I was startled to realize this morning that the new school year is nearly upon us and I have given zero thought to my plans all summer long (that's a first!). I haven't been on my favorite homeschooling websites or blogs, I didn't attend the local convention, and I haven't so much as glanced at any of the curriculum catalogs that have been arriving in the mail. Yikes!
Last year, I had optimistically assumed that we would school year-round, straight through the summer, yet once again that didn't happen. My husband lost his job in May and having him home all day, plus dealing with the garden and having to work extra hours, etc., has made school work rather impossible. We've done some Math this summer, and lots of other little 'odds 'n ends,' but we'll clearly have a bit of catching up to do next month.
We'll be returning to school full-time on August 17th; since I'll have two back in public school this year, it seemed easiest to plan according to their schedule. In many ways I'm anticipating an easier year, since I've relinquished my two more challenging students. I'll have Maddie and Jaymon home with me - in fifth and sixth grades, respectively. Nevertheless, I wanted to keep our work as simple (for me!) as possible, with very little pre-planning required - though room to plan if I should so choose. You see, I've come to the conclusion that I cannot be trusted to plan consistently. Sometimes, I'm very enthusiastic about it (too enthusiastic perhaps, and not entirely realistic!) - other times, it's just a big headache and I want something easy. Too often, I leave myself no room for "easy." I think, or at least I hope, that this year I've found the perfect solution, at least for our core subjects.
Religion
- Our Holy Faith, Book 5
- Schuster's Bible History
- Baltimore Catechism
- Angel Food for Boys & Girls (coordinated w/Baltimore Catechism here)
- Lives of the Saints by Fr. Hugo Hoever
- Voyages in English 5
- Voyages in English 6
- Handwriting 5 for Young Catholics (5th/6th GR)
- These Are Our People and Book of Gratitude (5th GR)
- This is Our Heritage and Book of Valor (6th GR)
- Word Power for Spelling 5/6
History is my favorite subject, but also the subject that gives me the greatest anxiety. This year, in particular, I'm feeling very lost. For now, my tentative plan is to wrap up the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and then start on the history of the Americas (3x/week), while continuing to use our K-12 text for World History (2x/week). When we first started homeschooling, I used K-12's history text and loved it, so I'm not sure why it was ever abandoned! I will, of course, be supplementing with living books and hands-on projects.
Science
I'm going to force myself to do a formal science program this year. It's my least favorite subject (well, aside from math), and the one that is most often neglected - yet my kids love it. Last year, I fell in love with Real Science-4-Kids at a homeschool convention, so I've decided to use their Chemistry Level I. I'm not sure how many of their "Kogs" we'll realistically be able to manage, but I'm going to try to utilize all of them.
Math
- Singapore Math (the only thing that has remained constant!)
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