Lessons update - summer schedule and beyond

I thought that I had updated what we are doing over the summer, but after searching the archives I just can't seem to find it. I'm not feeling well, and since I can't do much around the house I thought that I'd update the blog on a few things. :)

I've put together our calendar for the year (running June 2008 through May 2009), and I'm quite please with it. We were able to take weeks off for camp and vacations and still allow a week's break after every 5 weeks of homeschooling throughout the year. I'm thrilled. It's worked out well with our neighborhood situation to have C continue with lessons over the summer. And, it doesn't help that this means that we can thin out the schedule so that it isn't so heavy over the school year. For now we're planning on continuing with a 4-day school week as usual, though this can be changed if need be.

Our idea is to work on a science or history unit, health, literature, and speech (plus ASL - continued study is a must so we don't forget) throughout the summer. This sounds like a lot, but it really isn't as long as she stays focused - which unfortunately can be challenge but she's working on it. C decided that she wanted to continue with art this summer because she's very excited to finally see a boost to her drawing ability. We're using How Great Thou Art by Barry Stebbing which has proven to be a great fit for her. I'm allowing her to work through this as she wants. There are many days that she completes a lesson, and many that she does not. I'm not pushing it. I'll put it down on her schedule simply as a reminder that she can check off if she chooses to complete it (after noting what lesson she completed.)

Science or history units - We follow the basic format of the Heart of Wisdom Approach with liberal tweaking to fit us. I had everything planned out to hit the Year 1 rotation hard, but I just can't make myself do it this year. Thankfully the books that I bought were for the Creation Science unit that we are completing. Everything else is handy to have on the table for Bible study or things found through PaperBack Swap so I'm not worried over the change. I'll write up a separate post about the outlook for this subject, but it will be interest-led as that works so much better around here. I'm not giving in to childish desires, but rather working with the way God wired her. :)

For health we are using a fabulous middle school program called Total Health: Talking About Life's Changes. I have to admit that I haven't been "talking" much about it in an organized fashion as she is in the early portions of the book. However, we're checking in with her along the way and will have more organized discussions as the topics change. I was thrilled to find out that she's known quite a bit of it so far. She spends several days reading through the chapter and then two days answering questions, looking up vocabulary that she doesn't know, and completing a Bible study portion. C has never used a text book, so this is basically the reason for choosing a book at this point. I wanted her to have the experience at least once a year from here on out so that she isn't unable to bend to this type of education later on in college. We are adding in quite a few fun projects at the end of each unit though! I'm very impressed with this book and look forward to using the high school text in a few years. Thanks for the recommendation, Lee!

Literature is a lot of fun. C is using a freebie unit that is available online for the summer called The Narnia Academy. It's great. Again, I wanted her to be able to have a different experience by taking something online, and again she loves it. She is able to work through it on her own which is wonderful for me because one goal this year is to teach her to be a bit more independent. She also found that she loves studying literature, so after she completes NA covering The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe as well as Prince Caspian we're going to get some study guides for the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia series. C is having so much fun that I've told her that she can work through it as quickly as she can, and so far she's spent enough time on it for FUN that she's about three weeks ahead of schedule. lol

Speech is a new addition for us this year. With her ADD, sometimes C's thoughts get ahead of her. She is wildly communicative, but at times gets tangled in her thoughts and it doesn't seem as comprehensible as it could. After hearing a wonderful speaker, Jo Jo Tabares, through Cindy Rushton's Ultimate Homeschool Expo we decided to add speech in. Believe it or not, again C loves it. We're using Say What You Mean for Teens by JoJo over at Art of Eloquence, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'll write up a longer review in a separate post at some point, but please go look at her materials if you are at all curious. She has fun games and products for kids of all ages as well as curriculum for all ages as well. We're going to finish this one-semester course this summer and then move into her additional one-semester course called Know Your Audience at some point later this year (which means probably spring.) We have a list of character and people/living skills that we want C to have by graduation, so we'll most likely continue to use Art of Eloquence materials through high school as well. C completes one lesson per week, which means probably 3 hours worth of work. I'm going to give her the option of working through it differently, but for now it works.

I'm struggling to be Spirit-led in homeschooling vs falling into the trap of listening to others even if they aren't talking to me. lol This week has been a reminder, but... yet again... that is another post. :)

See - I said that I was going to try to stop being so long in the post and break it up by topic. This is my first attempt! Hopefully it is successful and will make it more "readable."