Turning Mirrors into Windows

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.  

~Sydney J. Harris

 

I realized just this year that I list my curriculum and book choices for the girls along the right margin of my blog, and each year when I revise and update them they are then lost forever!! (Yes, I keep some sort of "official records"...they are just not that fun to read through.) So I thought I would just write a post in the beginning of each school year outlining our books and emphases for that year.  This is that post.

 2011-2012

Moo: 7th Grade  

This year we are trying something different with our eldest.  Up until this point, I have been quite eclectic in my curriculum choices.  We went with classical education for a couple years, and used Classical Conversations as our guide.  Then, for the last couple years, I have been leaning more toward a Charlotte Mason approach, with a decent amount of extra-curriculars, field trips, get-out-in-the-real-world-and-look-around, delight-directed education.  This year, I decided to jump head first into Calvert School.  *GULP*  It is a great curriculum, though very different to what we are used to in a few ways.  Nevertheless, Moo is really starting to take to it quite well after a couple weeks of getting used to the structure and rigor of the program.  What she loves about the program are all the online options, including frequent links during Science class to Brainpop.com, streaming video options from Discovery Channel School for a good portion of her history work, online spelling games and several tutorials and activities developed specifically by Calvert for their students.  The bulk of her work is very traditional reading, writing and assessment--but these few minutes a day of online "extras" really make her quite happy. 

Here is Moo's daily/weekly schedule:

Bible- The Gospel of John, weekly Torah Portions  
Violin- Suzuki book 2 (almost on to book 3!) 
Math- Chalkdust Pre-Algebra 
Grammar & Composition- Elements of Language, Holt, Rinehart, Winston 
Spelling- Everyday Spelling, Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley
History- Across the Centuries, Houghton Mifflin
Geography- The World and its People, Vol 1, Glencoe McGraw-Hill
Science- Science Explorer Series, Pearson Learning Solutions & Discovery School

• From Bacteria to Plants
• Human Biology & Health
• Motion, Forces and Energy
• Animals
• Sound and Light

Art- A Child's History of Art: Architecture, Hillyer & Huey
Choir- 15-30 minutes practice daily
Foreign Language- Rosetta Stone Spanish, learning Hebrew aleph bet
Reading- The Door in the Wall, Marguerite de Angeli; A Single Shard, Park; Out of the Dust, Hesse; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Taylor; Across America on an Emigrant Train, Murphy; The Miracle Worker, Gibson;  Around the World in Eighty Days, Verne;  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl; Kidnapped, Stevenson; Classic Poems to Read Aloud, Selected by James Berry

Belle: 5th Grade

This is a fun year for Belle, as she has been blessed with a sharp mind and a love for reading...which then makes for a perfect scenario for a year full-to-the-brim with really great books.  (I am reconciling myself to the fact that Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys will sneak into her booklist here and there...that will just have to be okay.)   Being the second child, Belle is fortunate to have a homeschooling mommy who has seen the favorable outcome of the eclectic (and dare I say laid back?) homeschooling approach with her older sister. So this year for Belle, I am very contentedly and confidently charging forward with my "a little of this, and a little of that" curriculum decisions.  So far, she is very pleased.

Here is Belle's daily/weekly schedule:

Bible- The Gospel of John, weekly Torah Portions

Guitar- 30 minutes a day, 1x/wk. with MTPAA

Handwriting- A Reason For Handwriting, Cursive E

Spelling/Dictation-  Spelling Plus, Susan C. Anthony

Grammar- Daily Grams 5

Math- Abeka 5 Math

Geography- Daily Geography Practice, Evan-Moor; Explore the Holy Land, Voskamp

History- Abraham Lincoln's World, Foster; Story of the World: Modern Era, Bauer; This Country of Ours, H.E. Marshall

Science- Christian Liberty Nature Reader 5; Exploring Creation with Botany, Fulbright; The Story of Inventions, McHugh

Foreign Language- Rosetta Stone Spanish, Hebrew aleph bet

Art-  Discovering Great Artists, Kohl & Solga

Choir- 15- 30 minutes practice daily

Reading- Robin Hood, Pyle; Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan; The Railway Children, Nesbit; Bambi: A Life in the Woods, Salten; In His Steps, Sheldon; A Basket of Flowers, Christoph von Schmid

Poetry- A Child's Garden of Verses, Stevenson; Lewis Carroll study

That's about it...though I am positive there will be changes along the way.  It's a gal's prerogative to change her mind, right?  That is the beauty of being the teacher, principal and superintendent all rolled into one!

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.  

~Albert Einstein