School Plans

I’ve been at the kids’ school plans for next week for what seems like hours. Maybe it has been.
Lee is doing well with her studies. We’ve cut back on the written narrations. She will have one that will be once a week from her Western Civilization* book. We are moving into chapter 13 starting next week. It’s a little behind in sequence for what she has already been studying but I don’t see any harm in that. There were some things in the AO schedule that we’ve passed up or simply missed that I’m trying to decide if/what should be put in.
I decided to make sure she reads about Martin Luther’s defense at the Diet of Worms and the Life of Francis Bacon. Both of these she’s already studied to some extent in other readings. One other reading that I think she will enjoy and benefit from is Spenser's Fairie Queene Book I. AO has also recommended Maynard’s annotated edition that is readable at Google Books. That will help quite a bit!
One last thing for Lee that I have added {back} in is Current Events. After reading what Amy had to say about it, I’ve decided we can do it {again}. We’ve done it before but… well, it didn’t go so well because I gave no direction. Working on that.
With Fox, well, I just feel that he doesn’t have enough to do! I understand short lessons and not trying to ‘bore’ our kids but when it takes 1-2 hours to get all of his work done, I really think something isn’t quite right! We still don’t do all that is on the AO schedule either so… that could be why.
With him I have decided to add in Jensen’s Grammar. I was going to wait a year but he’s had grammar instruction already so it isn’t something that is unfamiliar. And next year with Y7, I think that having it out of the way will be a help to both of us.
Finally! I received an order from Amazon that I’d put in almost one month ago. In the order are Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity* and Archimedes and the Door of Science*. I’ve also added in School of the Woods.
We had taken out Saints & Heroes* from the schedule but I’ve decided to put it back in. Although it is a different slant than we are religion wise, it is history and it does help with teaching about God, in my opinion. Another book that I may have him read through (because I am not sure when he will be mature enough for Mere Christianity) is Fox’s Book of Martyrs*. I know it is more graphic, however. Will just have to wait and see.
And with that, I think I am satisfied with the coming week(s). Now it’s time for bed.
*Affiliate links.

It’s All Part of the Plan…TOS Blog Cruise

I’ve shared on my blog before what we do for planning but I get to share again as part of the TOS Blog Cruise.

The first year we homeschooled, we used Alpha Omega Publications LIFEPACS (AOP). The schedule for those was in each teacher’s manual. Pretty much it was set up the same as a traditional school. Also we did the same things every day. The planning that year was super simple.

The second year we switched to Ambleside Online (AO) and wow, that required much more planning on my part. I failed miserably at first (over planning, under planning, forget the planning!) but as we went on, I got the hang of it a little better.

This is our third year and thus far we have planned it well Towards the end of the second year I was given a chance to ‘test’ the TOS Homeschool Planner(not quite review but I checked to make sure all links worked, fields could be filled in, things worked as they were supposed to). That was the start of my planning..plan. The planner put out by The Old Schoolhouse is excellent, superb, amazing! The only problem was that I didn’t always have ink to print off the sheets when I needed. I chose to purchase a printed planner from The Well Planned Day.

You can see my ‘review’ of The Well Planned Day planner here. I’d not actually used it when I wrote that post. Here is another one that details more how I thought the planning would go from then on out.

I actually have a few subjects planned for the entire year. I don’t exactly recommend that but I have some things that I insist get done…if all else falls by the wayside, I really want these to be done. We also have a block schedule (I think that is what it’s called). We don’t do the same things every day (well, some are done every day, such as Bible reading, memory verses, math and writing).

Because we use AO the ‘lesson plans’ are somewhat done for us on the website. Of course we are free to modify it to fit our family and needs. At the end of each week, I write up the next week’s lesson plans based on what I want to have accomplished and what was accomplished. So if we are behind in one subject (as opposed to what I had planned- with all good intentions, you know lol), then I can adjust the plans.

It used to stress me out (the end of the first year and into the second) when we were not on schedule. Finally I realized that I have to make exceptions at times. A topic may be particularly difficult for one of the kids and require more time. I have to allow for that. Or (as it has happened this year) we have to make an unplanned trip or take time off of school; I have to be flexible.

Here’s a snapshot of the planners we use and somewhat what they look like each week (taken from this post):

So what do you do for lesson planning? Is it contained in the curriculum you use or do you have to get creative?

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