Sunday, January 29, 2012

Schedule 2012


"The children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times--a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story books." ~ Charlotte Mason
(Vol. 1 Part IV- , p.153)


Daily Instruction & Practice~

Language Arts~

Joshua AO4~
Phonics- Learn to Read, Write & Spell- Complete book 6

Writing Tales  (English, Grammar)
All about Spelling
Modern Cursive Handwriting- Book 5
McGuffey's Readers

Gracie AO2~
Phonics- Learn to Read, Write & Spell- finish book 3 start book 4
Copywork- Mother Goose
Modern cursive Handwriting- finish book 1 start book 2
McGuffey's Readers

Note: Both of my children love to write, so I have provided more writing practice than what a Charlotte Mason Education requires. Every family and child is different and that is what makes home schooling so exceptional.


MEP Maths~
Joshua to complete Yr 3A ready to begin Yr 3B
Gracie to complete Yr 1B ready to begin Yr 2A


Foreign Language~
We continue with Spanish by listening to a lot of Spanish music on our iPods, in the car, you tube and I have just installed some wonderful programs from the APP store for additional practice - very excited indeed.
I plan on introducing Latin slowly this year, hopefully 2-3 days a week.

Musical Instrument Practice~
Joshua to continue Violin and to start the basics for Acoustic guitar
Gracie to begin the basics for Acoustic guitar

Weekly Instruction or Practice~    
*= Term 1 **= Term 2  ***= Term 3


History Tales/ Biography~
*Squanto~ Joshua to read
* ** The Little Duke~ Together
*** Poor Richard~ Joshua


History~
Australasia's Story (All terms)
An Island Story (All terms)
** ***George Washington's World~  Joshua
Finish SOTW 1 and start A Child's History of the World ( All terms)
Use time lines as much as possible (that's my plan anyhow:D)

Geography~
Australasia's Story (All terms) we will follow on our maps
* Tree in the Trail
** Minn of the Mississippi 
I would like to cover Marco Polo sometime this year, I have a lovely book, but we'll see.

Natural History/Science
The Wonderland of Nature (All terms)
C.K Thompson' Australian Animal stories including~
Blackie the Brumby 
Wild Canary
Tiger Cat
Warrigal the Warrior
Red Emperor - Here is a little excerpt-

With gentle fingers, the rosy hand of dawn parted the curtains of night and then withdrew so that the glorious face of the rising sun could dart glances of the softest gold over the silent bushland. For one long instant the world was an open album, filled with priceless etchings and then, in a flash, the heavens were all aglow and the tired old earth, stirring restlessly for a moment, awakened to continue the daily round.
 

Poetry~
*The animals Noah forgot (Banjo Paterson)
** Walter de la Mare 
*** Emily Dickinson


Literature~
Joshua:
*The Jungle Book
**Robinson Crusoe
***Kidnapped

Gracie:
*The Wind in the Willows
**Seven little Australians
***Understood Betsy 

Art & Art Appreciation/ Composer
Finish Artistic Pursuits Book 1
Look at the works of:
*Frederick McCubbin (19th century Australian Artist)
**Emily Kngwarreye (Indigenous Artist)
***Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) 


We will follow Ambleside Online's selection of Composers
for each term. 
Listening to classical in our home and car is just a way of life, we all love this style of music.

Folksongs & Hymns
*Aiken Drum
**The Ash Grove
***The Lion Sleeps tonight
We also have a very large selection of Australian & Spanish folksongs that we play throughout our home, the car and on our iPods.
Everyday in our home we listen to a lot of praise music, I don't like to make it a subject, we follow Ephesians 5:19 -  "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart".

We will try to study one life from Plutarch and A Shakespeare play as Ambleside Online require for Joshua's AO4.


Additional free reading-


Gracie~


The Little Black Princess (Aussie Lit)
The Story of Kurri Kurri the Kookaburra (Aussie Lit)
Heidi
Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (currently reading)
Along Came a Dog
Mr. Poppers Penguins
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Around the World in Eighty Days
Pollyanna


Joshua~

Storm boy (Aussie Lit)
A little Bush Maid (Aussie Lit)
Lassie Come Home
Kidnapped
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
The Borrowers
Little House in the big Woods (Currently reading)
Farmer Boy
The Twits

11 comments:

  1. Looks stimulating! Thanks for linking to the Frederick McCubbin site. We are planning a quick look at him too, sometime this year.

    I hope your plans come to fruition. may your home and family be blessed in 2012.

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  2. Sounds like a challenging year. You have some lovely free reads there! Enjoy your first day back.

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  3. Thank you ladies! Yes, I do have high expectations of myself, it is ingrained in my nature. But I do happen to be flexible! I put everything that I would like to cover, but if I don't meet it I have learnt to not beat myself up over it.

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  4. Looks lovely and full and interesting. :) I do love the start of a new year!

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  5. A fresh year always brings fresh inspiration hey Amy! Thanks for dropping by. :-)

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  6. Wow Sarah, it looks great! Love all thsoe delicious read alouds - one of my fave parts of home schooling! I should be posting a peep into our year ahead sometime this week....well that's the plan anyway. ;) Love Mel x

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  7. Looks great and full!
    I have wondered about how to do 'hymns' and 'folksongs' and I like your idea of doing one folk song per term. About hymns I had the same thoughts as you but I'm thinking of introducing Rebekah to some of the older hymns that she would never otherwise know. I'm trying to work that into our schedule this year, we'll see how it goes....:)

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  8. Yes, it looks rich and lovely. Amen to that, each family and children are different.

    How do your children do with MEP?

    I'm coming to terms with the idea that though my girl is 7, and in first grade, a mature first grader, it may not be that she finishes book 1b. Book 1b has been challenging. But I still love MEP, and if I do the activities at her pace, and some I can adapt them and do them orally, or with manipulatives.... on the other hand, book 2a starts again a bit easier, it is when they get into more depth with higher numbers that it gets more difficult.

    She gets lost with the tables with two numbers where she needs to find the third one, as in 2, 5, and a space, and it has to be 11, for example. The equations, you may say, but I am going to stick to mep.

    hugs,

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  9. Hi Silvia, thank you for coming by! We are enjoying Mep maths, I like the fact that it gets challenging and then has easy stages where the children get a little break to go over what they have learnt. We only made the switch to MEP a couple of years ago and I started my son at a lower year so he didn't miss any of the concepts in the way MEP introduces them. He is just 11 and is nearly finished 3a, but he is enjoying the concepts and finding it is getting easy so therefore he is flying through it and enjoying it! Age & level really doesn't matter,and I am realizing that more and more. God Bless! xxx

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  10. Hey, Sarah! I needed your answer. I'm so blessed with friends all over who come to my help!

    You know that we have friends whose children in MEP are, instead of in a lower year, in a higher one! And some times I get cold sweat about it... but I'm thinking that it will be much better to start 1a and have my lovely girl enjoy it, and most likely go to some degree faster, than to have her camped at her challenge level just because silly me thinks it's not that great to be a late first grader on the level one of a math program!

    Same with reading. After our critical moments, because I believe she needs some reading practice, she surprised me reading something she can comfortably read on her own.

    I just need my friends, as I tell you, to remind me we are not in the grade level Olympics, ha ha ha.

    It's nice to chat with you. Thanks once more.

    xxx,
    s

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  11. Yes, I feel the same way Silvia with all the wonderful other homeschooling families. Such a great blessing! You are wonderful! xxx

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