Planning Planning Planning!

       Planning, planning, planning and tons of printing! That has been my last two weeks anyway! I usually do a separate post for each kid but I think I am just going to lump it into one to make it much easier on myself! Figuring out what three different kids were going to do all year was a bit of a challenge, even more so since they all have different goals and different needs. Our fun-school schedule is tailored to each child. They will most likely still watch each others science and all but for the most part they will be on their own and I will be around to help and teach lessons as needed. 

       

       So after much research and planning I think I have the year pretty much set! Besides the stuff I have planned I will also be using Kahn Academy. I think their videos especially math are extremely valuable and helpful. It also happens to be free so even more of a winner in my book!





       First up is history! The kids will all be studying the same time period. They will be doing Medieval Ages up through The Renaissance. This is a favorite for all three kids. We have a ton of books. We will read Story Of The World together and the kids can pick whatever they want to read. I was thinking about doing a history project instead of a lap book or notebooking pages. I got an idea from Pinterest about kids who made mini museums of their history studies. I am still tossing that idea around in my head. I have been collecting books for them to read since last year at Christmas when they asked to study this time period. This kids call this the Middle Ages shelf!

       The kids will also be doing an occupation study for the time period. The pages they will use is from the How To Make Money Journal by The Thinking Tree. Quite a while back the author gave away the pdf for free on her web page, I felt it paired up nicely with this book to learn about jobs held so long ago. Possibly adding in how those types of jobs may have evolved with modern technology. 

       For Fox and science he will use Guest Hollow High School Chemistry in the Kitchen. He loves baking so might as well make it even more educational! There are so many practical math skills using this as well not just science topics. It is full of wonderful books to read and amazing videos to watch. I cannot imagine the time that went into creating this. Fox does not have strong math skills so this chemistry is just perfect for him and he will learn even more about cooking and baking! That is a life skill! It was very hard to pick what books he would read and what books and projects to skip. There are just so many options but no way to do them all! He is looking forward to starting this very much.

   
       Instead of a journal this year Fox is opting for a binder type situation. He is also using a planner from Schoolhouse Teachers. He really does not like all the coloring and drawing in the journals. He is just not an artsy kid. I do own the 12 Subject Portfolio journal on pdf so I have printed pages for him to keep track of all of his work that way. Skyler and him both will be using Life Of Fred math books and Fox will also be using the language arts books. Skyler is also using Teaching Textbooks for math. 

        Both Fox and Skyler will be using Cover Story writing curriculum. Neither has ever truly had a writing curriculum before and I wanted a fun one. This worked out well. No dry boring text books. Since neither child is very comfortable writing this set should work for both of them. 

        As for Rhyli, she has stated her goal was to go to public school next year. I wanted to make sure she would have the basics covered. I still wanted her to have some sort of fun-school as well so I didn't want to go all text book heavy with her either though. I had seen that The Thinking Tree author was using this book for her daughters writing so I knew it would be a good choice. She will be learning all the ins and outs of writing and there are a few "pop" quizzes tossed in there as well. Rhyli will have a semester to finish this book before moving on to Creative Writing Made Easy. 

     
       Since the writing curriculum is also full of projects to make I knew Rhyli would have fun with that. She will get to design clothes and a room for her character. 

       For science I chose The Everything You Need To Ace Science In One Big Fat Notebook. This seems to cover all the middle school topics she would have covered in public school so it was a great choice. She will also be using the Caboodle notebooking pages by Free Homeschooling 101. 

    
       Adding to the science I had The Horrible Science books covering each topic so she will be using those along side it. 

        I also am using the two other books in the same series for math and English. She will again be using the Caboodle notebooking pages to keep record of her work. 

       Now while Rhyli enjoyed using her journal last year it also served as a distraction for her. While Skyler can color, doodle, draw and be artsy Rhyli tended to use it to rush through her work or spend five hours on one page coloring a flower. I own so many of the journals on pdf I decided to make her one. She still gets many of the pages but not the ones that distract her or she just rushes through anyway. Her journal is a mix of the many that I have and is in a binder. 

  
        As soon as she opens her binder she has a student planner. I got this off line it was a freebie. This will be an outline of sorts of exactly what is expected of her each day. 

       Rhyli adored learning cursive last year so I wanted to include anything she truly liked. I had so many cursive books on pdf I printed all the Middle Ages type ones for her journal. 

   
       She will continue using the spelling pages from the journals. 

       The reading pages will be done every day for summaries of what she reads in science and history. 

       We use many movies in our lessons so of course a page was needed for those as well!

       Since many of the journals include art and logic pages I printed them off for her as well to do each day as a sort of warm up. 

       Every Friday the girls will do nature study. They can do this whenever they want really but again it became a distraction for them to use to spend three hours talking outside. I want them to enjoy school, to enjoy learning but I have to make sure that they are actually doing those things not scribbling a bug on a page and talking about non sense all morning! I also believe in letting them go their own way so to speak but I do believe some kids need guidance as well. I have tried to use their interests and goals to guide them. 

        The girls will also be doing current events every Friday. They are pretty free to look up any news related story they want really. I do not expect them to concentrate on a headline each week. 

       On Friday Rhyli will be dropping her writing program and doing a little creative free writing on the different story pages from all the different journals I have. 

       She will also drop her English book on Friday to work in the Grammar Journal. 

       For Friday she will use the Are You a Math Genius Journal. I wanted Friday to be like a fun Friday type thing. 

       On to Skyler! No, she does not use all of these every single day! Skyler loves her journals and does very well with them so I planned to really let her fun school this year as much as possible! 

 The Autumn journal is her main journal starting the year off. After that she will move into the Winter then Spring journals. She will be using The Planner along side of it to map out her days. Picturing The Past is for art study on Friday. Are You A Math Genius she will be using on Friday. The Poetry Level C is another Friday book. The Top 30 Grammar Mistakes is again a Friday book along with Seven Continents and the little Spelling and Cursive journals. The Grammar Time With Endangered Animals is a daily book. Not pictured is her Nature Study & Outdoor Journal. 

       For science Skyler will be reading all about forensics for the first semester. She has quite a few books and several CSI kits to fill her time. I have yet to work out the second semester. I have been collecting these kits for almost two years for her. They are kind of pricey to get on EBay so I had to wait for those few good deals I could find. I think I have gotten almost all of them by now! 

   
       Since I also have a wide variety of Human Body items we may go that way for the second semester. It really depends on her interests at that time. Until then she has plenty of books and kits to explore!

       I think I have covered everything for the upcoming year! I am also hoping it is not one of those, you make plans and God laughs situations! I am hoping we have an amazingly fun year. I want the kids to learn a ton and have fun doing it! I have several field trips planned for us this year as well.