Homeschool Agendas

This week we are discussing our homeschooling plans for the year and a verse that has helped us as we have planned.

While I don't have the year completely laid out, I do have a rough idea on main areas I am covering. I will be teaching my 11yo daughter (6th), 9yo daughter (4th) and 7yo daughter (2nd) as well as giving my 5yo son (kindergarten) stuff to keep busy with. I am usually pretty relaxed with kindergarten, but he really wants to do schoolwork so why fight it?

A lot of the stuff I use I get from the site Old Fashioned Education. Miss Maggie (the site's owner) has put together a free online curriculum using mainly out of copyright free books that you can find online through her links. I don't go completely according to her layouts, but use the ideas as a jumping off point.

I personally try to keep all of the children learning the same history, art, music and gym and some of the same science and just give each one age appropriate work within the subject. This year we will be studying ancient history- Greece, Rome and Egypt, using books from the library, lapbooks etc.

Art and music we tend to just explore as we go. Sometimes we listen to some classical music or I will print off a coloring page of a famous piece of artwork and then discuss the artist.

I would link to the free homeschool physical education program I found, but my bookmarked sites are all on my crashed computer. It basically has the children do stretches everyday and then either has them learn about a sport or do a physical challenge, etc.

Science has always been a mix of reading books, nature study, experiments, videos, etc. I am going to have the two older children read some more reading. A few books I plan on having them read are: A Fairyland of Science and The Storybook of Science. I also want to start giving them a more solid biblical worldview of science and firm up their beliefs.

For math I have been using a program out of England by CIMT called the Mathematics Enhancement Program. This year the 2nd gr. will finish up year 1 and start year 2 while the older two will be doing year 3 and 4.

Writing skills see a lot of use and strengthening through journal writing, letter writing, stories, etc. The older two children will be doing more grammar work, possibly going through the Scott Foresman workbooks that are available for free online. They also write on their own blogs occassionally.

The older two girls inhale books as if they were air. I use their love of books to further their education by making sure they read historical fiction, biographies, classics and other worthy books. I don't mind them sitting there for a couple hours reading if I know they are learning about World War II or whatever the subject is. Oftentimes one of the girls will be talking with me about something and will remember something they read in a book that goes along with the subject we were discussing.

Last year the older two started going through a book titles Home Geography for Primary Grades, notebooking what they learned as they went. I will be having them finish that as well as having them do country studies and the like to go with it. I found a basic country lapbook that you can use for any country of your choice and will have them do a few different countries with that.

Well, that is all I can think of for now. There is of course all the home ec they will learn as they all help out around the house, in the kitchen and with the new baby (arriving after the new year). They will have devotions to do, character training and other stuff going on. I will print out some of the free lapbooks I have picked up so they can do those. If you can't tell, I try to do all I can to make our homeschooling happen with as little cost as possible. I even print all our books, etc. out at the library so as to save on printing costs (they have no limit on how much you can print for free).

One verse that has not only helped with this year's planning, but also with other life issues in the past few months has been Prov. 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.