He's an introvert and prefers the quiet comforts of his room to any other place.
While there, he usually buries himself in a mound of Legos, a stack of good books, or old Calvin & Hobbes comics. He's an old soul, has a deep love for vintage cars, and eats salsa by the jar. Please don't touch his hair. Ever. He hates that.
In the last year or so, he's grown a special fondness for writing. He's always working on a draft of this or that. He keeps a 3-ring binder of all his latest chapters, draws the illustrations, and shares them with a friend who also has a passion for writing. This year, he wants to focus more effort on learning and honing the skills of wordcraft. I'm happy to oblige.
Here's what he'll be learning.
(Because we only homeschool 4 days a week, you can assume that all subjects will be completed four times each week unless otherwise indicated.)
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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>>>
I'm calling 7th grade, the year of the finished stories. He's got lots of blank notebooks and plenty of ideas at the ready. I hope to be first in line to read them!
Language
- LLATL The Green Book (Use coupon code unlikelyhomeschool at checkout to get 15% off your entire purchase from Common Sense Press, the makers of LAHTL.)
- All About Spelling Level 6.
- Read for pleasure (every day).
- Read the following books that correspond with the LLATL Green Book.
Star of Light
The Mysterious Benedict Society
Much Ado About Nothing
- If he's not currently working through an LLATL suggested book, he will read a chapter from a book that I assign to him. These will be classics, biographies, or exceptional fiction. You can keep up with those here>>
Creative Writing
He'll use The Story Writing Idea Journal to keep all his writing ideas in one spot and will casually read through the following books:
Math
- Teaching Textbooks 3.0 Pre-Algebra
- Practice math fact flashcards with a sibling for five minutes.
Copywork
- Character Handwriting Cursive- He will complete the second half of the book that he started last year.
Typing- 1x a week
World View
Life Skills
- He will continue to have child-of-the-day privileges and responsibilities.
- Clean his room and make his bed each day.
- Daily chores: sweep one downstairs room, sort the laundry from the hamper, and do the dishes with his sister after dinner.
- Take turns mowing and shoveling with his older brother as needed.
- Make dinner once a week using The American Heart Association Kids' Cookbook--I like the real recipes and real skill tutorials included in this kids' cookbook versus other cookbooks I've found that only include snacky-type foods. (Wednesdays).
- Do 1-2 loads of laundry (Wednesdays).
- Weekly Chores: three chores that he randomly selects from our chore jar.
Co-operative Learning
When I could not find a homeschool co-op in our new city, I decided to start one of my own. Currently, we are 25 families strong and are all set to launch into the school year with a great line-up of classes.
We'll meet the 1st and 3rd Thursday mornings of each month with an optional field trip offered on the 5th Thursdays. My son will be in the 4th-6th-grade group with his older brother and will enjoy the following classes during the first semester:
- Intro to Theater
- Exploring the Deep Sea
Second-semester classes will be determined towards the end of December.
I'm calling 7th grade, the year of the finished stories. He's got lots of blank notebooks and plenty of ideas at the ready. I hope to be first in line to read them!We'll meet the 1st and 3rd Thursday mornings of each month with an optional field trip offered on the 5th Thursdays. My son will be in the 4th-6th-grade group with his older brother and will enjoy the following classes during the first semester:
- Intro to Theater
- Exploring the Deep Sea
Hi Jamie! Really appreciate your posts. The information has been incredibly helpful to me and our homeschooling journey. I was really excited to see The Brick Bible reference because I had never heard of it and our boys are huge LEGO fans, so I looked into it. I'm really distressed by what I found and just wanted to pass along the information, in case you hadn't seen it. Here is the author's site: http://elbespurling.com/. As well as an article that talks about the author: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2015/03/31/author-of-the-brick-bible-series-comes-out-as-transgender/.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the adult version of The Brick Bible is surprising as well: https://www.amazon.com/Brick-Bible-Complete-Set-Presents/dp/1626361770/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/136-3582493-6828537?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1626361770&pd_rd_r=34a74022-6b2d-4e56-8001-11c911deb506&pd_rd_w=rOvAB&pd_rd_wg=PkW1i&pf_rd_p=1c11b7ff-9ffb-4ba6-8036-be1b0afa79bb&pf_rd_r=8SK8Z3H2AVE2DF35AN85&psc=1&refRID=8SK8Z3H2AVE2DF35AN85
Ugh...That's awful. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
DeleteI'm glad you posted this, 3boysmamabear. I was concerned about the same thing. From what I have read, the Brick Bible was written/drawn by an atheist to highlight all the things he feels are negative about the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI hope that at least those who are considering it pre-read it before they give it to their children. Perhaps they will feel it's OK, but hopefully they will at least be aware of any difficulties there might be.
Jamie, I love your blog, overall--thank you for all the work you put into it. I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for your 11th grade picks, as that's all I have left in my homeschool now. :)
Blessings!