Third Grade Planning

I always get excited in the Spring about planning our next homeschool year. I think it is because I am so burned out on what we have been doing for the past 7-8 months.
Here are my plans with some questions and holes to adjust after we give things a try.

Third Grade Course of Study

Blogging and Life

Kim, over at Starry Sky Ranch, has hit the nail on the head and explains why I have not blogged lately. Every morning I think of something neat to blog about, but it never makes it to the computer. I read this last night and knew it would be posted this morning.
Read her thoughts On Blogging.

Goals and Tools to Reach Them

I posted our school schedule and will follow up with my game plan - my goals for first grade. Note that I am only homeschooling one. In high school with my older children, I preferred a "canned" curriculum with few substitutions, mainly religion and sometimes science. In these early grades, I really like individualizing the curriculum to my child. I really like CHC and Charlotte Mason, both, but it ends up being a hodpodge of subjects and text that I think will work for us.
Here are the goals I have set for the first grade and the tools I plan on using to help meet them. Pay close attention to "School is FUN". It is listed last, but will be a focus this year.

(Hint: Use the icon in the top right hand corner of the Scribd frame below. It toggles to full screen where you are able to zoom also.)

First Grade Goals 2009

First Grade Schedule

I have been busy working on school stuff. We are very laid back when it comes to schooling, but you could not tell it by our schedule. Evening work is done with Dad . We always get the core curriculum done, but everything else is movable. Here is what it is looking like.

2009 Schedule

Homeschooling

Finally a chance to write about homeschooling!
We began with a serious schedule in September and for the most part still maintain it except on Mondays when we deliver Meals on Wheels which often runs over the allotted scheduled time. And there are those days where we are just not in the mood to school, but nevertheless, we have met our goals for the first semester in the basic subjects.
I try to almost always use Catholic materials in schooling, yet when I first looked into the Spell to Write and Read program, I was impressed enough to investigate it further. After speaking with some people that use it, I decided this was the program I wanted to use with my then 4 year old. After studying it more deeply, I was intimidated! I actually had the materials for a year before I started teaching just the single phonograms. Then I hit a block. I study the Yahoo group files, I studied the books, and I floundered. Finally, I went to a 2-day intensive seminar on how to teach reading, writing, and spelling using this program. It was just what I needed and I have not looked back. (Although the Catholic curriculums still make me blink every once in a while.) At first I was bored because we spent several weeks learning to write all the single phonograms (sounds) in cursive (using the companion Cursive First program). When it finally came time to pull out my Wise Guide to Spelling along with my Spell to Write and Read teacher's book, I was more than excited to apply the many things I learned from the seminar.
Now, after 12 weeks, we are on the "D" list of 20 spelling words and we love it. Michael is "reading" 80 spelling words now fairly fluently. The hard thing with this program is that reading is somewhat delayed which is the opposite of what I have always striven for. Yet he, rather WE, are learning the why's and what's of spelling. At first I thought there was no way he would get the markings, rules, and other "complicated" aspects down, but he grasps them much easier than I do. The intimidation came back yesterday as I realized that I would be teaching the reference page on the "Silent Final E' today. It just seems like a lot for a 5.5 year old to comprehend. I reviewed my own working notebook from the seminar and studied the section in the book. I only taught the first 3 reasons for a silent, final "e" this morning, and my son loved it. His words, "This is lots of fun!" Wow, who would have thought learning about why E is silent at the end of words could be fun???
OK, who can name the five reasons for the silent E?

Our October art study will center around knowing, loving, and serving God. What better example to put forth than St. Bernard, so we will be studying the above print by Italian painter Filippino Lippi, along with a couple of other prints I have around the house. This print is titled "Apparation of the Virgin to St. Bernard". We begin with a look at the detail art print of the angels found in CHC's Art Masterpieces and will move out to examine the print as a whole.

Next Week's Liturgical Year

As I plan my school week next week (yes, I only do one week at a time as I am never sure what I will get done or what tangents we may take off on), I am so excited about the upcoming feast days. While each week offers a chance to appreciate the year that the Catholic Church brings to us through its liturgical calendar, next week will be extra special to a certain 5-year old who has his favorite saints. We may be partying all week instead of schooling!
We begin with St. Wenceslaus on Sunday. We will take this day to imitate the saint by giving - going through our toys and clothes to find appropriate ones to donate to those in need - not just the ones we do not want, but also some of our favorites so there is a real sacrifice. Also, we will remember his service to the poor when we deliver meals to the elderly on Mondays. See here for the story of this saint.
On Monday comes a namesake. Michael looks forward to the great feast of his namesake, the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel. Here is a link to a coloring page from Waltzing Maltida's blog, and since one of his many titles is patron saint of baker's, we will bake a special cake for the dinner celebration in additon to our special waffles for breakfast. I suspect a re-enactment of the battle of the good angels and the bad angels will definitely be on the schedule.
Tuesday's saint is St. Jerome, and we will read St. Jerome and the Lion for fun, but also focus on his great contribution to translating the bible.
Wednesday is the feast day of a saint we have not studied, St. Remigius. We will read his story and briefly study Reims, France with a look at the famous Gothic cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Reims.
The Holy Guardian Angels feast day is on Thursday. Again, I am sure there will be a reenactment of the Fall of the Bad Angels. We will pay extra attention to our own guardian angel by making sure we have an extra table setting for each family member beside him during meals and a special art project, yet to be determined. And of course, there is the Angel Food cake with fresh strawberries!
Friday brings our favorite saint to read about. St. Therese of the Child Jesus has a natural appeal to all young children because of her simplicity. We will read several of our stories about St. Therese's life along with making sacrifice beads and hopefully, make some potpourri.
Lastly, on Saturday is another namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. A short study of the Basillica of St. Francis will be included and hopefully, we will be able to take at the least our dog, for a blessing. This may have to be done by dad. Hopefully, we will get the story, St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, read. Our parish put this play on a couple of years ago and Michael really enjoyed it.
Well, that is a start to my layout for next week. I have not included activities from CHC's A Year with God or Mary Reed Newland's The Year and Our Children, which I use alot as resources. But these will be incorporated into my plans, more than likely, very late tonight!

Revamped Catholic Homeschooling Magazine

I use to subscribe to the Heart and Mind magazine several years ago, but dropped my subscription for whatever reasons. The magazine is back under a new title, mater et magistra, and "revamped". The July issue's theme is hope and includes a unit study on Astronomy, along with various homeschool articles. The subscription is $20/year (4 issues). There are several free articles and unit studies available on the site's menu. Check it out!

Donna Young's GPA Calculator

Well, my little box garden is doing well and my dear husband has gotten a late, but very substantial garden out at his parents'. My plot will be easy to maintain with only 6 tomatoes, 4 squash, and 2 pepper plants, but the other is a decent size and will battle weeds from the beginning. He has worked very hard to get this garden out. Please say a prayer to St. Isidore that it thrives, so that he does not become discourage with gardening.
We have company in for a few days and then leave for a short camping trip, so I hope everyone has a great weekend!
While I continue to complete my lesson plans for the Fall, I wanted to make sure everyone has seen Donna Young's GPA calculator. Although I will not be using it at this point, I sure wish I had this when the other kids were in high school. I simple love all her forms!

Math U See

Although we are not schooling full-time yet, we have started a new math program. After almost completing MCP's Kindergarten book, we started over with Math U See at the Primer level. I hope to complete the Primer by mid-August, so that Michael will begin the Alpha level at the beginning of the school year. He is really enjoying this program and asks if it is time to do math and "Decimal Street". Here is a picture of him this morning working in his book.