I'm definitely not a hand-me-down kind of homeschooler. I know that what works for one child isn't necessarily going to work for the next. That being said, having two kids in back-to-back grade levels definitely has its advantages. As the older one moves out of one grade, I can tweak here and there to make plans fit for the younger one without feeling like I have to reinvent the ENTIRE wheel.
At barely eight-years-old, my son is a bit of a poppy...advanced for his age in most things. But, he also has his own set of struggles.
That's the bonus of homeschooling. It can be made-to-order. He's never really ahead or behind because the finish line is not determined by someone else's scope-and-sequence. It's determined by me.
Here's a look at what he'll be learning this year.
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Items with an asterisk indicate a new-to-us resource. All subjects will be completed four times a week unless otherwise noted.
Content-rich Subjects
As always, he'll do all of his content-rich subjects like Morning time/Bible, history, science, art and creative writing with his older siblings. You can see those curriculum choices here>>>
Personal Devotions-everyday
- BJU English 4
- Continue to add the final drafts of his BJU English writing assignments to his writer's notebook. (every few weeks)
- All About Spelling levels 3 & 4
- Read for pleasure. (everyday)
- Read a book that I assign to him each month (classics, biographies, exceptional fiction).
Math
- Teaching Textbooks 5
- free online review games and apps (like Math Mateer and Monkey Math) for math process review (every few days)
- Minute Math Drills- As I've said before, while I absolutely love the Teaching Textbooks math program, I do not think that it drills basic math concepts enough. I'm a firm believer that until a child can prattle off math facts quickly from memory, he does not actually know them. He might know the concept of HOW to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. But, does not actually know the facts. In order to have success at higher level math, a child should be able to recall math families with speed and accuracy.
Copywork
Critical Thinking
- Mind Benders level 3 (1x a week)
Life Skills/Extra Curriculars
- He will continue his child-of-the-day privileges and responsibilities.
- Lessons in Responsibility for Boys level 2- He began this book last year and will probably finish it up by Christmas of this school year. (1x a week)
- Typing Instructor for Kids (1x a week)
- Project based learning (each month)
He's a focused kid with loads of determination. I can't wait to see how God uses that in his school year!
I want to ask if this is the first year you'll be using Typing Instructor or if you've used it before? I'm considering it, but was concerned that a couple of reviews I read said it introduced evolutionary teachings in "some" of the lessons. Can you comment on this? Thank you in advance.
ReplyDeleteKaren,
DeleteWe have used the program for years and I can't think of one instance when "evolution" was even implied. There is one game that has cartoon mummies in it because the setting is ancient Egypt. That is the only thing that I can think of that would be questionable to some. Since mummies are in fact real artifacts and since my kids have studies ancient Egypt and know about the false idol worship of the Egyptians, the mummy game has never been an issue for us.