Homeschool Curriculum 2017-2018

Homeschool Curriculum choices for a 9th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, and K5 student 2017-2018


We've hit a milestone year.

Highschool.

I'll just leave that there for a second so that you can feel the full weight of it. Deep breaths, everyone.

For months, I've had my sleeves rolled up and have been etching out a tentative four-year plan for my daughter. Since I'm a firm believer in family-style learning, I've done my best to weave a robust 9th-grade year into our eclectic a la carte school day. In addition to high school, I'll also be juggling 6th, 5th, 3rd, and Kindergarten respectively. (Phew...it kind of makes my arms tired just thinking about keeping all those balls in the air.)

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But I can do this! I. Can. Do. This. (Fist pump in the air!)

Below is a peek at the content-rich subjects that we'll do together. Core subjects such as math and grammar will be done individually according to grade level. (Of course I don't homeschool according to grade levels, so those numbers are really only place-keepers for the state's records, not ours.) Since we only "school" four days a week, you can assume that each of these resources will only be used for four days unless otherwise marked.

Morning Time- every day

Our morning time is an anchor -- an immovable spot in our schedule that helps create consistency even on the frantic days. It always consists of good books and The Book. I figure if we can start our day peacefully with this short but very intentional benchmark, I can count the entire day as a success -- even if the rest of it gets derailed.

Some of the items in our morning basket will be done daily, while others will be done in a "loop" (similar to my housework loop).

To be done daily







To be placed in a "loop"


Bible

 

Theology



Missionary story


Science- 2x a week

For the second year in a row, my house will be divided for science. My daughter will be taking a Physical Science video course from BJU Press and my boys and I will be working our way through two homemade units based on two of the main components of her course. That way, the entire family can be learning similar topics but at age-appropriate levels. I'll combine the following spine resources with plenty of other library books, hands-on projects, one or two field trips, lots of youtube videos, and some notebooking:

Magnets

Electricity


 

History- 2x a week

It's no secret that I've got a bit of a love affair with living literature. Point me in the direction of a library and I'll be your best friend. As always, I'll be using my trusty Truth Quest guides to create homespun history units for the year. We'll start with Renaissance and Reformation and then ease our way into The Age of Revolution. We'll all read most of the books together, but my daughter and oldest son will be assigned some additional books at their own age level.

We will also use the following resources:



World Geography- 4x a week

Since we will be neck deep in the history of the world this year, I thought it only fitting that we should explore its terrain a bit. Geography is definitely a subject best learned naturally through daily conversations during other subjects. We're never too far from our globe or our embarrassingly large collection of atlases. Since ninth grade demands a little bit more "official," however, I'm planning on getting more intentional with our map skills this year. We'll be returning to some resources we used a few years ago during our geography co-op class. I've purchased both the high school and the elementary resources of Trail Guide to World Geography and hope to weave them together to keep us all on a similar track.




Spanish

My Sweets has asked that we learn a little Spanish this year. Since she recognizes that languages are best learned through conversational practice, she's hoping that her brothers and I will join her in her efforts. Hopefully, group accountability will help us all master a few words quickly. I will not be scheduling this into our week but will strew the following library resources around the house. We might review a bit together each day during our morning time, but we might not. We might watch videos and read Spanish versions of a few familiar children's stories, but we might not. I'm not expecting any of us to be fluent in Spanish by the end of the year. But, if I can spark some natural curiosity and inspire my kids to want to learn more on their own, I'll count this sneaky learning as a success!

Read aloud time goes so much smoother with handwork activities. For the past few years, I've filled an antique milk pail with simple CONstructive projects designed to keep mouths closed and ears open during story time. This year, our bucket will mostly be filled with the following:




  • Nature Anatomy and nature notebooks- Most field guides are made of photos or paintings which are difficult for kids to reproduce in their own nature notebooks. This one, however, is made of beautiful hand-drawn illustrations. My kids will have a much easier time drawing their own versions of certain animals or plants using these simple sketches as a guide. 



Co-op Class- 2x a month

Last year was by far the very best co-op year we have ever had. Since we kept our group small, we were able to meet in homes. A combination of classes, lunch, and free play made it a perfect combination of rigor and relationships. Our co-op feels like family -- like wearing yoga pants in a world obsessed with skinny jeans. We are all crossing our fingers in hopes of rebooting all that loveliness again. This year, we will be offering two classes: the second half of the artist study class we started last year and a brand new composer study. We're also tossing around the idea of having a show-n-tell style current event discussion. With regular rotation, two or three kids at a time will be assigned to research a current event, share it with the group, and then participate in Socratic questions in order to develop a Biblical worldview about trending topics. But we shall see...

Our mornings will tentatively look like this. 

  • 15 minutes- meet-and-greet fellowship/play
  • 90 minutes- artist study/composure study
  • 10 minutes- clean-up/break
  • 30 minutes- current event discussion
  • 15 minutes- lunch prep/indoor play time & board games
  • 30 minutes- lunch
  • 30 minutes- clean up/outdoor play time

Additional curriculum by grade level

6 comments:

  1. caitlynneJuly 19, 2017 at 8:39 AM

    what a wonderful start to your curriculum for the year I'm still trying to put all ours together

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  2. I Wouldn't Trade Nothing for My Journey NowJuly 21, 2017 at 11:49 AM

    Do you use something separate for language arts?

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    1. Jamie EricksonJuly 21, 2017 at 2:07 PM

      Yes, I will be listing those individual subjects in the coming weeks. The resources listed here are just the subjects that we do altogether as a family.

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  3. AnonymousJuly 27, 2017 at 11:34 AM

    What do you use for current events? Great schedule. How do you break down a normal school day with chores and everything? What does your daily schedule look like? Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Jamie EricksonJuly 27, 2017 at 2:30 PM

      Cat, My favorite current event resource for kids are the magazines put out by God's World news group. They have separate ones for early elementary, upper elementary, and tweens/teens. They vet the news, put it in a kid-friendly format, and present it through a Biblical world view.

      I plan to write a post about our 2017-2018 schedule, but in the mean time you can check out these posts which detail a day-in-the-life from previous years.

      http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2016/02/day-in-the-life.html

      http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2013/08/our-homeschool-schedule-2013-2014.html

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