Back to School, 2015-2016 Curriculum

It's official, today was the first day of the 2015-2016 school year here at Drywood Creek.  It went fairly well.  I can see there are a few things that will need to be adjusted in our Circle Time.  The reading was just too long....but, I'll save that for another post.  Without further ado, here are our 2015-2016 curriculum choices....

Circle Time (Family Study)

History
Beautiful Feet Modern American & World History (3 days/week)
TruthQuest History for Young Americans II & III (supplement)

Bible Study
TruthQuest History - Beginnings (4 days/week)
Herein is Love, Genesis, A Commentary for Children by Nancy Ganz (3/4 days/week)

Church History
Peril & Peace, Volume 1: Chronicles of the Ancient Church by Mindy and Brandon Withrow (supplement)
Trial & Triumph by Richard M. Hannula (2 days/week)

Missionary Study
Hero Tales & YWAM missionary books by Benge (1 day/week)

Composer Study - Johannes Brahms (1st term - 1 day/week)
The Young Brahms by Sybil Deucher

Science
Beautiful Feet History of Science (2 days/week)

Natural History
Wild Animals I Have Known by Seton (1st term - 1 day/week)

Geography
Beautiful Feet Geography (finish from last year - 1st term - Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling - 1 day/week)

Plutarch
Timoleon (finish from last year - 1st term - 1 day/week)

Picture Study
Health
Nature Study

RileyAnn Year 6 

Story of the World 4 by Susan Wise Bauer
Carry a Big Stick: The Uncommon Heroism of Theodore Roosevelt by George Grant (Term 1)
A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter by Miriam Huffness Rockman (Term 2)
Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill by Stephen Mansfield (Term 3)
The Story of Mankind by Van Loon
Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone by Katherine Shippen (Term 1)
George Washington Carver by David Collins (Term 2)
Albert Einstein by Cwiklik (Term 3)
Apologia Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Captains Courageous by Kipling (Term 1)
Literature ?? (Term 2)
Literature ?? (Term 3)
Poetry for Young People - Robert Frost (Term 1)
Poetry for Young People - Carl Sandburg (Term 2)
Alfred Noyes (Term 3)
Michael Clay Thompson Voyage Level - We opted to hold off on this for the year.  I'm still trying to figure out what else to plug in.  I just may have her focus on written narration.
All About Spelling (finish Level 4 & begin Level 5)
Simply Charlotte Mason Business Math - Pet Store
Life of Fred

Ruben Year 5

Story of the World 4 by Susan Wise Bauer (audio)
Variety of living books and audio books
Using Language Well & Spelling Wisdom by Simply Charlotte Mason
All About Spelling Level 1
Poetry for Young People - Walt Whitman (Term 1)
Childhood Poems by Eugene Field (Term 2)
Poetry for Young People - Emily Dickinson (Term 3)
ST Math
Life of Fred
Tutoring at the Children's Dyslexia Center (2 days/week)

In addition, I have also started a Socratic Book Club for 5th/6th graders in our area.  We will meet monthly to discuss great literature, including...

September - Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

October – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

November – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

January – The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

February – Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen

March – Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

April – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

These books will be our bedtime read alouds for the year.  The kids will also participate in our local homeschool choir and art classes.  

Have you kicked off your 2015-2016 school year?  Feel free to leave links in the comments section regarding your curriculum choices for the year.  

2015-2016 Circle Time Planning

Now that I have books chosen for our 2015-2016 homeschool year, I'm trying to create the schedule.  Last night I worked out our "Circle Time" subjects, or subjects we want to do together as a family, Cindy Rollins coined this "Morning Time".  I took little squares of paper and wrote each subject/book title that I intended to use as well as creating Mon, Tues, Wed, etc., headers.  This I learned from Sonya Shafer while watching the Simply Charlotte Mason Learning and Living DVD series. 

Once all the little papers were written, I could easily manipulate them and place them under a day of the week accordingly.  For example, I knew I wanted to spend three days per week on Beautiful Feet's Modern American and World History study and two days per week on Beautfiul Feet's History of Science study.  These were easily plugged in across the top, altering days.

Next, I plan to study the book of Genesis using the TruthQuest Beginnings guide, along with church history and some missionary stories.  I've chosen the Nancy Ganz commentary, Herein is Love, as the spine of the Genesis study and plan to spend four days per week on it.  The church history and missionary study will rotate with Beautiful Feet's Geography, which we're finishing up from last year.  I will be combining readings from Trial & Triumph by Hannula and the History Lives series by Mindy and Brandon Withrow.  I know the Geography study will only take one day per week, as well as the missionary biography.  A dear friend told me about the YWAM missionary stories on audio.  Since we'll be traveling to choir on Thursday mornings, I thought this the perfect time to pop in a YWAM missionary audio, hence the reason I plugged it into Thursday.  I know the BF Geography study is a little heavier than reading a chapter of church history and given the fact that Ruben has tutoring at the Children's Dyslexia Center on Mon/Wed, I plugged it into Tuesday, one of our days we get to stay home all day!

Lastly, I looked at what I call the, Charlotte Mason Enrichment, that I wanted to incorporate into our Circle Time this year.  I'm outsourcing choir and art, but I still want to do composer and picture study at home.  In addition, I plan to carry on our Plutarch Study from last year, as well as adding Wild Animals I Have Known by Seton, a recommendation from Ambleside Online Year 5 for Natural History.  I simply placed these four items on a different day each week.  Then added Health and Nature Study to our light day, Friday.  This will be a time for outdoor recreation and exploring nature.

Put into table form, our Circle Time week will look something like this....

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
History	Science	History	Science	History
Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible	Health
Church History	Geography	Church History	Missionary	Nature Study
Composer Study	Plutarch	Natural History	Picture Study
Tutoring		Tutoring	Choir

Stay tuned for our full list of 2015-2016 curriculum as we begin our first day of school next week....

Friday Findings: AP Test Revisions, Benefits of Bedtime Read Aloud, Binder Time....

Have you heard about the new AP test revisions?   I find it very alarming, but definitely a sign of the times...

"But if you want to do well on the new Advanced Placement (AP) examination in American history, you’d better know about homosexual activist Harvey Milk, too."

In The Science Behind How Bedtime Stories Help Kids, writer Esther Crain cites scientific reasons supporting reading aloud at bedtime.  We've made a bedtime read aloud habit for the past few years and I agree with Crain's reasoning.  The kids and I love this time together!!...and it really does help them settle down for bed.  We're currently reading Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright.  It's a great summer read!  Ruben laughs out loud and begs for more. 

I'm in full steam planning mode as I intend to begin school next Monday.  I have most of our resources chose and I spent yesterday ordering last minute books.  I'll be posting our final 2015-2016 choices here next week.  In the meantime, check out Celeste's Form II binders.  Mystie Winckler also has a great little video in which she shares her circle time binders.  You may remember, last year, we ditched the binders and went to composition books.  This year, I'm trying to decide.  There are things I like about both.  I think a circle time binder is a great idea for keeping everyone on the same page. 

BTW, here are a couple of planning sheets I've created this year while making book/curriculum choices. 

RileyAnn’s Year 6 Planning Ideas

Subject	Year 5	Year 6	Additional
Bible	Trial & Triumph	Trial & Triumph	Genesis Study Missionary Study
History	STOW 4 or Axelrod	The Story of Mankind	BF World & Modern
History Biography	Passion for the Impossible		Helen Keller
	Carry a Big Stick	Never Give In
Geography		The Story of David Livingstone
Natural History/Science	Wild Animals I Have Known	School of the Woods	Apologia Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Science Biography	Alexander Graham Bell	Albert Einstein	BF History of Science
	George Washington Carver (Sower)	Archimedes
		Couldn’t Just Happen
Literature	The Age of Fable	The Age of Fable
	Kim or Captains Courageous	Letters from Rifka
		The Hobbit
Poetry		Robert Frost
		Carl Sandburg
		Alfred Noyes
Daily Work
Math	SCM Business Math; Life of Fred; Fact practice; Misc. living math books
Grammar/Comp	Michael Clay Thompson
Spelling	All About Spelling; Spelling Wisdom
Copywork/Dictation
Foreign Language	Latin
Weekly Work
Nature Study
Shakespeare
Plutarch	Finish Timoleon; Aemilius Paulus; & comparison
Book of Centuries
Recitation
Geography	Minn of the Mississippi
Mapwork	Livingstone
Current Events
Health	God’s Design for Sex: Book 3
Art
Picture Study
Drawing
Handicrafts
Music
Composer
Folksong	Choir
Hymn	Choir

Ruben’s Year 5 Planning Ideas

Subject	Year 4	Year 5	Additional
Bible	Trial & Triumph	Trial & Triumph	Genesis Study Missionary Study
History		STOW 4 (audio)	BF World & Modern
History Biography
Geography		Halliburton or Voskamp
Natural History/Science		Wild Animals I Have Known
Science Biography		Isaac Newton	BF History of Science
		Alexander Graham Bell
		George Washington Carver (Sower)
Literature	The Age of Fable	The Age of Fable
	Robinson Crusoe
Poetry	Tennyson	Kipling
	Dickinson	Longfellow
	Wordsworth	Whittier/Dunbar
Daily Work
Math	SCM Business Math; Life of Fred; Fact practice; Misc. living math books
Grammar/Comp	Using Language Well
Spelling	All About Spelling; Spelling Wisdom
Copywork/Dictation
Foreign Language
Weekly Work
Nature Study
Shakespeare
Plutarch	Finish Timoleon; Aemilius Paulus; & comparison
Book of Centuries
Recitation
Geography	Minn of the Mississippi
Mapwork
Current Events
Health	God’s Design for Sex: Book 3
Art
Picture Study
Drawing
Handicrafts
Music
Composer
Folksong	Choir
Hymn	Choir

Once again, each student is split between two years of Ambleside Online.  This sheet helps me to see book choices from two years.  This visual picture aids me in deciding what will work best.  I still have a few holes, but it's slowly coming together. 

I absolutely LOVE this photo of little brother following big sister....

It shows how powerful sibling relationships are and the responsibility of being a role model.