(Not so) New School Year

So... it occurs to me that I didn't do a stellar job of keeping up with blogging about our homeschool adventures and misadventures last year.  Rest assured, we did in fact finish our last school year.   There were good days and not-so-good days.  Times when we went above and beyond what was planned, and times (especially in those first trimester moments) when we did the bare minimum.  Overall, I think it turned out well. 

The plan for this year is to maintain our current course.   Graham was born on the first day of school (wasn't that convenient of him?), and obviously, things have been rocky since then, but we've somehow managed to mostly keep up with Aubree's schooling (Bryce's has been much less consistent. but we're hoping to improve as life calms down).

Before the school year began, I had lots of people ask, "since you're having a baby in September, will you be sending Aubree to regular school?"

I can kind of understand where they're coming from with their question, but the truth is, that at this point, sending her off to school would be a lot more work than homeschooling.  How is that possible?

Well, first of all, this is our third year of homeschooling and it's become fairly routine for us.  Granted, we haven't homeschooled with a newborn yet, but when I talk to other public school moms about getting their kids up and out the door in the morning, and picking them up in the afternoon, and following up with homework and assignments and projects, I frequently think that our life is simpler and less hectic.  Trying to start something totally new (like public school), would be a bigger stresser.

Second - Um...do you know Aubree??  She's my biggest helper!  No, that's not WHY I'm homeschooling her, but it's certainly not a reason to pack her off to school just when a new baby is arrives!  She loves having a tiny baby to hold and cuddle and love.  She would be extremely disappointed to be gone for six or seven hours a day and miss out on her baby-time.

Third (and most importantly), we feel that this is the course Heavenly Father wants us to take and we think it's the best for our kids.  Sometimes I wish I were a hard-core homeschooler who knew that we would do this forever, but I'm not (someday I'll write a [really long] post on this topic).  I take it on a year-by-year basis: weighing the options, and pros and cons, and trying to make a decision that's best for our family.  This year the answer is to keep on keeping on.  And we're excited about it.

So, here are our plans for Aubree (I'll write up Bryce's plans in a separate post):

Aubree will be in 2nd grade (how did that happen?!).  She will continue to be enrolled in a parent-partnership program (PPP) through a not-so-local school district that provides a decent stipend that we can use on curriculum, field trips, activities, and lessons.

For starters, she'll use some of that money to take Violin Lessons.  We've talked for years about taking either violin or piano and Aubree usually leaned towards the piano, but when we visited our friends, the Simmons, this summer and Aubree saw their 7-year old playing the violin, she was converted.  She rented a teeny tiny (1/8th size!) violin and has had three lessons so far (she should have had five lessons by now, but Graham's arrival and subsequent hospitalization kept derailing our plans).  She loves it! Some days she'll pull the violin out two or three times to practice.  I know NOTHING about violin, so I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

She'll also be taking Ballet/Tap/Jazz dace lessons once a week through the local community center. Which reminds me, Aubree finished her weekly gymnastics lessons last April.  She never loved them, but did have fun and learned some good skills.  There was, however, no hesitation in her decision NOT to return to gymnastics.  She says she likes dance much better.

In addition to the PPP, Aubree is also enrolled again in our local school district's home school program and will be taking on-site classes once a week for a three hour block.  For the first semester they will be learning about oceans and she'll have an hour of art, an hour of science, and an hour of reading/writing (all ocean related).  She's loving this too - especially the art.

And now, for the home-based curriculum:

Math - We will continue with Math U See.  It worked really well for us last year.  Aubree finished the Alpha (1st grade) book in March and we started immediately with the Beta (2nd grade) book.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we weren't great about keeping up with school this summer, so she started second grade on lesson 15 (out of 30).  I imagine when she finished the beta book we'll just move on to the next book.  Of all her subjects, Aubree likes math the least, which is too bad because she's actually pretty good at it. But, if there's any subject that might result in tears, it's math.

In addition to Math U See, Aubree's also using an online math program called DreamBox Learning.  It's all game-based and adjusts to each kid's level of understanding.  We really like it!  She'll continue to play Dreambox three times a week or so.  As a side-note - we used Dreambox when Aubree was in kindergarten and it was great, but back then it only went up to a second grade level.  Now it goes up to a fifth grade, so she's in no danger of running out of things to do and learn.

Language Arts/Writing:  We're continuing on with First Language Lessons as our main "grammar" book.  We finished the 1st grade last year and moved on to the 2nd grade this year.  It's nice that it's a continuous program.  We're also adding in Writing With Ease, which is another classical education based curriculum that works well with First Language Lessons.  Spelling could also fall under this category... we're using  a workbook called Spelling Workout, Level B that has weekly lists and related activities.  She's on lesson 28 (we started last year) and is finally getting to lists that are challenging (all that reading really pays off when it comes to spelling!).

Spanish - Aubree has the awesome opportunity to use Rosetta Stone online through her PPP program!  That's very cool because Rosetta Stone is known to be extremely effective, but also quite pricey, and we'll get to use it for free.  Sweet!  Hopefully Mark will also start speaking in Spanish to her more often as she becomes a little familiar with the words and terminology.  So far Aubree is really liking the program and seems to be picking up the vocabulary quickly (but, I think Aubree likes anything that's computer based).

Reading - Aubree reads like a fiend.  As part of our PPP reporting last year, I kept track of all the chapter books she read.  In an average month she'd read around 70 books!  I think her record was 103.  She reads sooooo fast too, it's crazy.  (And her comprehension is fabulous).  I've mentioned before, reading is her love and her gift.  So, suffice it to say I'm not terribly concerned about her basic reading skills.

We did get her a book called Reading For The Gifted Student - 2nd grade, which has exercises to help with reading skills and we'll continue to use that until we finish and then move on to the 3rd grade version.  We've also compiled a list of excellent read-alouds for the year (and someday I'll have to go back and list the ones we read last year - they were great!).  Another PPP provided (free!) online resource is called Reading Eggs.  At Aubree's level, she's mostly reading books online and answering comprehension questions.  She can also play grammar games, write book reviews, do spelling races, etc.  All of these activities allow her to earn "eggs" that she can then spend in her "store."  She loves it more than anything else she does, so it's her "reward" for finishing the rest of her school for the day.

Science - I ordered a curriculum called Home Science Adventures, that a friend highly recommended.  It hasn't arrived yet (got stuck in the PPP bottleneck, I'm afraid), but sounds really neat.  There are six different, 6-week units on things like: astronomy, magnetism, birds, insects, light, and one other thing I can't recall.  Lots of hands-on experiments.  Hopefully it will work out well and the boys will like it as well as Aubree.

History - We finished the first volume of Story of the World last year and loved (loved!) it.  I really can't recommend it enough.  I think even parents whose kids go to public school should make time to follow this curriculum, so it should come as no surprise that we're using Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages, this year.

SCOOP - I didn't think we'd be doing SCOOP (Homeschool Co-op) this year, but we will start this week - we just got a late start.  To be honest, I don't think Aubree needs anything else, but Bryce needs it, so we're moving forward.  Aubree will be taking a History/Art class and a Kitchen Experiments class.

*It's still a work in progress and we'll make adjustments as needed.  So far, I've noticed that second grade is a lot more time consuming than kindergarten or first grade.
The End.