Planning {Physics & Geography}

In school I loved my social studies class. It was a combination of a bit of history, physical geography and social geography. {I don't think they call it 'social geography' either; I just came up with that now.} Interestingly, some people don't call it that any more. For the state of Ohio, it is still required to graduate.

I am so determined to do better with Fox than I did with Lee. I don't think I did terribly with her but I could have done so much more and better. She, thankfully, absorbed much without my interference {or neglect, hmm?}. Specifically with science. Geography is considered a science, after all. That took me a while to come to know.

This year for Fox he is doing Physics. For geography, this term anyway, he is covering the Middle East. To prepare myself to 'teach' these subjects, I've had to do some research. I will have to learn right along side of him this year.

Physics- I have talked about this in at least one other post so I'll just link to that and add in some other resources I've since found:
Cliff Notes {requested a book from the library but it looks to have been lost in cyberspace; thankfully found this site!}
Khan Academy
MIT BLOSSOMS {couldn't resist with a name like that *wink*}

I still have a lot of 'planning' to do with this subject.

Moving onto Geography. This one has me somewhat excited, as you may have gathered from the introduction of the post. Planning this area required some more research into how. Nancy's post at Sage Parnassus has been quite helpful, along with Dawn's recap of an immersion class done by Nancy at CMI 2014*. Also the linked PR articles {thankfully found together in the History/Geography subforum*, or look here}. I used Push to Kindle to download all the articles linked. I'm still reading.

*you'll have to be a member of the forum to view those posts

I decided to have a look at lesson plans put together by teachers in various teaching positions, i.e. public or private schools. What I found was interesting. I expected it to be disconnected; made up of just worksheets with numbers and names of places. It really isn't. At least not all of them. It's much like CM would do it but for one big difference. In a lot of the lesson plans, the lesson begins with a conflict. For the Middle East, for instance, the 'fight' for water or the effect of water pollution is the starting point of the lessons. The lowest grade I looked at was third and the lesson was on conflicts created by lack of water in the Middle East. According to the lesson plan, the real reason that Israel and Palestine are against each other is because of water.

Some books I will be using- along with maps; many maps- are:
Hillyer's Child's Geography of the World {just a little 'fun' one to include since we have it on the shelf; the copyright is 1951}
Mason's Geographical Readers, Volume 5
Blij, Muller, & WinklerPrins' The World Today

And the book for this term's Geography is Eothen, which covers the Middle East. I learned rather recently that neither Lee or Fox care much for this book! I could use Walking the Bible by Feiler but probably won't.

Looking at Volume 3, School Education, Charlotte Mason outlines a lesson for Geography on the bottom of page 347 to the top of 351. This is for 13-year-old students but I can follow the same pattern for my almost-16-year-old.

After attending the Spring Awakening session in Windom, MN, I am looking forward to getting more attached to our maps. It was so fun to learn about Russia in this way! I imagine it will be just as enjoyable to learn about the Middle East.

The Week in Review {Y10 second time around}

Fox's school schedule- every subject marked as done and each day complete

I wonder when it was that we felt we needed to plot and plan our schedules. It's become second nature- at least for the school areas. The plan is in place, thanks to Ambleside Online. We've also figured out our folksongs for the year {keep forgetting to ask Lee for suggestions}.

The week's distribution. 

Physics, I think, will prove to be the most difficult even though it is not calculus based. It assumes I believe that the student has had both Algebra 1 and 2! Fox has gone through Algebra 1. We will continue, and seek help when we need it. In the other post of the year's plan, I linked to a physics classroom site that we'll use, as well as Khan Academy and some others I found on Pinterest. I may even get some Cliff Notes from the library for myself. I should know these math bits but it's been awhile.

I wonder which books will be his favorites from this year. It's a great year {Y10} to go through, albeit no doubt trying and stressful for those who lived during the times we are studying {1815-1902}.

Perhaps someday I should have him tell me what books were his favorites from previous years, and why. 

Folksongs 2015-2016 School Year {so far}

Last year we tried to include more folksongs into our school {and therefore our life!}. We all really enjoyed and appreciated these. It's easy to feel regret for not getting these in earlier but I've resolved to use it to fuel us to try to include the things we missed more in our days. Life is too short for regret.

At church July 5th we sang the first lines from the US military's songs; Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force. My husband was the only one who knew them all. I barely recognized the Marines as Fox was in Young Marines for 3 years. Lee and Fox knew the Marines and could recognize, barely, at least one or two others. That spurred us to want to learn these military songs. They are first on our list this year.

Here are folksongs for our 2015-2016 school year:

Army- The Caissons Go Rolling Along
Marines- The Maine's Hymn
Navy- Anchors Aweigh
Air Force- The Wild Blue Yonder
Home on the Range
If I Had a Hammer...
Along the Road to Gundagai
My Grandfather's Clock
When the Iceworm Nests Again
Down by the Salley Gardens
I've Been Working on the Railroad

We are going with many choices from the AO Folksong rotation, with the few others. I wanted to add The Outlandish Knight from "2005/6" year but can't find one I want to buy/download. I could listen from my phone...

Last year I separated them out over terms. I'm skipping that this time. The singles have been purchased or downloaded to my Amazon music app. I can only find one MP3 at the moment with words for the military songs. It's Military Medley by Gene Autry, and the lyrics are different than the most recent lyrics for the songs. It is a combination of all four military songs.

I think I will ask Lee what ones she is particularly wanting to hear this year and add those when she lets me know. 

School Plans- Y10 AO, 11th Grade {Fox}

How strange to be planning for only one student; for just one year. So, so strange. He has two years left of high school. I will try to just enjoy this.

We are still with Ambleside Online, going into Y10 for Fox's 11th grade. This is a year that Lee really liked and I am hopeful Fox will as well.

*This post is Amazon affiliate link heavy (those with an * are the affiliate links). See Disclosure/Policies.*

We have most of the books but for science. Last year he did biology with an assortment of resources. This year he will do physics. We have nothing for physics and so I am searching for resources. The first is to find living books, then maybe textbooks. {Actually it appears we have one book on physics: The Cartoon Guide to Physics by Larry Gonick and Art Huffman* -that I bought at a used book sale many years ago.}

These are the ones I have purchased recently and am awaiting their arrival:
Secrets of the Universe by Paul Fleischer* {still waiting}
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard Feynman* {arrived}
Physics Around Us: How and Why Things Work by Ernest Henley and J. Dash* {arrived}

I still would like to get {but really not sure if we will}:
Mr. Tompkins in Paperback by George Gamow*
Physics 101

Now that I have that there, the schedule for these is still to be determined; pending arrival and perusal of the books. But if it is listed on AO's Y10, I'll follow that schedule most likely.

Otherwise, the year will be as written on AO's site with these possible exceptions or notes:
Bible: The main devotion book will be The Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson* Lee struggled a bit with this book but I thought it very well written and the doctrine good. The other book will be Pilgrim's Progress*. I do have Imitation of Christ* (or look here*) but haven't read it myself to add it to the list.
History: We'll use both Churchill and Johnson. I was going to drop Johnson because I'm concerned there is just too much reading this year but Fox really doesn't want to.
We'll use Lincoln in the World* for biography, and the Douglass, Crockett, and Washington listed.
Worldview: We are only going to be using The Deadliest Monster by Baldwin*. It is listed in Term 2 but we will use it in Term 3, after Frakenstein and Dr. Jekyll and My Hyde are finished.
Literature: The new scheduled Y10 utilizes Invitation to the Classics, which is probably an excellent book {I do not doubt it is}. We will still use Marshall's History of English Literature as both of my kids have really appreciated the book, and we have it on the shelf already.
Grammar/Composition: We aren't really doing any formal grammar this year and will continue with POWA* We will continue with written narrations and he'll do a weekly research/report. By now he has these down; he knows what is needed. If there are any other little things that need work, we'll bust out one of the many writing handbooks we have. But I'm confident he's doing just fine in this area we won't spend much formal time on it.
Math: We are going to use a Contemporary Math book that Lee used in a college class not long ago. We'll also be utilizing Math According to Mike. It is very short, but with the math he'll be getting in when working on Physics, I'm satisfied he will be doing enough math. Also, he's continuing on with the Recordkeeping book he started last year from Rod & Staff {not wonderful program but it has its good points. If nothing else, he is having the idea of being neat, thorough, and consistent solidified!}. It covers some personal finance as well.
Science: We are adding in the books I mentioned above. I'd wanted to use Secrets in a previous year {perhaps 7?} but the cost was outrageous! I found a copy recently for around $25.
The cartoon physics book I have mentioned will be available but not actually scheduled. This website, Physics Classroom, is {I hope} going to be helpful to this mom who barely understand simple laws of physics let alone the technicalities.

I think that is about the extent to the differences from AO and my tweaked schedule. It's fairly close to the curriculum. It will make exams super easy, too! I'm determined to get all three this year.

I am going to give it a real good try to get Shakespeare into our week. It's been tough every year but I'm convinced it's my own lack of consistency and focusing on the society promoted more important subjects {math...}.  Also, geography often got left behind. We have Seterra on the computer which he really likes to compete with himself. But this year, I really want to focus more on being sure he is acquainted with an atlas and what these places look like. We're going to work more on map drills.

The photo below are all the physical books for the next year. There are speeches, documents, short stories, poetry, etc., that are on the Kindle or online.

One thing about this Y10 is that I've 'gone through it already'. *smile* This will be such a help to me going through it with Fox.

I'm really looking forward to Y10!