My friend,
Kristie, inspired me with her
Summer Plans post, so I decided to share my evaluation of our year and our own summer plans.
Like Kristie, we began schooling year-round last year. I decided to teach through the summer so that we could finish Tapestry of Grace Year 4 and begin with a new year plan in the fall. I have to admit that it was difficult doing a full load during the summer – I told myself I wouldn’t do that again if we could avoid it.
As this last school year progressed, I adjusted our curriculum based on our schedule, knowing that we could add in a light summer schedule. We are involved in ministry at our church, and one of our goals is to serve the Lord in ministry as a family. Homeschooling allows us to be very flexible with our children’s education so that we can include ministry.
We are pretty much finished with our main TOG Year 1 Redesigned subjects. I decided to begin our "summer" schedule on May 21, phasing out of TOG and into the summer schedule at the same time. Nathan is finishing 7th grade; Jordan is finishing 6th grade; Allyson is finishing 4th grade; and Kathryn is finishing 2nd grade.
Here is my evaluation of the year by subject:
Reading: The main part of Kathryn’s curriculum was phonics and reading skills this year. She has definitely fulfilled our reading goal for her – she is reading The Chronicles of Narnia right now.
Math: Our immediate goal in math is to have all of our children ready to take an Algebra course by 8th or 9th grade while hopefully not stifling their enjoyment of the subject. I use a very eclectic approach. I don’t think Nathan will be quite ready for Algebra in the fall, but we will be working on math during the summer. I think he will be ready for Algebra by the middle of 8th grade; for sure by 9th grade. The others are progressing along just fine. Math is the area I have struggled most in. I really enjoy this subject and want my children to enjoy it, but I don’t feel that I have been very successful in that with my two boys. I am going to continue to educate myself about teaching math during the summer. Nathan told me that he thinks he would like to own a business, so I decided to purchase Your Business Math for him to use this summer. I am going to teach him how to use Microsoft Excel at the same time. We will also continue working on pre-algebra subjects.
Grammar/Spelling: I teach grammar and spelling with writing. Kathryn is also using Explode the Code. I am a firm believer in Charlotte Mason style language arts!
Writing (TOG): I started off strong with TOG’s writing track with all four children, but I slowly tapered off with renewed spurts of writing focus here and there. Nathan did complete a research paper. I really need to do better about defining my goals in this area and making a plan that I can stick with for all four children. I was pretty overwhelmed trying to follow a different track for each child. I switched from the formal writing track to notebook pages, which has worked very well. This summer, I am going to have Nathan do Writing Strands 4. I am hoping that this will help prepare him to continue TOG’s writing track in the fall with less intensive teaching on my part. I might have Jordan and Allyson also try Writing Strands 4. I will be going through TOG’s writing track before the fall so that I can plan on combining this subject as much as possible at different levels. The kids really enjoy the notebook pages, so I will figure out a way to adjust TOG’s writing plan to include them.
Literature (TOG): We used TOG’s literature selections with a couple of substitutes. The kids did many of the literature sheets. With the beginning of the warm weather, I stopped requiring literature sheets, substituting narration.
History (TOG): We used TOG and had a great year. The kids did all of their scheduled reading, except Kathryn. I wasn’t overly concerned about Kathryn getting all of her history reading done this year as we were still working on improving her reading skills. By the end of the year, she was reading all of her history selections herself - goal accomplished! We also had some great history discussions. I think we covered ancient history thoroughly this year.
Geography (TOG): The kids did all of their mapwork for TOG. This is so easy to implement using MapAids!
Science: Nathan got through Module 5 of Exploring Creation with General Science, but I let him stop as I didn’t feel that it was going well. We had already covered all of the subjects in this textbook except for the human body, and I didn’t see the need for him to continue something that he was having such a hard time with. Another thing I love about homeschooling is being able to change things up when they aren’t working. The younger children were using TOG’s science schedule. I added that in for Nathan. I also added notebooking in at that time, so the kids did some pretty fun science notebook pages. I slacked off on science for a little while when our schedule began getting crazy. I sat down with Nathan to see if he wanted to try to finish Exploring Creation with General Science, and he asked if we could do biology. Well, I happened to have “Christian Kids Explore Biology,” so I pulled it out, looked it over, and we decided to use it. I am really impressed! It is written for elementary grades, but I am adding in extra work for Nathan. We haven’t done much with it yet, but we will be using it over the summer and into next year.
Fine Arts (TOG): We did some of the projects, but we kind of fizzled out after a while. The kids did take a once-a-month art class though.
Bible Survey/Church History (TOG): We followed TOG’s track for this subject. We did the discussion questions orally as a family most of the time. Towards the end of the year, I began implementing an adapted version of the HOW Bible Study plan, which we will continue through the summer.
Government (TOG): This is a rhetoric subject in TOG. I don’t have any high school students yet.
Philosophy (TOG): I chose not to use the philosophy track for my dialectic student this year.
I will be keeping the summer schedule pretty light. I think I have scheduled a reasonable amount of work, but we’ll see. We have a lot of scheduled interruptions, so I’m glad I’m not doing a full schedule! The goal of our summer schedule is to firm up math and writing skills and have some fun with science. The kids will also be choosing some books to read.
Tentative 2007 Summer Schedule
May 29-June 15: begin summer school schedule
June 18-July 6: break for VBS, youth outreach, Hope for Warren/Detroit, Peru trip training
July 9-July 13: Resume summer school schedule if possible
July 16-August 3: break for Peru trip and youth camp
August 6-31: finish summer school schedule
Everyone
HOW Bible Study
Christian Kids Explore Biology
Math (using current materials and living math)
Summer Reading (each child chooses his/her own selections)
Nathan (in addition to above)
Your Business Math: Book Store
Writing Strands 4
I almost forgot! We still have to finish the chicken mummies.......
~Andrea
What a great idea, Andrea, to teach your son how to use a spreadsheet while he's doing the Book Store kit! In fact, I like it so much that I posted it on our links and tips page for the Your Business Math series here: http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/yourbusinessmath/mathlinks/ Thanks!
Grace and peace,
Sonya
The thoughts of a book-loving, home schooling wife and mother who wants to be available to serve her Savior in her family, home, church, and wherever He chooses to send her.
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