Sunday, July 22, 2007

Year at a Glance

T-Minus seven days and counting (In honor of our two friends, Doug and George, who will be flying on the next shuttle mission in October: STS-120) ! Our plan is to start school next Monday, July 30th. We will begin with a very light schedule that first week just to ease us back into things. Then starting the week of August 6th we will begin full days. I have made a "Year at a Glance" master schedule for the 40 weeks we will be schooling this year. It helps me to see it in its entirety on just two pages; it feels a little more doable! Now I just have 400 other things to finish before I am ready.


A few notes:
  • Thatcher is in first grade yet he is doing second grade work in most areas. He flew through the entire year of preschool I had planned in only four months and was ready to read. We started Kindergarten in January of that year and he completed that in only five months. We have chosen not to tell him he is working a year ahead for two reasons: he is socially immature and his motor skills are very delayed. We do not want him grouped with older children at church and sporting events. Also, we don't want him to ever be prideful of his intellect. We may change our mind at some point, but this is where we currently stand. My husband always says, "I reserve the right to get smarter!"
  • Horizons Math has 160 lessons plus 16 tests for a total of 176 lessons. I planned four lessons week. On the schedule where it says "10T" it means that day we will do Test 10. We will do Lesson 10 (10L) the next day. Last year we tried to do math in only 160 days and it made test days too hectic. After a test I want to spend more time going over mistakes and reteaching anything still giving him trouble.
  • First Language Lessons (FLL)- We started this last year but only got to Lesson 40. My intention was to catch up this summer so we would be able to start closer to Lesson 100 but it never happened. Regardless, we are still going to finish the book this year because he will be ready for more in second grade. This is the reason we are doing grammar four days a week.
  • Explode the Code (ETC) and Spelling- I have decide to delay the start of a formal spelling program until we complete the ETC series. He is a really strong speller already so I would rather spend our time other places.
  • My Story of the World plans aligned with History Scribe (Ancient Greece & Rome, Ancient China and Ancient Egypt) notebooking pages are almost done and I will post them here for anyone who wants them.
  • I will also post my Life Science plans. I am using Trivium Academy's, but added copywork for every lesson and found videos from United Streaming to go along with most , as well.
  • For Spanish we are using the elementary Spanish lessons on United Streaming.
  • For Art and Music see my post below: Christmas in July and scroll down to Art and Music Appreciation. The title below the composers' names is the name of the Classical Kids CD we listen to all that month.
  • What didn't make it to the chart: Handwriting and Art Instruction. For handwriting we will review one letter a day for the first 26 days of school and then handwriting will be absorbed into our copywork. Art Instruction will be "as we have time".
Ok, I feel so much better just getting that all out! Now off to finish scheduling History Scribe with SOTW, Vol. 1.

6 comments:

Hen Jen said...

wow, it all sounds really good, and your planning chart is impressive!!

I am almost tempted to try to make one. Almost.

good luck with your homeschool year!

Jessica said...

I didn't make one of these this year b/c I couldn't see the value in it since we do weekly lessons. After seeing yours, I want to do one too. Great job!

: ) First day of school,
Jessica

Jessica said...

Okay, I did it and linked yours in the post as well! Thank you Jennefer, I think this will be a great tool for staying on track.

: ) Many blessings,
Jessica

Anonymous said...

I'll look forward to your post with the SOTW and History Scribe aligned.
Your blog is really great!
Michelle

Heidi said...

Looks great, Jennefer. I'm impressed with the planning that you've done. Looking forward to hearing updates. :)

Karin Katherine said...

The planning, the color coding...oh we'd so be fast friends IRL. Goodness. But I saw your other post and I too am guilty of not enjoying the journey due to all my constant planning. Baby steps...baby steps...