Curriculum Choices 2020-21

This is a big, long list. 

(You should see the stacks of boxes in my living room!)

It might be fun to read; it might be exceedingly boring.

For me, it is going to be the starting place for my end-of-year assessments. 

I wish I'd done this last year.  (But I excuse myself because of what we were living through at the time.)

Hooray for a much easier summer and planning period!

:)

I'm not homeschooling these three, but here are my homeschool grads' plans:

Rose Red has successfully purchased a car all by herself and is hustling between being a server at Applebee's and Door Dashing.  She's working hard to save enough to be ready to get her own apartment, and she's beginning to think about training as a surgical tech.  She's not ready to commit to school, but she's looking ahead, and that's progress.

Pixie is headed back to school to complete her freshman year of college.  BYU Idaho is offering students the choice to attend in-person, online, or a hybrid option.  As a dance major (and because she knows her strengths and weaknesses), Pixie is taking almost all in-person classes.  Masks will be required (yes, even while dancing), and we've read that the entire campus is getting a makeover to direct student traffic in such a way as to encourage social distancing.  She'll come back home at Christmas, work at the daycare again, and start her papers for serving a full-time mission for our church. 

Super Star is working at Freddy's and is enrolled in a 7-week phlebotomy training starting in September.  With some hard work and a bit of luck, she'll be working full-time as a phlebotomist before Halloween.

I have 9 students this year.

It's the first time I've homeschooled in the single digits in several years!  5 years ago, my student numbers were increasing, and now they're decreasing.

All 9 children will participate in Morning Meeting, our family devotional time, and a session of Bedtime Read Alouds.  I'll have at least 2 sessions, possibly 3 depending on time and energy.  I'm considering a bit of rearranging of who listens to which session.  In addition, everyone who is NOT in high school (everyone but Belle) will keep working with me on reaching 52 Hikes before the end of the year.

Belle--11th/12th grade:

Finish Omnibus I readings and complete as many Omnibus II readings as reasonable, Veritas Press

Landmark History of the American People vols 1 and 2, Boorstin

Advanced US History-Based Writing Lessons, IEW

American Literature, Apologia (finish what she started last year)

British History, Master Books

Astronomy, Master Books

Fourth Form and Henle I Latin, Memoria Press

Advanced Mathematics, Saxon

Seminary--We've heard this will be completely online.  We don't know if there will be live classes or not.  Either way, Belle will complete the church-provided curriculum:  Book of Mormon Fall 2020, Doctrine and Covenants/Church History Spring 2021

Work--She's allowed to work 1 shift per week at Freddy's as long as she keeps up with her schoolwork.

Farm--Currently, the farm is not allowing volunteers on-site, but if it opens up again, Belle will gladly return.

Belle is also going to take the ACT this year.  It is the preferred test for her preferred university, so we'll consider the SAT if we need to.

Nature Angel--8th grade:

Colloquium: 

     Astronomy, Master Books

     Modern World and American History through Literature, Beautiful Feet Books

     Ancient History, Mystery of History

Language Arts 8, Oak Meadow

Algebra 1/2, Saxon

General Science, Apologia

Elementary Greek Year 2, Memoria Press; Book of Mormon in Chinese

Book of Mormon

Little Princess--6th grade:

Colloquium:

     Astronomy, Master Books

     Modern World and American History through Literature, Beautiful Feet Books

     Ancient History, Mystery of History

Language Arts and Literature Level 6, The Good and the Beautiful

Math 7/6, Saxon

Photography, Oak Meadow

Chinese, Duolingo; Book of Mormon in Chinese

Read a lot of library books.

Book of Mormon

My Colloquium kids will also listen to me read aloud from The Story of Science:  Newton at the Center.  That will be even more science!

Ladybug--early elementary:

Academy:

     Geography Through Literature I, Beautiful Feet Books

     Spanish, ¡El Español Fácil!

Language Lessons for a Living Education 3, Master Books

Language Arts 2 & 3, Core Skills

Explode the Code 4 and 4 1/2

Writing With Ease Level 2, Well-Trained Mind

Literature Grade 2, Memoria Press

Finish Arithmetic 2 and start Arithmetic 3, Rod and Staff

Prima Latina (1/3 of the curriculum), Memoria Press

The Care and Keeping of You, Jr.

101 Favorite Bible Stories

Embroidery sampler

Honestly, this is an awful lot of work for Ladybug.  I thought we were going to do more school than we did this summer, and I'd planned for her to do most of Language Lessons 3 before school began.  That didn't happen, but Ladybug needs lots and lots of repetition in order to retain/understand information, so that's the reason for "too many" language arts books above. 

In addition, Ladybug had to be supervised 100% of the time last year, so I got into the habit of providing her with lots of workbooks to help her have something to do while I was teaching others.  This summer, she's earned her way into a great deal more freedom, so she will get more play time than she got last year.  It's quite likely I've got more to do than is reasonable.

We'll feel our way into an appropriate amount of work and just finish what we finish.

Latin will probably be the first thing we shelve when we find she's overwhelmed.  It's highly recommended by the creator of the Simply Classical curriculum, but I'm not completely sold.  With our Spanish studies during Academy this year, I'm more likely to focus on this modern language than on a classical one.

Mister Man--3rd grade:

Academy:

     Geography Through Literature I, Beautiful Feet Books

     Spanish, ¡El Español Fácil!

Literature Grade 3, Memoria Press

Writing with Ease Level 2, Well-Trained Mind

Language Arts 3, Core Skills

English Recitation I, Memoria Press

Cursive Kickoff, Handwriting Without Tears

Arithmetic 3, Rod and Staff

Latina Christiana I, Memoria Press  (He will finish what he started last year, and then we will see if we can find a usable copy of Latina Christiana II--Memoria Press has revised the program and does not sell the separate versions any more.)

Book of Mormon

Brother--Early Elementary:

Academy:

     Geography Through Literature I, Beautiful Feet Books

     Spanish, ¡El Español Fácil!

Phonics Grade 2, Rod and Staff

Reading Grade 2, Rod and Staff (includes Bible readings)

Language Arts Grade 2, Rod and Staff

Explode the Code 3 and 3 1/2

Arithmetic 2 (finish) Arithmetic 3 (start), Rod and Staff

Beowulf--2nd grade:

Academy:

     Geography Through Literature I, Beautiful Feet Books

     Spanish, ¡El Español Fácil!

Eclectic Foundations Level B

Arithmetic 2, Rod and Staff

The Beginner's Bible

I studied long and hard when it came to reading/language arts for Beowulf.  Eclectic Foundations felt like a really good fit . . . even though it will repeat the same McGuffey reader he used last year.  The difference is that last year all he really did was learn to read with it.  Eclectic Foundations Level B will review the same phonics skills he covered last year, but it will also teach spelling at that same level, and Beowulf definitely needs the spelling/writing support.

However, the first month's sample pages I studied to determine if this was a good fit for Beowulf did not show an abrupt shift from cursive practice to writing in cursive with no further support.  We will probably need another cursive book to help Beowulf.

I'm quite curious to see if cursive helps Beowulf write . . . he's terribly excited to try.

Lola--Kindergarten:

Academy:

     Geography Through Literature I, Beautiful Feet Books

     Spanish, ¡El Español Fácil!

Reading and Math K, Memoria Press

Baymax--Kindergarten:

Academy:

     Geography Through Literature I, Beautiful Feet Books

     Spanish, ¡El Español Fácil!

Reading and Math K, Memoria Press

This year I'm going to intentionally read many of the same books I read last year for the Bedtime Read Aloud time for my little ones.   We'll stick to favorites in order to make good friends of these books.

Our Academy Spanish study will move very slowly.  It is the same curriculum I pushed the Symposium crew through in a single year--basically first year high school Spanish.  For these young ones, I plan to take 3 years to cover the same material--spending 3 weeks at least on each lesson.  I'm supplementing our study with lots of quality children's literature/poetry/songs in Spanish.  I'm pretty excited.

I'm also not sure how Academy will play out.  I have a scheduled time for it, separate from lunch, which means we would have time for lunch time read alouds.  I have the second half of Aesop's Fables and The Blue Fairy Book, as well as other good stuff ready for reading together.  But, considering what happened last year, they may be combined. 

I will simply do what is manageable and joyful.

We're going to have a phased opening of our homeschool. :)

We were going to just dive in and get started on August 17th, but our church youth leaders have decided to have a kind-of-sort-of Girls' Camp that week.  This means that Belle and Nature Angel will be busy with virtual activities at home all day, and they will need to attend outdoor evening activities.  We don't know exactly what they're doing or how it will work because approval is still pending.

I considered pushing out our start date . . . but kids are excited to see new books appearing on our new (to us) bookshelves, and they're asking daily, "Can I do my new school today?"

At the very least, my Academy crew of 6 will dive into the deep end on August 17th.

Little Princess will wade gently into the year by starting independent schoolwork only. 

Belle and Nature Angel will join us with a full schedule on the 24th. 

We'll do the best we can with the hours we have. 

17 years of homeschooling, and I have butterflies in my stomach!