if you "piece" things together

[Momof2littles]

How do you plan your schedule? I've only used boxed curriculums...How do you plan it all out?

[Ellie]

How do you plan your schedule? I've only used boxed curriculums...How do you plan it all out?

 

Most homeschoolers use materials from a variety of sources.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "boxed curriculum." Sorry. I've never heard that used IRL, and people here mean different things when they say it.

 

I used KONOS and Easy Grammar the same year (I don't remember what we used for math). So I did KONOS activities two days a week, and Easy Grammar and whatever-it-was-for-math the other two days (no Official School Stuff on Fridays). We did three pages of EG a day, and one lesson a day of...whatever-it-was-for-math. :-)

[Guest]

I gave up and went back to semi-boxed. ;)

 

Seriously, though. Do you mean what to do each day like lesson plans? That I do each week. Most subjects are do the next thing. So Math, do lesson 1, lesson 2, etc... Most curriculums come with a planning guide.

 

Do you mean what subjects to do each day?

 

Core {LA and Math}: daily

 

Alternate the others: Day 1- History, Day 2- Art, Day 3- Science or 2 days Hist, 2 days Sci, and 1 day Art

 

Keep it simple. And my best advice--don't try to plan the entire year at once. Take small bites.

 

HTH!

 

Or you go with MP which is classical in a box. :)

[Kathryn]

I make a schedule for everything at the beginning of the year just like the one that came in my boxed curriculum. Then I follow it.

[ErinE]

I've pieced subjects together from the beginning. For little ones, planning anything too far in advance is difficult.

 

For math, my kids do the next lesson. If they need more, I set aside the core text and supplement. I learned early that planning ahead in math was a futile exercise. DD7 works for 30-40 minutes; DS11 works for one hour. If he or she is in the middle of a lesson, the rest is done the next school day.

 

Learning to read was very choppy, big leaps followed by long plateaus so no planning ahead. I just made sure to teach (or re-teach) a bit everyday and encourage reading aloud from phonics readers.

 

As for reading literature, I make up a list of books and hand them out over the course of the year. I try to include stretch books with easier reading, but I make adjustments as the year progresses.

 

In the past, writing was pulled from the literature, science, or history. My kids kept their writing in a notebook, so I could see progress and make note of what needed work. I'm using the Peace Hill Press writing workbooks this year, because I needed an open-and-go curriculum due to family circumstances. The kids just do the next lesson.

 

Grammar and spelling are do the next lesson.

 

I plan book/video/activity lists for science, history, and any other content subjects, but I don't put them in the child's planner until the week they need it. If I think we're falling behind, I condense some subjects. If we're ahead, I check out extra books from the library.

[blondeviolin]

I've made it a point to buy books that are of the just do-the-next-thing variety. The only exception is Beast Academy which we only do 30-40 min at a time and then put it away. We will end up taking longer than a school year to do year 3, but she's ahead and it's good enrichment.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Our language arts is very patched together.  I have a diagramming workbook that we go through, and we've learned parts of speech with that.  If the copywork for the day is something we know how to diagram, we do it, otherwise I just make up a sentence each day to diagram.  When I feel like we're solid, I add a new element to the diagram.  So I have a progression in mind, but I judge the timeline on a daily basis. 

 

For math, I plan one week at a time.  I put in sticky page markers dividing up the workbook into manageable daily chunks for five days of math.  DS does mental math problems to warm up, then we do the textbook together, then he does the marked workbook pages and I correct them immediately.  We will stay on the same lesson and chapter until the material is mastered.  I don't like planning more than a week in advance because I don't want to feel as though I'm under pressure to keep going when we need to stay and work longer. 

 

For science and history, I have a general progression, but again, no timeline.  I'm using BFSU and just allow for rabbit trails whenever we have one.  SOTW needs to have approximately one chapter a week done, but sometimes we skip it, and sometimes we do two. 

 

So, basically, I have a basic progression laid out for each subject.  I have a daily "schedule" of what gets done each day, which is very vague.  And then when we are working, we either progress or not, depending on if we're at the desired level of mastery. 

 

Our day:

 

am:

Memory work (multi-subject)

French LA (spelling, dictation, grammar, copywork, oral narration... whatever I think we need for the day)

Math

cursive practice

Read-aloud

 

pm:

WWE

McGuffey Reader

Content subject (history, science, art, or writer's workshop)

Math drill game on computer

 

Looking at lots of scopes and sequences can help you lay out your progression, then just park on a subject until your child has reached the desired skill level, then move to the next topic on your list.  What is harder with homemade stuff is remembering to work review in. 

[TheApprentice]

A lot of the material I use have suggested schedules. The ones that don't, I usually count the pages in the book (or what I want to cover in the book) and divide it by the number of days in our school year. For example, with MM5, some days we cover 2 pages and other days we cover 3 pages. This pace will allow us to complete the curriculum. With Lightning Literature, they offer a weekly schedule, and I break it down to bite size pieces for ds, still getting what is suggested to have completed in that week done.

[SilverMoon]

When they were little I just gave them a checklist of subjects to do everyday, and they'd do a lesson, chapter, or certain number of pages in each one. Easy peasy.

 

When they got older it wasn't quite so simple, and then we got into making our own courses. In those cases I spend the summer researching, reading their books, and writing out plans for individual subjects. That way every subject can be "open and go" as we go through the year.

 

My weekly planbook that holds an account of each subject for each kid.... that only gets written out for a week or two in advance.

[73349]

I make a spreadsheet with the weeks of the school year. I decide how many times a week to do each subject (for example, we are doing geography every day this year, but history only 4 times a week next year) and what materials to use. Then I go through and fill in each week's row with what I want to accomplish that week in each subject.

So, for example, this week's row says (week #24, week of 2/10)

• Memory work: "There's no use crying over spilt milk."
• Phonics: [Logic of English Foundations B] Lessons 49 & 50
• Copywork: I go to the park.
• Geography: world rivers
• Math: [Miquon Red] F13-F22
• Science: BFSU A-6, air pressure
• Vocabulary: Picture Word Journal XYZ
• Composer: Stravinsky
• Artist: Monet

etc.

 

So for phonics and vocabulary, I just follow the lessons in order. For math, I planned on the front and back of one page a day; Miquon isn't separated into lessons. The science book is broken into lessons, but I had to choose the order.

For geography, I broke the world down into parts and put them in a logical order, one part per week. For copywork, I made up sentences from easy to hard. Memory work is just a collection of easy quotes and proverbs in no particular order. I simply chose some artists and composers I wanted DS to have heard of and picked one to learn about each week.

[texasmama]

I have a three ring binder with dividers by subject and I make a 36 week schedule in late summer for each curriculum which needs one.  I use "Week 1, etc" rather than dates because we have been known to skip a week here and there due to life.  It works well for my two 7th graders.  For my 2nd grader, it is "do the next thing" keeping in mind our goals for the year/semester.  For instance, I want to complete one Singapore math book in 18 weeks so I keep this mind and do an extra lesson here or there if it looks like we are a bit behind.  The same is true for our Rod and Staff grammar.

[MinivanMom]

Spreadsheets!

 

For literature, history, and science that I'm piecing together myself I just make a spreadsheet with 36 weeks and plan it out ahead of time. For MCT lang.arts and Galore Park French I make a spreadsheet and break the work down into 36 weeks. Our art (Artistic Pursuits) comes already split into 32-36 lessons. For math or phonics/lang.arts with little ones I don't plan in advance. It's too hard to plan ahead when little ones will sometimes need extra work in an area or will suddenly make a cognitive leap. We just work through steadily each day at their pace.

 

Each week I make up a spreadsheet that shows what we will be doing each day. I fill in what we are planning to do for each of the content subjects.  I leave the boxes for math and phonics blank so I can fill them in as we go along. Then I have an easy reference for myself each week. This approach requires a bit of planning in the summer, but then I spend less than an hour each weekend putting together my spreadsheet for the coming week. HTH!

[alisoncooks]

We just "do the next thing."

Our math is meant to be finished in 1 academic year, so that's the only major thing I keep tabs on (sometimes combining 2 lessons or skipping a cumulative review if we're behind.)

 

Everything else, we just pick it up each day, turn to the next page.  No planning required. :)

[Saddlemomma]

We used to just move to the next thing, but DD (5th) is a dawdler and loses track of time easily. Because of that, school was finishing around 4:30 to 5 PM.  (We start at 8:30 AM) That had to stop.  I ended up doing the following schedule which works really well now, and we get done anywhere from 1:30 to 2 PM:

 

Math: M-F for 45 mins.

Latin: M-Th, 45 mins; Fri - 30 mins for quiz

Spelling: M-W, 20 mins; Th - spelling Test

Literature: M-W, 45 mins

Geography: M & W, 45 mins

Grammar: M & W, 30 mins

Art: M & T, 30 mins

Chuch History: T & Th, 45 mins (If we don't have CH during the week, this time gets added to History or Science)

Writing/Poetry: T & W, 30 mins

History: Th & F, 1 hour (quite a bit of writing is included here as well with outlines and narrations)

Science: Th & F, 1 Hour

Flute/Band: F @ local PS from 1 PM to 2:15

 

Lunch is from 11:30-12:30

 

She works mostly independently, but must set a timer to keep her on time and accountable.  She really likes this because she is finding that most of the time, she can get done before the timer goes off in most of her classes.  It's now almost a challenge/game for her to get done before time because she then knows her day will be done earlier than 2 PM. Plus, school doesn't last all day long now, and she has time for other things.

 

Bible is done together as a family after dinner.  Extra-curricula activities are held outside the school day (other than band/flute) and include: To-Shin Do, Puppet Ministry & Children's Star Bright Theater.

[Cottonwood]

I get a year-long calendar or planner out and mark which days we are working.  We'll do year round with a lax summer so, two days a wk in July, three in August, four a week in  Sept and on.  Then I write down all the things we plan to work on and start plugging it in.  We do the next thing and only wish to have math and language arts completed on any type of yearly schedule. 

 

I also pick out milestone dates in which I figure out where I want to be in our curriculum once we hit that date.  I divide 180 days by 4 (quarters) and pick a date around that marker and then figure out where in the 'important' subjects I want to be then.  That helps me from getting hopelessly lost through the whole yr.  I only care if we miss it by weeks..it doesn't have to be exact.  Just gives me an idea.

 

Ideally we try to get things done early in the year, early in the month, early in the week and early in the day.  My two NEED some sort of structure or things get real spacey and lost here.  So we are up early-ish, they know what they are working on and I float in between them.  If we work really hard and I see we are way ahead of our milestones, or we have otherwise been on track, we loosen up for a few days, sleep late, go out to lunch, throw in games.  I guess I"m saying we are pretty structured with lots of breaks LOL

 

I think there are problem as many answers to the questions as families here. :)

[hollyhock]

I just plan in pieces. I take one subject and figure out how much we need to do per week in order to finish the course in our school year. If it's 3 lessons a week, I schedule it for 3x a week. I do this for each of our subjects. As far as which days each subject goes on, that takes a little bit of actual experience to figure out. I try to come up with something that looks balanced but I often tweak my schedule during the first few weeks of each year. If one day is too long or full, I move subjects to different days. And of course, many subjects are done daily, so there are only a few to play with.

[Gil]

"How do you plan it all out?" Hahahahaha! You think I plan! Thats too funny.  But no, seriously. I don't do much 'planning'.

Its funny because I have 95% of my days planned down to within 3 minutes--meals, cleaning, commuting, pick up, shopping, recreation.

 

Yet I have chosen (wisely, I think) NOT to plan out this Homeschooling thing in much detail. At least for this year.

By the power of a library card, some 3-ring binders, and more abuse of my schools free printing policy than I care to admit!

We are doing 1st grade, so to speak. It isn't really complicated just yet; We are just reading, writing, doing arithmetic...and Spanish.

 

Reading:

The boys are fluent readers already. We are just reading all the time because it is enjoyable and a habit.

We go to the library every weekend with 4 backpacks (I carry two) and we fill up on picture books (NOT THE EASY READER KIND), 2 identical chapter books (MY PICK, 4TH-8TH GRADE LEVEL) and each boy picks some other chapter books he might like to read through (USUALLY ON A 3RD-7TH GRADE LEVEL, THEY PICK BASED ON INTEREST, NOT LEVEL) We check out. During the week we read virtually every library book we took out. Buddy doesn't always finish his personal pick chapter books, but he gets started on everything. Pal is far more likely to take out fewer personal picks, but read everything he gets. Sometimes we take out really advanced audio books that I like and the boys wind up listening to those too.

 

Writing:

The boys maintain their reading log by hand. They write down the title, author and page count of the books that they read. They write the week 2/9 - 2/15 on ea. page, but not the date of each book being read. (They will note if they read a book more than once with a +1.)

Each boy has a wordbook where he writes down any word he doesn't know the meaning of and his context guess, then he looks it up.

Quote of the Day--each boy writes out a quote 3x OR if I forgot then they do "The quick brown fox...". We learned to form letters about a yr ago, its important we keep it up.

FLL1--This doesn't really count as writing, but its grammar, so I guess that it goes here. I read this to the boys at night and in the morning. It is boring and repetive to me but the boys don't mind it. It takes 3-10 minutes and we usually wind up covering 2-4 lessons a day depending. We don't own this, its a library book.

 

Mathematics:

We are working our way through Math Mammoth + Keys to...for Mathematics. Both of which are I suppose what members of this board call "do the next thing". There is little planning, none of which is sophisticated, required. I look over the chapter intros + TOC on the computer every so often to keep an idea of where the boys might need some additional support. I am careful to always introduce the new material at the household white board ~1-2 weeks before they see it in the work-text.

 

About 2x a week I print 2 copies of a chunk of pages...about 20-30 pages. This gets whole punched and goes into each boys Big Ol' Binder-Book. We go over the material if we need to, but mostly they sit with me in when *I* study and we all do work for however long we can. They are bolting through Math Mammoth with no problem. The most planning is when we use: Algebra Readiness Made Easy and Sunshine Math.

ARME is from Scholastic so it isn't meant that kids would get the whole book and work through it, but that a teacher might pull a page here or there.

We do it all.  I have it as a PDF, so I print out all the problem pages x2. Then I mix-n-match the pages until each "packet' is arranged so that the boys have a different type of page each time. I only go over each kind of problem 1x time with the boys, then they get a "packet" every couple of days to solve themselves.

SunShine Math is a free math enrichment program in FL. We usually have a math meeting and solve these problem sets together, the 3 of us. Some of these can be really, really tricky so sometimes we get stuck and have to work on a problem over a couple of days. I never give them the answer to SSM, I do let them know when they are right though.

 

Spanish:

We have only started Spanish this month and are using an audio program: Learning Spanish Like Crazy that is targeted to adults. We are only lesson 4. I'm probably going to stop every few lessons and do random reviews. Really, we just push play and go.

 

So there you have it. Nice and simple. The boys each have their own backpack. They keep 3 things in their backpacks at all times.

1) Personal Work Binder* with their pencil pouch, current Math, copy-work and book-log in it.

2) Library Books**

3) Drawing book/toys for when they are at Grandmas during the day.

 

* When they are done with the pages in it I take the work out, check it briefly, put it in their Big Ol' Binder-Book.

Each of the Big Ol' Binder-Books have a tabbed section for Math, Book Log and Copy Work. Math has the subsections: M. Mammoth. Keys to..., ARME & SSMath.

** I don't micromanage this. They are given a daily assignment on the chapter book THAT i PICKED, which they are supposed seriously to read because we only keep the books for a week (Never get a fine, this way). They are required to finish their assigned reading each day. They usually do but there have been a few exceptions.

 

We don't use published curriculum but a method so there is little to plan out. Go to the library, get enough books to fill 4 book bags, read them all. Write all the titles + authors + page #. Therefore reading (and writing) is easy. Print out the math work text, do every problem, every time. No problems with math at all.

 

I keep reading about all this going broader vs deeper stuff, but that just sounds like busy work that would be doomed to failure in our home school for where we are at right now in our lives so it isn't something we stress about too much at Gils Academy for Wayward Boys (the school name is a work in progress!).

The boys love math and they are allowed to go as far ahead as they want since that is something that that they like. They are in 6th grade math at 6yo and 7yo. We do every problem, so we get more than enough breadth and depth at the time being. Plus, there are the supplemental materials.

 

I'm still figuring out what homeschool will look like for us. I am doing some soul searching and going to be constructing a charter over the next several weeks or months that will serve as our schools creed or constitution so that I don't get lost along the home school way. For now, we are continuing for 1st grade what we did even before the boys went to school--learning at our own pace, in our own way. Next year when the boys are on a solid 8th grade level in their core subjects/skills. I'll probably be a lot more picky about everything, because we'll have important stuff to learn but for now, no need to make it harder than it already is.

 

 

 

[nerdybird]

I layout a master plan. Talk with DH. Decide what our big goals for the year are and how homeschooling plays into that.

 

After that, I revise my master plan. The master plan includes all of the subjects I'd like to cover and is based on Ambleside Online's guidelines, as well WTM.

 

During revision, I shuffle things around. I add in extracurriculars, subtract some non-essentials.

 

I compose our reading lists for each subject twice a year. I plan for the next fall in spring and for spring in the fall. Right now, my two older kids are working at the same level, so anything that is on the reading list has to be purchased in double. (I try to keep purchases to a minimum by using the library, but I like to have hard copies of important books just in case.)

 

During this point, DH and I discuss curriculum purchases. Last year we bought science. Next year we'll begin looking for Chinese or Japanese curriculum for our oldest + grammar/writing for DD, most likely.

 

----------

 

Once I hit that point, I make a rough schedule based AO's suggested schedules. Since we are an audiobook and readaloud dependent bunch, it takes us longer to get through certain works and I try to allot time for that in my rough lesson plans. I also like to work in space for interest-based reading/listening/watching, large-scale projects, hobbyist pursuits and old fashioned fun whenever possible. I schedule reading 5 days a week, math and science 4 days a week, history 3-4 days a week, and Spanish 4-5 days a week. Everything else I set goals for...like "we are going to get through Lessons X & Y in spelling in March" or "K is going to finish unit 10 in math by the end of this month", etc.

 

My kids are young and generally whenever they take a shine to something, I like to take the time to research it and do a unit study based on it if we can. We spent a gob of time on Vikings in the fall because my kids were WAAAY into Vikings. We also did a unit study on trees after we visited a friend who lives on some beautiful property that includes a small forest. We did a photography unit last year after we were gifted a digital camera and the kids became obsessed with taking pictures.

 

I swear there is a method to my madness....maybe?

[swellmomma]

How I plan depends on the curriculum.  For my youngers, math and language arts is simply do the next thing type stuff so no planning there, just grab the book, open and go.  For history and Science I am using konos.  That takes some planning.  First off when I am getting ready for a unit I decide how long we want to spend on that unit, and then figure out what activities I want to do that fit into that time frame and put any books on hold at the library that go with it.  I do that at least 1-1.5 weeks in advance to give time for books to come in.  Then each week I sit down on Sunday and review what I planned for the week, what special supplies we might need, what things I need to make ahead of time etc and go from there. 

Other things like art, home ec, etc I decide again at the start of the week if/what we want to do and make sure I have the supplies gathered the night before.  Those ones take preplanning.  ds10 also takes an online lit class, so he has daily reading that is required for that, and the class itself is a jr level so parents sit with their kids so I plug that into my plans for Thursdays.

The younger years are the easiest ones for planning I have found.  Once I started working on high school with my teens planning got a whole lot more complicated to make sure particular outcomes are being met in a particular time frame, the multiple online classes they take and the required homework for them, and needing to ensure there is time alloted for research, reading, discussion, etc It's easy in the K-8 years when they simply fill out the workbook pages.

[HS Mom in NC]

Mine are now 18, 16 and 8. When they were younger we did a lot more of "do the next thing" and had general time frames for each subject each day.

 

When they were older we did the 36 week file folder system.

 

Here are some file folder systems:

 

http://mamaofmanyblessings.com/2012/08/how-we-plan-our-year-for-6-blessings.html

 http://www.domesticserenity.org/yearly-organization-at-a-glance-the-file-crate-system/

http://originalkatathome.blogspot.com/2011/08/homeschool-work-space-and-how-i-plan.html

 

 

This is a workbox example with matching spread sheet which is a very similar concept:

 

http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/homeschool-organization-morning-routine/
 

 

I avoid putting a specific month or date on mine because there are times when the flu or something else makes the rounds and we lose a week.  I just number the weeks so if I have to skip a week of school it's not necessary to change anything.  We just start the next week on Monday when we're not sick.  Another option for shorter times off of school is to to take the remaining a half a week and add it to the following week and plan for school time to be a little longer each day to make it up.

 

Take each subject and divide the lessons/assignments by 36 (or whatever number of weeks you want to do school.) Put each week's assignments/lessons in each, numbered folder. It doesn't always work out neatly, so sometimes it was more than one less per week for some weeks or we didn't have enough for one per week.  Adapt as you like-add a few extra things from another source, review, add some extra relevant reading assignments, or just don't have that subject for a few weeks at the end of the year.

 

 Everything for each week was printed out and ready to go in each file (numbered 1-36 to correspond with each school week) by the first day of school.  Oldest had 36 red files in her file drawer and middle had 36 yellow files in her file drawer. (Youngest was still at "do the next thing" stage.)  I had a spread sheet with each child's name and 36 sections listing each book and assignment for that week in each subject. Files had to be completed and returned to mom by 3:00 on Friday for grading or earlier if they wanted to do something like attending the midnight premier of a movie on Thursday night/Friday morning. I did some instruction and discussion for some subjects with them and the rest of independent work where they just asked for my help as needed.

 

The older two are in college and internship situations now, so I only have the 8 year old homeschooling.  I have her 36 file folder filled with things I plan on covering with her for the week.  I'm getting through SOTW 2 this year with her in addition to a heritage study on Korea (she's an international adoptee) so I have to plan to make it all fit. I also group the SOTW reading by region, not strict chronology, so I have to plan to make that work out.  Those are all optional things, but they affect my planning, so I plan when it's necessary to meet specific goals.

I'm going by the local ps school year calendar because my 8 year old has very close friendships with 2 neighbor kids who go to ps, so I want her to be able to maximize her time with them, so again, I have to think about what I'm doing and when I'm doing it to make that happen. 

 

[regentrude]

I don't plan. I don't schedule. I require time on task, and my kids get to choose from among the components that I have selected which they want to use for how long.

[ErinE]

I've given this some more thought, and I think I can give a more comprehensive answer as to what works for my children and me.

 

For mastery subjects like phonics and mathematics, I choose the textbook/curriculum. The work is "do-the-next-thing" with acceleration and review as needed.

 

For content subjects like literature, history, and science, I chose what to study generally then select books, textbooks, or curriculum. In a binder, I keep a master list of materials for the academic year and revisit often to make sure we stay on track.

 

Each child has a planner book, and I write out their assignments weekly.

 

If I'm using a PDF curriculum with student pages I print out everything at the beginning of the year and put it in my planning binder. Pages are pulled weekly and put in the kids' folders. If I forget to do it at the beginning of the school day, at least the papers are already printed out for me to pull when I remember.

 

I make sure we are home at least four days a week, with the fifth day as a field trip, catch up, or light schoolwork day.

 

I've planned out the entire year, which was time consuming, stressful, and usually done at a time when I needed a break. I've done it quarterly, but I would fall behind. Trial and error helped me refine my planning style. Try different things and see what works for you.

[regentrude]

I'm thinking this wouldn't be ideal for a 6 and 2 year old.  I don't think this would work with my 8 year old.  But I admit to being intrigued by this.  I wonder if I could make this work for the 12 year old.  I don't know where to start though.  I don't know how to make sure he is doing the work.  I don't know what to pick.  I don't know what is a reasonable amount of time to require him to work.

 

Any suggestions?  I'm thinking I'd try this with some subjects to start rather than all subjects.

 

I do not see why this would not be working with younger students, since they would have less mandatory time. Surely an 8 year old can choose between reading in book A or book B, or between watching documentary C or D, or how to use a mix of books, online resources and docus when he is required to fill an hour. He starts with x, and when x is done or he is no longer interested, he picks y, and so on, until time is up.

I can ask even a 2 year old whether she wants to color or play with playdough, or whether we should read the book about bunnies or the one about birds. The younger the kid, the fewer choices you will want to offer, of course, so the child is not overwhelmed.

 

At age 12, I was requiring 4 hours of academic seat work per day. (This time did not include self selected reading or creative writing.) Math was mandatory, 45 minutes.

For science at that age, for example, DS had the choice between reading a non-fiction book from his library stack, using web based resources, watching documentaries I had preselected (with a limit that only one docu could be watched during school time), working on his powerpoint presentation, working on a paper.

For history/lit, the options were to read and take notes from Kingfisher encyclopedia, to read in Universal history of the World, to read in one of the literary works from the period, working on presentation, writing a report.

At that age, I was either home, or he came to work with me; thus I was be able to verify that he was actually working. I would not advocate leaving a 12 year old unsupervised and just hoping he puts in his school time.

 

Now in high school, DS currently has a history textbook to take notes from, TC video lectures about Roman Civilization plus taking notes, the Aeneid, audio lectures about the Aeneid. He picks what he feels like doing. I'll remind him occasionally when the textbook got neglected, or something like this. I see the output in form of lecture notes and textbook notes, and I also have him tell me what he learned.

 

 

 

[My3girls]

Last summer when I was doing all my research into how to get started someone posted that they schedule in 6 week chunks. I have followed that. Most of our curriculum is do the next thing, but I do piece together our science and history. Dd12 uses Ck12 Life Science as the spine, and the youngers just follow that but at their level. We watch a lot of Discovery channel, and read non-fiction library books. For history, dd12 uses OUP Ancients and youngers use SotW then I mix in library books to supplement. In the beginning, I tried to match everything up, but now as long as its in the same general time period, we're good.

 

Next year, I would like to try the 36 week folders idea, at least for dd12. I think.

[ItoLina]

I have recommended this before, and I will do it again because it was so helpful to me. A mom here has a series on her blog about planning...this is how I plan now. It is so flexible and easy to use. (Thanks Chelli!)

 

http://www.theplantedtrees.com/p/homeschooling.html

Scroll down to "planning" and there are links to all her planning posts =)

[ItoLina]

dp....ooopsy

[pitterpatter]

Definitely need to know what subjects you're referring to. For science and history, you have to narrow your focus and then find a spine you like. Divide your spine into weeks/units. Then, research the heck out of books, videos, etc. that will fit each topic. Divide each topic into days and then jot down what books/resources you will use on each day. Doesn't have to be exact dates, just that such and such topic will take three days to cover. Day one will include the text from the spine and a video. Day two will be two picture books. Day three will be whatever written work or mini project...that kind of thing.

[Coco_Clark]

I'm not sure what you mean by piecing together.  I use a mish-mash of curriculum for a few subjects.  One example: I use Singapore Primary Mathematics M/W/F and Miquon + Life of Fred T/Th for Math.  I tend to just "do the next thing" each day as its hard to gauge how fast my son will go.  One Unit will take us 2 or 3 weeks, then the next we will blow through in a day.   I do try to look at how many lessons/week should be completed in order to finish in a year as that gives me a round-about pace, but I don't rush skill subjects.

 

Other subjects I just create myself without any curriculum.  I'm busy planning an anatomy course for next year, for example.  We do Science once a week, and we school 40 weeks a year.  That tells me I have 20 lessons (since I only want to spend half the year on Anatomy).  I first planned out what each of those 20 lessons would be about (circulatory system, digestive system...5 senses...nutrition...), and now I'm going to begin to enter in books available from the library, coloring sheets found online, and labs that fit with each lessons topic.         

[Momof2littles]

Thank you all!! While my question may not have been clear, you all have definitely answered and helped me to think about what I can do next year to move away from a curriculum that is completely written out for me.  :)

[HS Mom in NC]

Thank you all!! While my question may not have been clear, you all have definitely answered and helped me to think about what I can do next year to move away from a curriculum that is completely written out for me.   :)

 

Were you asking how to design your own unit study partially or completely?  Sorry this is so long, but here's a step by step on how I did that on Ancient China.  I'm developing a workshop for it.  I wrote out this packet so people can see an example of it. If it's not what you were looking for, sorry about wasting the space.

 

Ancient China Unit Study

Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer

Ch. 10: The Far East: Ancient China

Lei Zu and the Silkworm                66

The Pictograms of Ancient China   70

Farming in Ancient China                 73

Ch. 32: China: Writing and the Qin

Calligraphy in China         239

Warring States         243

The First Emperor & The Great Wall    244

The First Emperor’s Grave               248

Ch. 33: Confucius

China’s Wise Teacher                    251

Blackline Maps of World History by Johnson

China’s Shang Kingdom 1750BC-500BC pg. 27

Qin Empire of China 500BC-200BC pg. 45

Ancient China Unit Study: Living Books from the Library

Easy Section (E)

E + Author’s last or only name (Usually only the first part of it.)

These are picture/story  books in the children’s section of the library.  They’re usually meant to be read aloud to preschool-early or possibly mid elementary aged children in some cases.  They typically take about 5-10 minutes to read aloud.  Others are longer at about 20 min. maximum in rare cases.

These were found by using the local library’s online catalogue’s search engine.  I typed in “Ancient China,†“China,†“Dragons,†“Kites,†“Silkworms,†“Silk,† â€Tangrams,† â€œGreat Wall of China,†“Chinese Zodiac,†and “Ancient Chinese Inventions.†More books than the ones listed here showed up.  These are most of the books I actually checked out and used.

E BOUCHARD

Dragon New Year by David Bouchard

E CASANOVA

The Hunter: A Chinese Folktale retold by Mary Cassanova

E CHIN

China’s Bravest Girl: The Legend of Hua Mu Lan by Charlie Chin

E COMPESTINE

Crouching Tiger by Ying Chang Compestine

E COMPESTINE

The Story of Kites by Ying Chang Compestine

E CZERNECKI

The Cricket’s Cage: A Chinese Folktale retold by Stefan Czernecki

E DEMI

The Greatest Treasure by Demi

E DEMI

Kites: Wishes that Fly Up to the Sky by Demi (Directions for making a simple kite in the back.)

 

E DEMI

Liang and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi

E DEMI

The Magic Boat by Demi

E DEMI

The Stonecutter by Demi

E GREENE

The Phoenix Fairy by Greene

E HONG

The Empress and the Silkworm by Lily Toy Hong

E LIN

Fortune Cookie Fortunes by Grace Lin

E LOBEL

Ming Lo Moves the Mountain by Arnold Lobel

E NIEMAN

The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters by Christoph Nieman (Copy many of the Chinese characters neatly onto a page either in pen or with a paintbrush and ink to be included in a lapbook.)

E NOYES

Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China by Deborah Noyes

E TOMPERT

Grandfather Tang’s Story: A Tale told with Tangrams by Ann Tompert (Directions for making tangram art in the back.)

E TOMPERT

The Jade Horse, The Cricket, and the Peach Stone by Ann Tompert

E YOUNG

Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young (Caldecott Medal Winner)

 

 

Children’s Non-fiction section ©

These are fact books written at an elementary aged level.  This section is usually separated from the Junior non-fiction section and the adult non-fiction section.  Look for the C next to the number.

 

C+ Dewey Decimal Number+ Author’s last name (usually the first part of it) + Year of publication

C 595.78 SCHAFFER 1995

Silkworms: Lifecycles Series by Donna Schaffer

Junior Fiction Section (JF)

These books are for mid or late elementary to about Jr. High aged children.  They can be read aloud by an adult or they can be read by the child depending on your child’s needs.   They are organized by author’s last name.

None were used in this unit study.

Junior Non-Fiction Section (J) In larger libraries junior non-fiction and adult non-fiction are in separate areas.  In smaller libraries junior non-fiction and adult non-fiction are mixed in together.  Look for the J before the number. The adult non-fiction books have no J.  They only have the number.

The Dewey decimal system organizes these books.  Take a look at your copy of the Dewey Decimal system chart and notice how these books related to Ancient China are placed.

Dewey Decimal Number + Author’s last name (usually the first part of it) + year of publication

J 398.20951 FANG 1995

The Chi-Lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories retold by Linda Fang

J 398.2454 ZHANG 2000

A Time of Dragons by Song Nan Zhang and Hao Yu Zhang (Copy the dragon song on the last page for a poetry/handwriting assignment.)

J 394.26 FIESTA 1999

Fiesta! (A Series ) China: A Portrait of the Country Through It’s Festivals and Traditions No author is listed because this series was written by various people. (Directions for making a dragon head is on pg. 12-12 and a felt fish on pg. 21 along with other project ideas.)

J 509.51 WILLIAMS 1996

Made in China: Ideas and Inventions from Ancient China by Suzanne Williams

J 931 OCONNOR

The Emperor’s Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China by Jane O’Connor

J 931.04 FISHER

The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fisher

Young Adult Section (YA) Teenagers are the target audience for these books.  More mature themes are covered in some of these books, so different parents will have different convictions about the content in these books.  Books are organized by author’s last name.

Ancient China Unit Study: Online Resources

Google the same keywords as used in the online library catalogue “Ancient China,†“China,†“Dragons,†“Kites,†“Silkworms,†“Silk,†“Tangrams’†“Great Wall of China,†“Chinese Zodiac,†and “Ancient Chinese Inventions.†After reading the Fiesta! Book from the library, I also googled “Dragon Boat Festival†and “Qu Yuan†because he’s the poet honored in the Dragon Boat Festival.

Coloring Pages- Google using the words  “free downloadable†then a keyword.  Be prepared to print out images on a smaller scale if you’re including them in a lapbook. 

Live Silkworms (Plan A) Mine arrived alive but died 2 days later. 

http://www.silkwormshop.com/index.html

Silkworm Life Cycle (Plan B)

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/activities/printouts/silkworm.shtml

Silkworm Poem

http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/2009/04/silkworm-cocoon-pupa-poems-variatons-on.html

Dragon Boat Festival

http://www.familyholiday.net/chinese-dragon-boat-festival-coloring-pages

Chinese Zodiac Symbols

http://www.hellokids.com/c_14129/reading-online/holidays/chinese-new-year/chinese-zodiac/chinese-zodiac-rooster

Ancient Chinese Inventions

http://www.handipoints.com/coloring-pages/fun-facts/chinese-inventions

Selected Passages of Poetry by Qu Yuan

http://www.shigeku.com/xlib/lingshidao/hanshi/quyuan.htm

The actual selections I had my child copy as a handwriting and poetry assignment were:

“Qu Yuan 340-278 BC

Long did I sigh and wipe away my tears,

To see my people bowed with grief’s and fears…

…I marvel at the folly of the king,

So heedless of the people’s suffering…â€

Hands on Activities

Dragon Head

Directions are in Fiesta! China pg. 12-13.  Take a picture and print it out so if you want it in a lapbook.

Felt Fish

Directions are in Fiesta! China pg. 21

Tangram Art

Directions are in Grandfather Tang’s Story by Tompert on the last page.  I cut out the tangram shapes in black cardstock, my child arranged them following the pictures in the book, and I glued them onto Japanese (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!) origami papers with Asian patterns.  You can simplify by using black tangram blocks (if you have them) on a brightly colored paper, taking a digital photo, and printing them out so they can be labeled in a lapbook.

Kite

Directions are in Kites: Magic Wishes that Fly Up to the Sky by Demi on the last 3 pages.

Potato Prints

Cut a raw potato in half and draw or scratch out a Chinese character on the white flat part.  Scoop away the white flat part of the potato that isn’t part of the character about 1/4-1/2 in deep.  Dip in paint or ink and print multiple times on paper-rice paper if you’ve got it.

Chinese Watercolor Landscape

Directions are in The Usborne Book of World History pg. 76. Paint a Chinese landscape on made or purchased rice paper if you can make it or get it. Glue it to cardstock as a cover for narrations.  

Coloring Pages

See the online resources section of this document.  Make mini book of Chinese inventions.  Make Chinese Zodiac.

Night Sky

On black paper glue stars and a moon to make a cover for a narration about the lunar calendar or Chinese Zodiac.

Confucian Chart

Make a chart of relationships according to Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer Ch 35: China’s Wise Teacher pg. 251-253.