New School Year and Loop Scheduling

We are getting ready to start our school year in July! Our summers in the South can be so hot that most of July and August we can't go outside anyway so the past two years we have taken most of April and all of May and June off for our 'summer break'. It has worked great for us. We can spend the mild days outside playing, camping, taking field trips, and going on vacations before the summer crowds! Another thing I love about homeschooling - flexibility! We get to school around our lives, not live by the school schedule!

This year I am going to try something new - loop scheduling. I've thought about it before, but just never given it a real try. I think this year I will really need to try to stick to it because we have so many extra things we want to do. By extra things, I mean things other than math, science and English, but still important things that I want to include. Last year however, I had a hard time balancing the core subjects and the extra stuff. We would spend to much time on extras and then not have time for the core stuff or vise versa. It seemed like something was always getting left out. I feel like a loop schedule will correct that. At least I hope it will!

To create our loop schedule the first thing I did was make a list of EVERYTHING (that I know of so far) that I wanted CJ to work on this year. My list looked like this:

Math, Memorizing Multiplication Facts, History, Geography, Literature, Writing, Reading Comprehension, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary, Typing, Science, Life of Fred, Poetry, Presidents, Logic and Art.

Then from that I listed everything I thought needed to be done everyday at the top and everything else went on the loop list. So then I had:

Daily:
Literature
Math
History
Science
Grammar
Writing

Loop:
Reading Comprehension
Critical Thinking/Logic
Geography
Life of Fred
Spelling
Vocabulary
Presidents
Typing
Poetry
Art

Some of the daily subjects may end up not actually needing to be done daily because they are done through co-op classes and I'm not sure yet what the assignment schedule will be like. But I want them on the daily schedule since the work will have to be done on time in order to turn in at co-op. I don't want it stuck in a loop.

 

Next, I had to figure out how the schedule was actually going to work on a daily basis. First, I decided our school day was going to be 9am - 3pm, with an hour for lunch 4 days per week. Why 9-3? Well, we aren't early risers so I don't expect us to be ready start before 9am and I figured with a loop schedule there needs to be a clear stopping point since there is no set check list of things that need to be done each day. Last year I used a checklist, some days we would be done by noon. Some days we wouldn't get done until 4pm. And most days we never got to everything on the list, so things always felt incomplete. There was little consistency and CJ would get a little stressed over not knowing from one day to the next when his school day was going to be finished. So, I just picked 3pm, it seemed like a good time to stop. I have always used a 4 day a week schedule. The 5th day is our co-op day and when co-op is not meeting, it's great to have a catch-up / movie / documentary day. I also had to figure out when to move on to the next thing on the list. My final schedule looks like this:

Daily:
Math (Teaching Textbooks)- one lesson per day
Literature (IEW Reading Roadmaps) - read aloud everyday, at least one chapter (about 20-30 minutes), with monthly lessons
Grammar (Jr. Analytical Grammar) - follow lesson plan w/curriculum
History (History Odyssey) - co-op class
Science (Physics) - co-op class
Writing (IEW) - co-op class

Loop:
Reading Comprehension (Reading Comprehension Grades 5-6 Workbook) - one lesson
Critical Thinking/Logic (Building Thinking Skills Level 2) - one lesson
Geography (Trail Guide to US Geography) - one lesson
Spelling (Spelling Workout Book E) - one lesson
Life of Fred - one chapter
Vocabulary (Word Wise 4) - one lesson
Presidents (notebooking) - complete one step
Typing (Typing Instructor for Kids) - one lesson
Art (various things) - 20-30 minutes
Poetry (Read and Understand Poetry Grade 5) - one lesson

After we go through all of the daily lessons and do any homework that needs to be done for co-op classes, we move on to the loop schedule, either completing one lesson or a time limit for each subject, and just work through it until the school day is over. The following day, after daily lessons are complete, we start from where we left off the previous day on the loop schedule. Does that make sense? For example, if on Monday at 3pm we are working on Spelling, then Tuesday, after the daily stuff is done, we will start on Life of Fred. I think this schedule will make me and CJ happy! He will have his list to follow so he knows exactly what needs to be done and he will know when he can be done for the day. I will be happy because I know that eventually everything will have a turn to be worked on! And then main reason I will be happy... CJ will be happy! Our days always go better when he is happy!

 

Have you ever tried a loop schedule? What does your daily schedule look like?

Why We Homeschool

When I tell someone we homeschool our 10 year old son they always ask why and for some reason it's always been a hard question for me to answer. That bothered me. We made this big decision to homeschool, pulled our child out of public school after 2nd grade and changed our lives to do it. Yet, I couldn't pin point a reason when someone asked me why. There seemed at first to be so many reasons and yet it also felt like we did it just because we wanted to.

So, I spent some time really thinking about it. Why do we homeschool?  Freedom. That's the one reason it comes down to.

Freedom from the 8am to 3pm September through May schedule.

Freedom from a room of 20 or more of kids all the same age and one poor exhausted teacher trying her hardest to get them to all do the same thing at the same time and do it quietly.

Freedom from sitting in a desk, standing in a line, asking before moving, not talking, bad lunch food and in a lot of cases, bullying and teasing.

Freedom from equipment that is usually below standard because not enough money is put into our public school systems.

Freedom from curriculum that is that is rushed through and only taught if it is on some test that the government says all children have to be measured by.

Freedom to do what is best for my child when and where it is best for him.

Freedom from the stress of having to deal with above ll of the above.

That's why we homeschool. Freedom. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Why do you homeschool? 

Journalism Co-Op Class

This semester I am teaching a Journalism/Yearbook class at our co-op. Our co-op meets once a week and offers classes ranging in everything from preschool to gemstones and minerals. Classes are taught by volunteers and they teach whatever they are interested in so we have a wonderful variety; Sign Language, Music, Art, Book Illustration, Cooking, Architecture, History, Felicity's World. There is something for everyone!

For my class I am using High Five Media Literacy units. It is three unit program that includes journalism, reading, writing and grammar. I had to pick and chose from the lessons because there are more lessons than weeks in our co-op, and shorten some of them for some of my younger students, but it is working wonderfully. The kids are really enjoying it!

I have 8 kids from 4th-8th grade in the class so our paper has 8 sections: Local News, World News, Feature, Editorial, Comic/Puzzle, Sports, Advice/How To and Review. We publish a paper each week and the students rotate through the different sections so that everyone gets to write once for each section.

Do you participate in a homeschool co-op? What kinds of classes do you offer?

2015-2016 Curriculum Plan

 2015-2016 Curriculum

I think I have finally got our schedule and curriculum down for the 2015-2016 school year. This will be our 3rd year homeschooling and I feel like I am just now starting to find a rhythm. Of course, every time I think that, something changes!

Here is the curriculum I am planning on doing for CJ, 10 years old and my only homeschooler:

History
Bookshark History, Readers and Read Alouds, 4th grade level, year 2 American History.

 

Even though CJ will technically be in 5th grade, I am going with the 4th grade level because this year we did Sonlight Core D, which is year 1 American History. I want to finish out American History by doing year 2 this coming year. I'm looking forward to trying Bookshark. See my post here for reasons why I am switching. 

Hard to believe I know but we have changed curriculum choices.... we are going to try History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients. Honestly the reason we are switching is because CJ was really not looking forward to all the reading that comes with BookShark. He loves to read.... as long as it is Dr. Who or Star Wars related. So, I started looking at some other options. I was torn between sticking with BookShark anyway or trying History Odyssey or Oak Meadow. After giving myself a headache trying to decide, I had an idea. I printed off sample lesson plans of each curriculum, showed them to CJ and talked to him about each one and the differences between them. Then I asked him which he would like to do. He impressed me by really thinking about it and asking me some questions. He chose History Odyssey. So, that was that. We will try it. He said he "liked that is was part reading and part research and part book work". He also liked that it was very student led. He likes to be able to do his work without me hoovering over him. I'm excited about it! I think it will be a good fit for us.

Language Arts

Spelling - We are going to try Spelling Workout E. We have tried All About Spelling and Sequential Spelling, neither worked very well for us. They were both great programs. I think the problem is just that spelling is not our favorite subject and seems to always get pu

t on the back burner so we don't seem to ever get into a good routine with spelling. So, we'll try Spelling Workout and see what happens.

Grammar - For grammar we are going with Jr. Analytical Grammar. This year we used Shurley English and I really like it. CJ has learned so much with it. It is quick (we do the grammar only, not the writing) and the question and answer flow to classify sentences is easy to follow. The only problem I have with it is it does not

Memorize Multiplication Facts

CJ was overwhelmed at the thought of having to memorize all the multiplication facts. But he watched this video I found on YouTube and the light bulb went off! He said, "Cool. I already knew most of them all and just didn't know it."

Anything that made multiplication that easy, I have to share! Now he doesn't get so stressed out over math. It's still not his favorite, but realizing multiplication wasn't as hard as he thought helps a lot.

Check it out!

Do you have any favorite math resources?

Our Homeschool Shedule

When I tell people we homeschool they are always curious about what exactly we do all day. And families that are considering homeschooling are always looking for ideas and examples of how other families structure their days, so I thought I would share our schedule.

I have one child, a 10 year old boy, and we are currently using the following curriculum:

Sonlgiht Core D - history, readers and read alouds
Apologia - Zoology 2 (we do this with a live online class through Currclick)
Shurley English 5
Teaching Textbooks 5
IEW Fun and Fasinating
Wordly Wise 4
Trail Guide to US Geography
Live Classes from Currclick
Engineering 4 Kids Robotics and Homeschool Engineering Club

Monday

This is co-op day, so we usually just finish up any homework we have for co-op classes before it starts at 12:30. In fall CJ had LEGO We-Do, Photography and Native Americans. This semester he takes US History Revolution through Lewis and Clark, Newspaper/Yearbook and Gemstones and Minerals.

Tuesday
We have Engineering 4 Kids Homeschool Engineering Club from 10:00 - 11:30. After lunch we  work on homework for our co-op history class, Sonlight history, readers and read alouds and math. If we have time we also do english. We have a live class with Currclick at 3:00 for Zoology.

Eating Our Way Through the States

This is our favorite part of our state studies! We use Geography Matters Trail Guide to U.S. Geography.

Geography Matters

I love this curriculum! There are questions to answer, mapping, topics to research and projects to do. Everything is laid out so that it is easy to follow. Most importantly, my son loves it! It's his favorite thing to work on and he always wants to start the day with 'the states'. 

A few weeks ago we decided to add something fun to our study of the states by adding Eating Our Way Through the States. 

I have not received my cookbook yet, but we decided to start this week. I let CJ choose a state, he picked Hawaii. Then I let him look up so Hawaiian inspired foods and drinks.

He picked Hawaiian Pizza (not sure how authentic Hawaiian that is, but that's what he wanted!) with pineapple, chicken and Canadian bacon. We had pineapple cake and a drink with pineapple juice, lemon juice, club soda and simple syrup. Everything was so yummy!

CJ had so much fun finding the recipes, shopping for ingredients and cooking the meal. It's going to be a great addition to our study of the states and I can't wait to see what we get to eat next!

What food comes to mind when you think about the state you live in? Got any good recipes we should try?