Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Curriculum: High School

And last but not least....our 10th grade curriculum.

We let him play a big role in choices this year and here is what he is using.

His main curriculum core is My Father's World US History through 1877.
It is supposed to be for 11th grade, but he covered world history last year, and their world history covers 9th and 10th grades...we chose to go a different route though.
So, this curriculum covers, US History and Government this year and next year the other 1/2 of US History and Economics.
It also includes Bible, Language Arts, American Literature, and a great class on Developing a Christian Worldview.  He is on week 4, and we are very impressed by the curriculum so far!

Along with that, he is using Life of Fred Trigonometry for math.

He just finished Apologia Biology using DIVE into Science.  They have him finishing Biology then also cramming Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Apologia (Their advanced Biology course) into 2 months.  I chose that because he had no interest in the human body (GASP--with 2 medical parents.) but I wanted him to learn it and he was willing to do that route.  Turns out, 1/2 way into the book, that he wants to study the body the whole year cause it's so interesting and he would like to learn more and not rush, so we are changing our plans from finishing it quickly and moving on to Chemistry, to taking the whole year to study Advanced Biology and taking the Biology CLEP.   I would also like him to read through Where there Is No Doctor, and maybe go to work with Chris a few times to see how the medical field works.  Don't get me wrong, he still has no interest in the medical field, but it will be beneficial for him all through life.   Grin.

Electives:
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Piano
Soccer on Sunday's.  = )

Curriciulum: Middle School

I have 2 middle school students this year.  A 6th grader and an 8th grader.  They are both extremely independent workers which is great for me!    We are a few weeks into school and they seem to be really enjoying their curriculum, especially some new choices we went with to add some new excitement.


Here is what they spend their days working on:
Bible
They both spend time first thing reading through the Bible on their own.  Later, at naptime or in the evenings with Daddy, we are going through a Bible Curriculum Foundations 3 that has us reading a chaper every day.  We also have Sword Drills twice a week, and memorize a passage of Scripture every week.   They write, illustrate and act out their Bible Memory verses to help them remember them more easily.

Language Arts
6th grade
She is using a new curriculum for us called Intermediate Language Lessons.  I love it immensely and will likely use it for all the children below her in the years to come!     It is a very fun curriculum that doesn't have any "fluff" or (in my opinion) unnecessary grammar stuff that is impractical for the real world.
This is her first year using a spelling curriculum.  She is an excellent speller, but the book she is using Building Spelling Skills 5 covers many of the countries of the world, states and geography.  It also has a lot more practical words too.   It's much more than just spelling.  She seems to like it.
8th grade
Noah will be using 2 Total Language Plus guides this year:  Swiss Family Robinson and the Yearling.
He is also finishing the 2nd part of Jump In writing curriculum.  They have him do a 10 minute "Writing Plunge" every day with a story starter.  It is a lot of fun for him. He is also using Easy Grammar Ultimate 8th grade, that is a 1 page review every day of all grammar concepts.

Math
They are both using Life of Fred.  Hosanna will be doing 2 books this year: Fractions and Decimals & Percents.
Noah is finishing up Keys to Algebra that have helped him review some Algebra concepts and will be starting Beginning Algebra Life of Fred soon.


Science
They are both using Apologia this year.  Noah is using Apologia Physical Science, and Hosanna is using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Hosanna's comes with a really neat notebook that makes it so much more fun too!
We also just signed Noah up for a really neat, 2-day lab intensive science camp in February.  It sounds so fun, and will help make his Freshman year of Biology much easier.


History
They had an intense year of history last year, so this year is a bit easier.  They have studied all of history except modern history.  They are reading through Story of the World 4 and doing just the map exercises in the activity book.  They are also reading books 6-10 of The Story of U.S.
I have also assigned 8 more books to read to go along with that time period.  (Across Five Aprils, Courage to Run, Hudson Taylor, Sergeant York and the Great War, Twenty and Ten, Hiding Place, Number the Stars and Brother Andrew)

Spanish
Rosetta Stone

Electives
Typing with Mavis Beacon (both)
Thinking Toolbox for Logic (Noah)
Homemaking (Hosanna)
Feed My Sheep Art Curriculum (Hosanna)
Piano (both)
Guitar (Noah)

I think that about covers it.  = )