Hi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Jane (PlainJane) and I am the blessed and happy wife to Jeff and doubly blessed mama of two perfectly wonderful daughters. Please join me as I share our Lifestyle of Learning through Christian homeschooling and homesteading on our little hobby farm with our prairie girls.
Amber (Bookworm) is our dd15/10th grader.
Our perfectionist and over-achiever. She loves reading, playing violin, all things vintage, riding her Paint horse, and being a farm girl.
Anna (Ladybug)
is our dd12/7th grader.
Our "girls just want to have fun" girl. She loves to play and has a great sense of humor, but also enjoys cooking, music, and riding her QH pony.
I see some of you are posting your plans for the coming school year and with some of our friends already starting school, the talk around our house has turned to, "When are we starting school?". That's a good question! Traditionally, most schools in MN have always started on the day after Labor Day, and we usually have as well. This year has just been one big question mark; we follow more the agricultural season here ~ starting school after most of the harvest is complete and our last day of school just before planting. So with such a late spring, it's been questionable when the bulk of harvest would be - it still is. So the answer to when our first day of school question is "maybe Sept. 2nd, maybe not." Although I am busy canning and with just the right amount of sun & rain our garden has caught up and seems to be on schedule, I'm still not in the thick of things with harvest ~ we've got time yet. Additionlly we want to do a bit a camping & maybe a surprise trip for the girls, so we will see - school may not start until much later, or perhaps we will start with several interruptions. Stay tuned :). Anyway, here's our plans thus far (I've already made some changes since last posting on it)...
It has always been my desire to have a truly "Biblical Education"; not a packaged "Christian" curriculum with Bible verses thrown in here or there, but a very Bible centered-curriculum where the Bible is our sole/main textbook and perhaps some living books thrown in here or there. For the last several years I have been working towards that end, and this year I think we are pretty close to achieving that goal. If you recall in a previous post, I had decided to go with the Student of the Word (SOW) curriculum which is very good, but after studying it over, I found that it didn't quite fit for our family's needs. For instance, SOW is a 6-yr. plan, we needed 4 since Bookworm will be in 9th grade this year; I also desired a well-organized Bible reading/study plan where we will be reading pretty much the same amount of Scripture daily, covering the entire Bible, and a good study of God's providential hand in history and science as well. I began rewriting the scope & sequence and before I knew it, it had very little resemblence to SOW ~ more the Farmer Jane's version. Additionally, I also learnt of the Bedell Curriculum and the Balancing the Sword books, which would tie in very nicely to my new & improved (for me) plan. So here is a quick rundown of my plans...
4:30 am
Mom & Dad get up; Mom sends dad off to work; has devotions & a little computer time
6:30 am
Girls wake up; have personal devotions & get raedy for the day
7:00
Barn chores
7:30
Eat breakfast; mom cleans up
8:00
Finish getting ready
8:30
House chores
9:00
School starts with opening time: Prayer (M-F); Pledges to American Flag, Christian Flag & Bible (M); Sing the books of the Bible songs & Sword Drill (T-TH); Hymn Sing (M-TH); Today's Vocabulary Word(s) (M-TH using Vocab. Cartoons; Idioms; Eng. from the Roots Up; & Words a High Schooler Must Know) (Note: Fridays are our light/catch-up day)
9:30
Bible Reading (approx. 52 verses +/- a day; Discussion as we read; Prayer
10:00
Scribe Memory Verses (Penmanship) & Work on Bible Memorization
10:15
Make an Illustrative Outline or Lapbook about today's Scripture Reading
10:45
Setting (draw a map); Vocabulary (on Bible words); Archaeological; Timeline - do one or more of these items on today's Scripture Reading as applicable
11:00
History/Science - Doing the applicable Bedell Curriculum Lessons that go with today's Bible Reading
Literature/American History/US Geography/Science - Additional reading I have chosen for these subjects. We will be reading "Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation" for a Creation overview & finishing up our Weather Lapbook this year; We will also keep plugging away at our American History Lapbook & using other living books. Fridays will be project day where we work on a bigger craft or project related to our studies.
1:30
Topical, Character, Creative and/or Commentary Writing based on today's Scripture
2:00
Ladybug has English based on Scripture & BJU Spelling; Bookworm has Christian Light Home Ec & Life Skills
2:30
Music Appreciation (M); Art (T) - finish Watercolors for the Artistically Challanged & do God & the History of Art; Typing (3x/wk) using Bible-based Computer Typing Curriculum and Mavis Beacon; Ladybug also has Abeka Choosing Good Health 6 (approx 12 pgs/wk) and Maps Charts & Graphs when she is done with Health
3:00-4:00
Music Practice: Bookworm practices violin 5 days/wk, lesson every-other week; Self-tuaght piano. Ladybug has self-taught piano; guitar lessons via dvd.
Times will vary, we will really not follow the time slots exactly as some things will take less (or more) than a half hour - perhaps good times for short breaks. This is just a preliminary plan subject to tweeking. We also need to fit in our horsey training; Ruby Girls Bible Study, and misc. ministry somewhere. I really don't like to be held to time frames - these are just to give you an idea of approximately when we will do things. And of course, this is the plan for perfect days with no interruptions - we have those -- occasionally
Sounds like a good plan! Hope you have a great Back to School time. We still officially have August but will be soon working on a lapbook. We need to get the schoolroom organized yet too! Lokng forward to gettig bck into the swing of things yet summer flew by TOO quickly!
SchoolinRHome
I always admire your plans, Jane. Following the agriculture calendar is a great way to do it. Do you ever feel pangs of doubt when the public school buses drive down your road? I always thought I would want to start later in the summer, but have not been able to over come the feelings of being a slacker when public schools start around me. Not that I think you are a slacker. And I do think canning and such is important and educational. But since I don't have things to put away, we might as well be in school.
Jenn
Can my girls do school at your house? Amy and Elisabeth would love your plan/method. Alison would appreciate the schedule. Good job getting things in order here! And I am with you on the Bible-centered curriculum, just waiting for someone to do it for me. :o)
I love reading your plans. I pray blessings upon them ! I am still developing mine and hope to post them like you did. Could you tell me how you used that grid ? I would love to do that to with my schedule. [0= Hey that could be a post for you !!! We all need techie help. [0=
I've never heard of the Bedell Curric. What's your secret source? Since it's an elementary curric. how are you going to adapt it for your Jr/Sr High dds?
Hey, I found something to share with you --- some wonderful planners that incorporate the weekly church readings and church year/biblical holidays. They have 3 versions: Catholic; Evangelical; Lutheran.
And they're cheap. www.goodnewsplanners.com
Off to feed the kitten~
Donna in Tx
Hi Donna, Thanks for visiting, the planners look nice - very colorful & happy looking. I'm afraid I always have too much to fit on those pre-made planners and just do my own computer-typed version that works well for us.
In answer to your Bedell question, you may not have noticed this from the Bedell site Sample Lesson (it's on the last page of the sample), but on every lesson, yes, it starts out with the Primary Lesson grades 1-3 & goes on to the Jr. Lesson grades 4-6 (which would include my 6th grader), and then has Intermediate & Advanced Research Questions for the older kids, and believe me, the Advanced Research questions are tougher than what I would want to handle in most cases. Dr. Bedell plans on later writing a High School curriculum after he finishes Volumns 7-9, but what he has in Research Questions is more than adequate in my opinion. I'm not really trying to "sell" the Bedell Curriculum to anyone, personally I just LOVE it for the Spiritual aspects it brings to all the lessons. In addition to Bedell if you will notice on my schedule we will be continuing on with other History, Science, & Geography studies beside the Bedell books - not that they need too, but we just want too. We love our studies here and we are all looking so forward to school starting up again - just no looking forward to it getting close to winter again. :)
You have a great plan going on here, Thanks for sharing. I read your post about the storm, Yikes, we get that here sometimes with heavy rain and wind. Praise the Lord no more damage was done than that little bit you posted here. Anyhow This Lesson Schedule you got going here is just wonderful I am sure it will help spark other folks into planning out their school year. Toodles
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