Monday August 6th we begin our 6th year homeschooling!† 6 Years.† We were eclectic right from the start.† I would pick and chose the things I thought Keilee would love best.† We have tried so many different things to get to this year’s plans.† And the thing is…I am sure we will make changes this year too.† That is the beauty of this life we have chosen.† If something isn’t working, we can throw it out and try something else.
Our foray into unschooling didn’t go so well.† I loved it, Keilee not so much.† She wants lesson plans and a daily schedule.† She likes to know exactly what she is supposed to do when she wakes up every morning.† She wants her subjects lined up to check each one off with a neat little ? . She has all of† a sudden decided she has to ‘crack down’.† Her words.† So we have spent the Summer figuring out what we are going to do this year.† For each subject I showed her some of the options and she picked the ones that interested her.† For a few subjects we are using resources we already had and have never used.
We have had a really great Summer.† Trips to Gatlinberg, tons of swimming, being on a Movie set, but the most exciting thing in my opinion is that my girl has become a READER.† She has read constantly book after book this summer.† It just makes this Mamma’s heart so happy.† 🙂
One thing we are both so excited about adding this year is lots and lots of Notebooking.† I have always been interested in this but never used it very often.† Jimmie at Jimmie’s Collage has gotten me really excited about it!† Check out the tons of resources on Notebooking.† Jimmie’s “Notebooking Fairy” is a great place to start.
This is what our 2012-2013 Curriculum looks like.
7th Grade Curriculum
HISTORY ñ
We have done Story of the World for 2 years.† Instead of going to SOTW 3 next year we are doing American History.† There has been so many times when Keilee asked me about something that didn’t fit into my perfect little timeframe that I would say, “Wait until we get to it”† How crazy is that?† She wants US History, so US History it is!† We have studied up to The Civil War in great depth when Kei was in 4th/5th grade so we are starting with Reconstruction.† She wants to know more about the World Wars and the Vietnam War.† We both have had long talks about how each part of history is marked by wars.
THE HISTORY OF US
Reading the books, doing Notebooking and lesson plans found on PBS
Have Fun With History site
We also watch A LOT of historical movies to go along with our studies.† Teach With Movies
Video: Freedom A history of Us† and watch “A Story of Us“† We own this but it is on Netflix streaming also.
GEOGRAPHY ñ
Alabama State History Lapbook Journal
Decatur Walking Tours
36 Week Geography
SCIENCE ñ
General Science / Apologia† [A dear friend is letting us borrow this!]
I found a great resource for this here.
We will be using Notebooking extensively for this also.
MATH
Saxon Pre Algebra† [This is borrowed also.]
GRAMMAR
Learning Language Arts Through Literature
WRITING
Writing Skills book and Notebooking and Book Summaries
The Writer’s Express
The Magic Pencil
VOCAB
Vocabulary Cartoons
Vocabulary Builder [iBooks download]
SAT prep App on iPhone
English from the Roots Up
Harry Potter Vocabulary Builder
BOOKS
I had planned on giving Keilee a book a month to read but with the way she is reading this isn’t necessary!† And she is reading WAY more than 1 book a month.† Who says praying doesn’t get results!
CLASSES OUTSIDE THE HOME
CO OP Classes
*Spanish [This is a high school level class.† Keilee is getting special permission to take it. I† want her to wait until at least next year but she really wants to try it.† This makes me nervous because they have homework and grades.† She has never had either.]
*Robotics
*Cooking
Sci Quest ñ Dissection/Biology Classes/Monthly
Space and Rocket Center Classes ñ Aviation 201 6 week class/2 hours a class
Botanical Gardens †[1 Day Classes]
Cycles of Life – Biology in the Garden
Nature Inspired:Writing and literature in the Garden
Plotting A Bulb Garden: Math in the Garden
Theater – Of course there is ALWAYS Theater.
MOVIES Series [Kei has not seen all these series in their entirety]
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars
Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Rings
ART JOURNALING
NATURE JOURNALING
POETRY NOTEBOOK [Weekly]
ARTISTS [Weekly]
Great American Artists
Various Unit Studies
††††††††††††††† Made up from ìThings Keilee Wants to Learnî
FIELD TRIPS
Lists for Alabama
List for Tennessee
None of these are affiliate links.
This is A LOT of work huh?† But the beauty of homeschooling is that we don’t have to do every single thing every single day.† We will pick and choose between most of these.
We are both looking so forward to a great year.† How about you?† Can’t wait to read others plans for this year.
Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen
ìWear the old coat and buy the new bookî ~ Austin Phelps
†ìI find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.î †~Groucho Marx
I am a 9th grade public High school girl but go on all of these great blogs to help my aunt who is a homeschooling mom of 3 boys and 7 monthes prenget with twin girls. Anyway Our textbooks last year were The History of US and they are the best textbooks ever and social studies is my least favorite subject.
My oldest daughter is 7th grade too and we’re doing General Science. We start school next week. We’re still trying to decide between Saxon or Teaching Textbooks or something else for math, any recommendations? I noticed you did TT last year and changed to Saxon this year.
Mindy
We are also an eclectic homeschooling family! Even though some things never change like our Time4Learning program, I am always adding to it, taking away, forever changing. We have also done Sotw 1, I am sure we will pick it up soon and do sotw 2 etc. However, my daughter is also interested in US right now. So, that is where we will be focusing on. Unit Studies is also a big thing in our family as it really works well when you have more than one child in different grade levels. Amanda Bennett and curr click our my fav sites to buy from,but I am starting to make my own, I just finished one on the American Eagle. Anyways, I wish you lots of luck this year! Happy homeschooling 🙂
Looks like a fun year! I like the movie link too, I found a lot of what we have watched on there. I’m happy that we aren’t the only ones watching movies with our history lessons. We have several queued up for the Civil War.
We are a little jealous of the space and rocket center classes. 🙂
We also love to use The History of US series, but do it as read-aloud with my sons.
Popped by from the ìNot-Back-to-Schoolî Blog Hop: Curriculum Week!
Hope that you have a happy homeschool year! Happy planning for 2012-2013!
Hope that you will pop by to say hello over at my blog and my Pinterest boards too!
Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama
http://pinterest.com/f5th/
Sunrise Learning Lab
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-school-year-right-around-corner.html
Hey! My children aren’t as old as your daughter, yet, but I enjoyed looking at what all you have planned. Have a great year!
PS – I saw the Alabama history lapbook on your list. Are y’all in Alabama? I am, too!
I just loved reading this post, Karen! Even though my kids are about 7 years younger, I can always still find something that you’re doing that gives me some great ideas about what Jared and Alexa might like to do too. I really liked the Teaching with Films websites. There’s lots of great movie suggestions there. I especially how they have them laid out according to time periods. That makes it handy to look for a film to watch that goes along with a story we’re reading. And I also have the Great Artists book on my shelf. I thought the kids might like to read about an author and then do a project. I’ll be curious to find out how you liked it. And I really like your idea of the walking tours in your area. I’m going to make up a similiar list for our area, too!
I love how you presented her with options. I will have to remember that especially as my 10YO gets older and more opinionated about what she learns.
Thank you for the Teach With Movies link. What a great resource! Hope you have a great school year!
I’m agreeing with Susan:)
Looks like a great plan, Karen…perfect for you two. Abby is looking it over too and getting ideas!
I need that Great American artists book. Thanks for sharing all your resources with us.
Looks awesome Karen! You know, I’ll just throw this out there, but this is still an unschooling plan, in my opinion, because it is what Keilee wants…not what you are telling her to do. So you don’t have to feel like unschooling doesn’t work for. Just my opinion 🙂
I have every intention of us reading the History of US books at some point, when the time is right. It’s a great series!
That is, indeed, the beauty of homeschooling – doing what works for you. Kudos for figuring it out and going with it. It sounds like you have a lot of good stuff lined up to work on this year!
We like having a plan, too, although we tend in the unschooling direction. I like your plans so much! We have done most of the General Science experiments, too and I have blogged about them here… http://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Exploring%20Creation%20with%20General%20Science
Let me know when you are out my way.
I’ve had mountains and valleys in homeschooling also. We are coming up on 5 years of homeschooling and I just now feel fully confident in homeschooling. We started with rigid Abeka curricullum, went to full eclectic curriculum designed by me, and now are pretty much eclectic with structured serious subjects (english, math, s.s. and science). This works for us. Sassy wouldn’t do well with unschooling either. She loves having her lists too and accomplishing tasks throughout her day. I love the freedom we have as you well know. Going into 8th grade Sassy is also “getting serious” about her education as am I. This makes me wanna write a blog post about our curriculum. *Goes*
What a GREAT homeschooling Mom to listen to what her daughter would like to study! It can be really hard to let go and follow THEIR interests. (Or is it just me? LOL) We also have those History of Us books, but haven’t really done a lot with them. My oldest read them, but that’s about it. We’re started SOTW Vol 1 with the younger kids this year and see how that works. All the best for a great year!
This is great! I have asked my kids multiple times what they want to learn, wanting their input, you know, and I get rolled eyes. They want me to give them the assignments and get on with it. I guess that’s both good and bad.
Found you on the curriculum blog hop.