You only go to school for 4 hours a day AT THE MOST and our school doesn't start until 9 and you are still complaining??You HAVE to learn math; what kind of mom would I be if you didn't??"  Self-righteous feelings, while arguably sometimes justified, never lead to a good outcome. That was a very low point. I did a few things which haven't made things perfect but somewhat helped: 1. Jason always has math last. 2. His dad worked with him on some of the things he didn't understand. I felt somewhat better (not rightly so) when Jason copped an attitude with him, too. Moving onto the next unit helped too; I do think that unit was a particularly frustrating one for both of us. I had to relearn a lot of the material as well and even taught him a wrong fact about multiplying negative numbers. Oops. I am having to make peace with the fact that with 11-14 subjects going at once, I sometimes am not going to be an expert at all they are learning. While this would be a complete disgrace in the public schools, here at home it's just more proof that we are three imperfect human beings doing the best we can.



J&J Academy Day 1

This is mommy posting. We enjoyed a leisurely morning so the boys could have a little downtime. They were eager to get started. Joel was disheartened that he had to listen a lot today as I explained the procedures for using the Workbox system and Reading/ Writing Workshop. Once we got into generating a list of writing ideas (our "Writing Idea Bank")  he was a lot more excited. In Writing Workshop, Joel started a story about an evil gumball machine that is following an unsuspecting family. Jason began prewriting a story about demons and ninjas. He drew some of the things he will have to describe in the story. (Teaching note: drawing a picture is the best prewriting you can do for descriptive writing!) Apparently, the boys like a little violence with their writing. I journaled about the first day while they wrote. We put together a folder with a copious amount of writing topic ideas. There will never be an "I don't know what to write about" day!

Jason worked on some animation things while Joel learned about "foreshortening" in drawing (3D). Jason and I also discussed some of the topics he will be exposed to in To Kill a Mockingbird. We talked a little about the author, setting, and characters.

My new printer/ scanner arrived and Jason is almost done setting it up. All the math curriculum came in the mail today as well. I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of books/ information. I need a teacher workday!