|
I've been looking through our next year's curriculum (2008/2009 schoolyear). We are planning on using the America Series by Chris Roe. It covers America's history from 1492 up until 1860. There are three sections or 'primers' in this year long study. Each section is 11 weeks long...10 weeks of study and one week of review. Lessons are divided into 3rd - 4th grades & 5th-6th grades. There are also suggested readings and lessons for younger students...like my soon to be 2nd grader. There are workbooks available for these younger students, which I have already purchased for her, so she can stay up in the lessons with her sisters. I am quite excited about it all. The first unit is called "Land of Pilgrims Pride", which goes through The Light and The Glory (for children) by Peter Marshall and David Manuel. It covers the history timeline from 1492 until 1789. Along with The Light and the Glory, there are also quite a few novels they will be reading through this period. The first primer's science covers oceanography. ALL of my girls will LOVE this, as they enjoy anything ocean related. I have even marked off some e-books in TOS's huge selection they had listed in the Spring issue that have to do with oceanography. I'm sure they will help out with our studies this coming year. I hope we get the spare cash to buy them, as they aren't that much...but with gas prices these days, everything is tight. The second primer is "From Every Mountainside" which covers the years 1787-1837. Yes, there's a two year overlap from the first one, but what better way to tie it in? This primer uses 'From Sea to Shining Sea' by Marshall and Manuel also. Again, there will be quite a few novels read alongside this primer. Science in this unit is astronomy related. I've flipped through it and noticed there are many constellations and topics covered. Very interesting. Again, there are a couple of e-books in the spring TOS that I've spied out for this unit. The final 11 week unit is'Let Freedom Ring', which covers 1837-1860...right up to the beginning of the Civil War. This primer uses Sounding Forth The Trumpet (for children) by Marshall and Manuel. Again, there are some terrific novels that will be read alongside this study that I'm sure my girls will enjoy. Science in this unit, from what I can see, covers all living things...from plant life and animals, to protons and neutrons. All of these units include the followig subjects: Science, history (obviously), geography, english/reading/grammar, spelling, Bible, vocabulary, art (crafts), music, and games. The only subject NOT included is math...which we already have. We didn't do much math this year, but are going to be doing about a half hour a day of it all summer. We won't need to buy another set of math til probably mid-year this coming year. I already have Spelling Power, which I bought earlier this year, but decided not to use this schoolyear as I was already correcting spelling with their daily lessons. I gave my eldest two the Spelling Power placement tests, so I know where to start them, but won't be using it til this coming year. OR...I may just use the spelling in these primers, which seems to be pretty good...I've yet to really decide. Everything else seems to be just great. If all goes well with this coming year using these primers, we will get the next set that covers history from the Civil War until the year 2001 (covers 9/11). It also goes up to grade 7, so my eldest can continue in it with no problem. We are trying to continue using unit studies, since it worked out so well this year by including all three of my eldest girls and used a more hands on approach to learning. The trick is finding unit studies that encompass ALL of their grade levels of learning. So far, we have done a good job. |
Comments
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by