Dear friends,
In March 2010, on one of my other blogs, I wrote a post about what we would be doing this past school year: What We're Doing for School Next Year (The Big Switch!)
We evaluate as we go along to see what our best options will be for each child each year. Last year, our best option for our five elementary and middle school was to quit the co-op we had been in for four years, and stay at home to do an intensive study of American history and literature along with science and math. So that's what we did! We read through hundreds of books from our own shelves, as well as some from the library. My kindergarten daughter learned to read, too.
I can't say we did everything that I had planned out, but enough that I'm happy! We could have done better with some of our formal language arts skills, but since we read so much, I think some of that they picked up naturally. We didn't finish up our intended science curriculum either; after Christmas, I let them start picking out science books of their choice from our shelves - or something I picked related to our history topics. We joined the science center, so we got in a lot of field trips for that subject. We also enrolled in twice-a-week P.E. classes at the local YMCA. They also did a lot of "learning on their own."
I would love to be able another year just at home -- for intensive world history and literature -- but my oldest son needs some high school classes that he can take most efficiently and effectively in the co-op, and the younger ones are anxious to return and see their friends there, too. So back we go! I will be teaching middle school English, as I did before.
I can't tell you the specific curriculum the co-op classes will use this year since I'm waiting to hear that myself! However, I told the kids that no matter what their homework assignments are, I am still planning to read to them at least an hour a day from books of my choice, and that I reserve the right to give them other extra assignments of my own. We are also going to start two weeks earlier and end two weeks later than the regular co-op year, which only provides 31 weeks of assignments and 33 class weeks.
I also want to let you know that I have added pages of favorite curriculum links to this blog. If you aren't reading this directly on the blog, you can click here to access the page tabs just under the header: www.StartWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com The ones for Math, Science, and Language & Literature are already up, but I'm having trouble with the Social Studies page for now (everything keeps disappearing!) and I don't have time to twiddle with it yet until this school year is over. We've just got less than 3 weeks left, and we're coasting down to the end with reading history and science, doing a little writing, and finishing up the math books. I wouldn't say we're "going out with a whimper" but it's not exactly a bang either. Just sort of winding down...
How are you all doing with school? What worked this year? What's your plan for next year? Leave a comment for me!
Blessings,
Virginia Knowles
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment