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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Mt. Hope Academy ~ 2012-2013 Lesson Plans, Resources, and Links

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I posted our list of plans, curricula, books, and resources for the upcoming school year way back in May (because I’m crazy like that), but I’ve been working on more detailed planning for the school year starting in just a few weeks (ack!!). I’m reposting an updated list as a kick-off (or would that be a kick-in-the-rear-end?) for more planning posts. Next up: the ‘getting it all done’ routine. (Bwa-ha-ha!!)

2012-2013:

LEVI ~ 5th grade
LUKE ~ 3nd grade
LEIF ~ 1st grade
LOLA ~ preschool (reality: toddlerhood and general entertainment/distraction/chaos)

Classical Conversations (Cycle 1) Foundations: One morning each week for 24 weeks; includes social time and public speaking. Essentials: (Levi) One afternoon each week for 24 weeks; includes grammar, vocabulary, writing, public speaking, and challenging math games.

This will be our 3rd year with our Classical Conversations community. It has been a tremendous blessing in our lives. I am amazed that we will have learned all 3 cycles of memory work at the end of this next year! (I shared about the value we’ve found in the memory work in this post.) Levi will be participating in the afternoon Essentials class for the first time this year while the other boys go to a play class.

Faith:

CC Memorize Exodus 20 (10 Commandments)
God Our Provider (CD) (Bible memory songs)
The Children’s Illustrated Bible (read through together, again) 
Victor Journey Through the Bible (supplemental context information)
Telling God's Story- Year 2 (Life of Jesus, one lesson weekly)
Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God (daily family devotions)
The Gospel Story Bible: Discovering Jesus in the Old and New Testaments (corresponds with Long Story Short)
The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (for me!)
Buck Denver Asks…What’s In the Bible? (DVD series, fun time)
Hymns For a Kid's Heart (Vol. 1, 2)
(once weekly)
(Luke and Levi: weekly hymns on piano)
(Christmas: The Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader and The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean) 

Math:
Teaching Textbooks (Leif: finish 3, Luke: finish 4, Levi: 5/6)
The Critical Thinking Co. math workbooks (for supplemental fun)
Life of Fred (All boys: Elementary series, Levi: Fractions and Decimals & Percents. For fun free reading.)
Beast Academy (Luke: level 3. We’re going to try out this new program from Art of Problem Solving.)
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (free online)
Dragonbox (fabulously fun algebra game app for the ipad)
Khan Academy (free online tutorial videos)
Exploring the World of Mathematics by John Hudson Tiner
Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians by Luetta and Wilbert Reimer
Why Pi? by Johnny Ball
[and other history-integrated math studies, including The Story of Science by Joy Hakim]
Various computer/online games
(I shared a little more about our math approach at this link.)
CC weekly memory work (skip counting/measurements/formulas/laws)
Challenging math games in Classical Conversations Essentials (Levi)

Logic:
Red Herrings and other logic/critical thinking books from The Critical Thinking Co.

Science:
(Christian Kids Explore Physics, Exploring the World of Physics by John Hudson Tiner, Eureka Physics (online videos))
Bill Nye and Eyewitness DVDs
Khan Academy (free online tutorial videos)
CC weekly science memory work (biology and earth science)
CC weekly science projects and experiments
Christian Kids Explore Biology
Real Science 4 Kids Biology
Biology Connects to Language (RS4K) (connects vocabulary from science text to Latin and Greek roots!)
Exploring the World of Biology by John Hudson Tiner
Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Lesie & Charles E. Roth
The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
What’s Science All About? (Usborne) (covers Chemistry, Physics, and Biology)
The Story of Science series by Joy Hakim (history-integrated science studies)
Science in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Islamic Cultures, China, and Mesopotamia (series) (history-integrated studies)
Supplemental books and DVDs
Three days of biology science camp in August to jump-start our studies
(Our science studies will be connected with our CC memory work in biology for the first half of the year. I’m still not sure exactly what we will be doing beginning in January. Possibly earth science.)

P.E.:
Swim Team (3x week, plus swim meets and family swim nights)
(mini trampoline, bike riding, and outdoor play)

Fine Arts:
CC drawing, tin whistle/music theory, fine art/art projects, composers/instruments of the orchestra
The Story of Classical Music (CD)
Beethoven’s Wig (CD series)
Classical Kids (CD series)
13 Art Inventions Children Should Know (and others in the series by Prestel, one book each month)
Cave Paintings to Picasso (history-integrated art studies)
IEW Poetry Memorization
Piano practice

Language Arts:
Classical Conversations Essentials of the English Language (grammar, IEW writing (theme-based: Ancients))
IEW Poetry Memorization
MCT Poetry, Grammar, Writing, Vocabulary (review Town level)
Writing With Ease (Leif: level 1, Luke: level 3, Levi: level 4 and Writing With Skill level 1)  
CC grammar memory work (lists of prepositions, helping verbs, and linking verbs)
All About Spelling (Levi and Luke: level 4, Leif: level 1 and 2) 
Handwriting Without Tears workbooks
Copy work using custom handwriting worksheets
(I shared more details about our Language Arts line-up at this link.)
Typing (Levi)

Latin:
Latina Christiana I (continue)
CC Latin memory work (declensions)

Spanish:
We have La Clase Divertida, El Espanol Facil Jr., and Rosetta Stone to choose from, but realistically I have no idea how to fit it in. Sigh.

Geography:
The Complete Book of Maps and Geography (workbook)
CC geography (extensive world geography and map drawing)
Geography games (free online)  
Geography games, puzzles, and books 
Stack the Countries (iPad app)
(review CC cycles 2 and 3 geography)
(history related maps)

History/Literature:
(The Story of the World: The Modern Age (finish))
The Story of the World: Ancient Times (with Activity Guide)
Begin creating our own history timeline (Add-a-Century Timeline) integrating all subjects
SOTW Vol 1 Resources @ Tending Our Lord’s Garden (using the notebooking pages!)
SOTW Vol 1 Literature Guides @ Classical House of Learning (picking and choosing)
CC weekly history memory work (Ancients and world civilizations) 
The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History (Luke)
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (Levi)
CC Veritas History Timeline Cards and new CC Timeline Cards (memorize) 
Many supplemental books and DVDs
Literature Study (Ancients, using lists from The Well-Trained Mind) including:
Tales From Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green
Casting the Gods Adrift: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by Geraldine McCaughrean
Lugalbanda, The Boy Who Got Caught Up In a War: An Epic Tale From Ancient Iraq told by Kathy Henderson
Gilgamesh The King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh retold by Ludmila Zeman
Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean
In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid (Virgil) by Penelope Lively
Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of The Iliad (Homer) by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of The Odyssey (Homer) by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Children’s Homer by Padraic Colum
Tales From the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne
The Aesop for Children illustrated by Milo Winter
D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
Historical Fiction:
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
(and more)

Literature:
Great children’s classics
Book Detectives (Parent-child monthly book club focusing on literature analysis via Socratic dialogue a la Deconstructing Penguins and Teaching the Classics)
Lots of free reading and library visits

Review CC memory work from cycles 2 and 3

8 comments:

Hannah said...

WOW! Girl, you've been PLANNING. :-)

Question: Do you anticipate *finishing* all these books/curricula this school year? I'm just curious, honestly, because I know if I tried to do, say, four different math curricula and actually finish all of them (i.e. have my kids finish all of them), I'd be a total basketcase. Or is it more of a dabbling approach, where they just choose from day to day from the menu and not worry about whether a book or text gets done from A to Z?

Heidi said...

That is a *fabulous* question, Hannah. The answer is both. :) I have the sincerest intentions of finishing the following: Telling God's Story 2, Teaching Textbooks (one level per kid), Real Science 4 Kids Biology, Essentials of the English Language, IEW ancient history writing assignments for CC, All About Spelling, Latina Christiana I, and The Story of the World: Ancient Times. I'd like to complete as much as possible of the Writing With Ease workbooks for Luke and Leif (we won't do every last excercise, though) and Beast Academy for Luke (he is already part way through his TT level). Some of the books listed will be completed as independent reading (such as Why Pi?, What's Science All About? Science in Ancient Egypt, Mathematicians Are People Too, The Story of Science, 13 Art Inventions Children Should Know, and others...). Some titles will take us longer than a year to complete (Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions, The Complete Book of Maps & Geography, the science and history encyclopedias, IEW poetry memory, etc.). Some books/resources will be used piecemeal as supplements or reference (Christian Kids Explore Biology, Khan Academy, Keeping a Nature Journal). I will have Levi do some Writing With Ease when CC is not in session, but I'll pick and choose--certainly won't finish a book. Some resources are just for fun (Dragonbox and other iPad apps, What's In the Bible? DVDs, and Life of Fred (though I will have Levi do more structured work in Fractions and Decimals & Percents)). Does that answer your question? :)

marie & men said...

Hi Heidi, I'm a HUGE fan of your blog, thought this is my first time to comment. =) My first 2 of 5 boys are 5th/3rd, too!...(then I have a K, 3yo, & 2mo boys that follow.) It's crazy (sometimes organized, but mostly not) chaos and loud a lot of the time. But like the frequent reply from parents of twins, "It's all I know..." What would a quieter house be like anyway? I wouldn't know. As you know, a house with multiple children is a blessing anyway you slice it, right? But I digress...We do CC, as well. L-U-V it!!!! And I have similar "goals" to accomplish this school year, not nearly deep as your wonderful resource list. But I am curious, how DO you organize your day with your children? Surely you do not write a pencil/paper lesson plan each week? OR do you? Have you used any electronic online scheduling programs with any success?

Heidi said...

Thanks for introducing yourself, Mama4! Yes, these crazy children are a blessing. :)

Other than the schedule I just posted, I don't have much in the way of lesson plans. I've always been a kind of 'do the next thing' sort of person. If I have very detailed plans, things always go awry and have to be changed anyway. ;-P I'd like to do a little more weekly planning this year, but it won't be super specific. Just making sure I have books ready, pages copied, supplies purchased...that sort of thing. I also tend to like to write things down more than use computer or online planning tools or programs. Maybe part way into the year I'll let y'all know how that's working for me (or not :)).

Hannah said...

Yes, that answers my question. It looks like we are aiming to finish almost the exact same things!

April said...

Q: How much do you try to expand upon the CC memory work in your studies, --particularly history, timeline, and science? If you've answered this in previous posts, direct me there. I've been wanting to re-read your early CC posts anyway since we are just beginning. Also, I owe you a huge thank you for introducing me to so much quality literature and homeschool resources over the last few years that I've followed your blog. My now second grader was only four years old when I found your blog! You have been a big influence in our homeschool and the creation of my own blog.

Heidi said...

April~ That's a good question, and the answer is different each year according to life (like having a baby :)) and the subjects. When Lola was born, we didn't do much for the first half of the year. The second half of the year I gave up on the timeline (ha!) and I had the boys read or watch stuff during the week that corresponded with the history sentences or science topics.

This year I will have the boys enter all the timeline titles into our master timeline book that we will be adding to for the next four years as we go through a second 4-year world history rotation. We are studying ancient history this year, but I will not be using the CC history sentences as our spine. We will go through Story of the World chapter by chapter, and spend more than 24 weeks on just ancient history (especially since the sentences jump around so much this cycle!). When we get to a chapter that corresponds with a history sentence we have learned, then we'll sing it for review. :) So we'll only do the history sentences during memory work time.

For science, it just happened to work out beautifully to correspond our science text (Real Science 4 Kids Biology) with the CC science topics for the first 12 weeks. I switched up the chapters a little and will add in some extra reading or DVD watching as our schedule allows. So science will follow the topics closely. I think I will use the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia/DK First Earth Encyclopdedia and other books/DVDs/projects to correspond with the second 12 weeks. So, yes, we will use CC as a spine for our science work during the week. (I would like to have an hour or two weekly to devote to science studies, but, honestly, I'm happy with their science projects in class and won't completely stress out if science gets missed for some reason at home.)

I'm not sure if that answers your question. Let me know if you have something more specific you would more details about. Some of it I'm not perfectly sure about until we get into the swing of things. We're behind you by a couple weeks. :)

You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that my blog has been helpful to you!!

Heidi said...

One more thing (as if I wasn't already long-winded!)... The boys are memorizing the new timeline this year. They have a good portion of it down already because of the fabulous timeline song! I plan on having them read the back of the cards as we hit each topic in our history studies, but that will be according to our SOTW schedule and not the CC schedule.