I really don't like hot. It is hot here now. Hot and buggy. Mosquitos really like me. I don't like them at all. They like Jake a lot too. Poor boy is quite bitten up right now. They don't want to go outside in this kind of weather. Nor do I. It is not fun to walk to the mailbox and get all sweaty. Yuck.
I sat down and got a very general idea of the lessons. Now I am going to work on specifics and then go back and do the daily plan again. I looked at the Spelling and decided how to break that up for Jake (all of these are for Jake right now with the exception of the combined subjects --- his are harder and take more time so his gets figured first). He will do one lesson a week in Spelling Workout. He is beginning book F next term. Along with the lessons in there, I will be choosing 3-5 words each week from his list. They will be the words that he is the least familiar with the meaning and usage. He will look those up in the dictionary, write down the part of speech, definition, and a synonym. Then I will find some well structured sentences written by good writers using those words for him to use as copy work for the week.
Math will be continuing in the MCP series. It goes through book F, which he will begin this year. I think I have decided to go into the Singapore Math series after MCP. So I likely will be buying some of the Singapore to use this year in addition to MCP in order to get him used to the style of that program. I consider a lesson in MCP to be 2 pages. He will do 1 lesson per day, 5 days a week. We move along at a good pace in math due to his natural understanding of the concepts. It isn't always easy for him, but he generally gets most concepts quickly enough.
Grammar will continue with the Rod & Staff series. They are very thorough and well done in my opinion. I have divided the book into 2 parts. One part consists of the actual grammar lessons with the unit tests. The other part consists of the writing and oral lessons. I believe that the grammar lessons will be completed 4 days of the week. That will work out with the number of total days and the number of lessons. For the writing, I have a separate writing program to implement this year. Once I have studied that program, then I will look at the R&S writing to see where they come together in order to combine the ideas (if possible). This has not happened yet. The writing program IEW's TWSS is going to take me a fair bit of time to study and prepare. It has a dvd series to watch along with a notebook/"text". Once I have spent some time with TWSS, I will know more about how the writing will fit in to our week. I anticipate that writing will happen at least 3 times a week. Likely more. I just don't know right now.
Poetry is also coming in this year in a more consistent manner. I have the Harp and Laurel Wreath. I am just now looking at it, trying to figure out how and when. I am not sure if I should have the boys in the same levels with this or not. Adam definitely falls in to the Early Years group. I am not sure if I should go ahead and skip that with Jake to put him in the Grammatical stage or not. They will be doing poetry recitation and memorization daily. Once a poem is memorized, it will go on a piece of paper, and possibly illustrated, in order to start poetry notebooks for each of the boys. I still remember my poetry notebook from my 6th grade English class with Mrs. Dreisler. I hope mine get some enjoyment out of making one.
That's what I have looked at thus far. I am just doing a little at a time. Ideas are mulling around in my head most of the day. When something stands out as a real idea, then I sit and put it on paper. So far, things are gradually coming about. I get a lot of ideas and such from the "hive". Great place that hive!
Comments (1)
That's funny, 'cause I'm actually glad that it's hot. It's FINALLY FINALLY hot!!!! U-Dad had to finally persuade me to turn on the a/c. Once the mosquitos kick in, I'll be in your camp. But for now, I'm just delighted to not be cold.
The school stuff sounds great. That's what's nice about the hs-ing thing, I figure. You can evolve and change as you need to. And the hive is a tremendous source, isn't it? What did folks do before the hive?