The next school year for us is coming. This also means it is time to start putting a plan together. My starting point is making a list of the subjects we are planning to cover. After picking subjects, I then pick a book list to fit what we need to cover.
First up is the subjects list. The actual list of subjects is easy. They need to study Bible, Math and various Language Arts topics. Then I always add some History and Science and hopefully Music and Art. Some of the subjects are fairly straight forward and we just move on to the next step. Others, take more thought and sometimes more research.
Main Subjects
Our main subject list for the coming year will look something like this.
Bible, History, Science
Bible– This takes several different forms.
1. We will be continuing to study character traits by looking at various Biblical characters (both good and bad examples).
2. For the younger three, I will continue reading out of the Egermeier’s Bible Story Book and once a (school) week reading a chapter out of the Miller family series.
3. We will continue memorizing scripture as a family. Which typically involves a verse or two a week. If you want more on how we use this look at this page (here). If it is a longer passage, we also review the verses we have already learned.
4. We will continue to work on a couple of hymns at a time.
History – This is an easy one as we will simply move on to the next book. I use a 6-year cycle for history for grades 1-8. Two years of American History and the other 4 of World History from Creation into the 2000s. For World History we use Mystery of History by Linda Lacour Hobar and we will be on Vol. 3 next year, which covers the Renaissance and Reformation or roughly from 1455 A.D. to 1701 A.D.
Now I get to decide which books out of my biographies and historical fiction I will use to read alongside. I technically have 3 lists and sets of books for different levels, but because of reading delays due to dyslexia, I can’t just hand the 2nd level books off and let them read them themselves yet. So I will somehow combine the 1st and 2nd lists and do only part of each list. Decisions…decisions.
Science – This was more difficult. I am currently working through the God’s Design series from Masterbooks. We have gone through the Physical World and are nearing the end of Chemistry & Ecology. The next book will be Life, but I’m going to split it between 2 years. Next year, I plan to go through plants and human anatomy sections and save animals for the following year. I will add other books for all areas. Again, here is where I need to make decisions as to which books I’ll be adding.
I also plan to use Adventures in the Physical World for my 2nd grader. He can participate with his older brothers, but we tried level 1 this year and he really enjoyed it.
Reading, Spelling, Grammar and Math
Language Arts (Reading, Spelling, Grammar) and Math are literally continuing from where we leave off.
Reading – Hans will be reading at least a couple of books along with discussion questions to check his understanding. One will be a biography and the other will probably be fiction. I am hoping to get more done, but I don’t yet know how fast he will get through them.
Timothy and Joseph will be continuing through All About Reading and the twins may start AAR by the end of the year if they are ready. Timothy is nearing the end of the series, so I need to have a list for him to move to as well.
Spelling – I will have 3 kids and using All About Spelling. Their grammar books include spelling work, but it isn’t enough for them. With the dyslexia I need more through instruction.
Grammar – Two kids will be continuing with Language Lessons for a Living Education and one more will be starting the series.
Math – The boys will each be continuing through Math U See and I will be starting the twins on the first book. Just as a side note, school books seem to grow exponentially when you have to buy in pairs.
Music and Art
Music – I will be restarting our list of classical themes and composers: Vivaldi, Corelli, Beethoven and Chopin. I will also include other music but I am still in debate over what I want to do beyond music lessons.
Art will be more low-key this year. I plan at least the younger 4 to work on Draw, Write, Now books. Timothy wants to use Living Art Lessons and I have I Can Do All Things for Joseph (he’ll only do about 1/3 of the book).
If you are interested in more details on the books I’m using, especially the extra books by subject…stay tuned. I plan to fill in more details over the next couple of months.
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