mumto3girls Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 My closest friend passed away a couple of days after Christmas. One option for her children was that I assist with the continuing homeschooling. So now that my friends children will be attending public school, I need to organise our school year. Here in Australia, our new school year began yesterday. I usually organise our year right after Christmas, but as my friend passed away and I have spent the past four weeks assisting her family, we are not ready to begin. My girls are quite keen to get started actually, especially since their friends are at school. I think I need to streamline our subjects and choose curriculum that is fairly independent, especially for this first term, 10 weeks, in case there are days that I just cannot teach them. Grade 8 Maths - Saxon 8/7 English/LA - AAS7; EG Plus Science - Apologia General Science History - Ancients - group MOH1/SOTW1 Grade 6 Maths - Singapore 6A/B English/LA - AAS5/6; Winston Grammar Science - Science in the Beginning/ Abeka Science Grade 7 History - Ancients - group MOH1/SOTW1 Grade 4 Maths - Singapore 4A/B English/LA - AAS3/4; ARFH Cursive; LLATL Yellow/Orange Science - Science in the Beginning/ Abeka Science Grade 4 History - Ancients - group MOH1/SOTW1 I'm actually thinking of having all my girls do LLATL, so the days I don't get to do work with them, they can still do LA independently. My youngest is about half way through LLATL yellow, that is the only level my girls have used. I love AAS so still want to keep progressing with that curriculum, but if I don't get to do it each day, it's no big deal. Is there something else I should consider for LA? My older two do their grammar programs on their own anyway. I'm not sure what to do for Foreign language ATM. My oldest was working on French, my youngest really wants to do German, we have tried a few different ones. My older two had been doing Latin, but not sure how to do that this year. I really needed to change up how we approached Latin but never got around to working that out. Is there something I'm missing? We usually have a very full workload, but I'm trying to keep to the basics and independent options where possible. I usually spend about 5 hours teaching each day, including lots of read alouds, but just don't know how that is going to go this year. I'm also struggling to think clearly and make decisions so I would really appreciate any assistance. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Hugs Sounds like a good list to get started on. Just some suggestions and only because you asked for suggestions Reading lists for literature studies? Logic? Art/ craft? Would an online type language course work like Rosetta Stone? In Victoria you can enrol in the foreign language coraspondance school from I think year 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto3girls Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 Hugs Sounds like a good list to get started on. Just some suggestions and only because you asked for suggestions Reading lists for literature studies? Logic? Art/ craft? Would an online type language course work like Rosetta Stone? In Victoria you can enrol in the foreign language coraspondance school from I think year 7 Thanks Melissa! Thank you for your suggestions, I really all the assistance I can get at the moment. I am going to put together a reading list for my girls from Sonlight/All through the Ages/ Ambleside Online. They usually read for an hour each day, half of that being from assigned reading that will come from these lists. So putting those lists together and sourcing the books is on my to do list. They are doing a 6 week pottery class starting tomorrow. Then I was thinking we would use Draw through history weekly or fortnightly to go with our history studies. My girls usually craft/knit on their own. I don't want to spend a lot of money on foreign language since I have several already. Perhaps they could use Duolingo, we haven't used that program in over a year. They do have Skoldo so could use that for French. Logic? I haven't done anything for that before. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 You could learn some Auslan from http://www.auslan.org.au and, if you're on Facebook, Asphyxia's videos. Rather lacking in grammar, but ticks the box in a useful enough way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Thanks Melissa! Thank you for your suggestions, I really all the assistance I can get at the moment. I am going to put together a reading list for my girls from Sonlight/All through the Ages/ Ambleside Online. They usually read for an hour each day, half of that being from assigned reading that will come from these lists. So putting those lists together and sourcing the books is on my to do list. They are doing a 6 week pottery class starting tomorrow. Then I was thinking we would use Draw through history weekly or fortnightly to go with our history studies. My girls usually craft/knit on their own. I don't want to spend a lot of money on foreign language since I have several already. Perhaps they could use Duolingo, we haven't used that program in over a year. They do have Skoldo so could use that for French. Logic? I haven't done anything for that before. Any ideas? sounds to me that you really have everything covered. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Hugs... difficult times. SA haven't started back yet so maybe you can start with us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 I’m sorry for your loss! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto3girls Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 Any suggestions for LA? Or does my plan look okay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Any suggestions for LA? Or does my plan look okay? Does what you are planning for 8th include writing? I think 8th graders should be building their ability to get thoughts on paper in prep for high school writing. You don't necessarily have to plan the whole year or even the semester. You can get started and add more in as you work out details. You can do 4 day weeks and use the 5th for planning. Can you get audio books for your read aloud? Hugs. My mom passed away in November. You don't just pick up the next week like nothing happened. It is normal and ok to grieve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto3girls Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 Does what you are planning for 8th include writing? I think 8th graders should be building their ability to get thoughts on paper in prep for high school writing. You don't necessarily have to plan the whole year or even the semester. You can get started and add more in as you work out details. You can do 4 day weeks and use the 5th for planning. Can you get audio books for your read aloud? Hugs. My mom passed away in November. You don't just pick up the next week like nothing happened. It is normal and ok to grieve. Thanks! Hugs to you too! Yes I do need to choose something for her for writing. Any suggestions for a good, mostly independent, program? This child loves to write :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Thanks! Hugs to you too! Yes I do need to choose something for her for writing. Any suggestions for a good, mostly independent, program? This child loves to write :) I liked Windows to the World for 8th/9th grade writing and literary analysis. It's not completely independent, but a program where you might sit and talk together for an hour a week to introduce a topic, then the student reads and writes. Then you would grade and discuss. So more than independent, but not something with a daily hour long lesson. (I once taught it in a coop that met once a week.) http://iew.com/shop/products/windows-world-introduction-literary-analysis-teacherstudent-combo It is sold through IEW, but does not require IEW methods to use. I used the syllabus written by Jill Pike. She schedules both Windows to the World and another analysis curriculum. I just used the section on WttW and skipped the other portion of the syllabus. She uses IEW terminology in a couple grading rubrics. I just changed those to something more general like "vivid word choice and active verbs." The syllabus and its rubrics helped me to not put more on their plate than was appropriate and to grade to an age/grade appropriate level. (I have an English degree and tend to be a tough grader.) http://iew.com/shop/products/syllabus-introduction-literary-analysis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 I keep seeing WriteShop popping up as a writing program. https://writeshop.com/ The sample pages look like they could be fun. I think it is meant to be mostly independent. But I have not seen or used anything beyond the very first level, and even that I have only had for a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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