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Jan - Dec schoolers, gearing up for 2012?


LMD
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Just wondering if planning has started for 2012? How is it going?

 

I always feel a bit out of step with the 'what have you planned for x grade' threads for people who start in september, so here's one for us! What have you got planned?

 

This is my first real serious planning experience, I'll have a 2nd and a K'er next year. Any tips? :D

We're trying some new things for next year, my K'er will start music lessons and we're adding a foreign language (hopefully!) to the schedule. The workload for my oldest is going up a bit. It's very exciting but a bit daunting too! I've got most of my materials together, and just this week we have basically finished up our 1st grade materials! :hurray:

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:seeya:

Thanks for the post!

Another January-December family here.

 

This is my first real serious planning experience
Same here!

We have been homeschooling 5.5 years, but this is the first year that I have been serious about planning. We started homeschooling using unit studies, so I just planned from one unit to another, with no overall year plan. Then we started doing more "open and go" curriculum so I didn't feel like I needed to plan much. But then I realized that some "open and go" stuff wasn't getting done because I didn't, um... open it often enough. :001_huh: I am hoping by actually writing out detailed lesson plans, I will feel more organized and less stressed about getting it done.

 

I will have a 5th year (grade? though I don't call it grade) student. I broke our year into six sessions, taking most of Dec off and schooling through the summer.

 

Let's see...

Math - Singapore and Simply Charlotte Mason Pet Store Math

All About Spelling

MCT grammar/poetry/vocab

I am wanting to buy SWB's new writing program as we are struggling in that area (In my former, pre-child life, I wrote professionally. It is killing me to teach it. :tongue_smilie:)

Science - Apologia Botany and Elemental Science Physics

Art - I'm putting together a study from the Louvre for 1st 1/2 of year - Handle on the Arts (Time Traveler) for 2nd half

Getting Started in Latin - Continue on with this, but not sure what we will do when finished

Elementary Greek

History - Famous Men of Middle Ages and SOTW, volume 2 (with test book)

Handicrafts - working with wire/making mobiles

Home ec - baking

 

I'm probably missing something 'big,' and don't realize it yet. :lol:

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:seeya:

Thanks for the post!

Another January-December family here.

 

Thanks for the reply! I was envisioning crickets chirping! :tongue_smilie:

 

Your plan sounds good to me! I can relate to the needing to plan to open and go! Grade 1 just sort of happened, I picked up materials as we went along and just got a feel for things. Now I feel confident and excited! I just need to get my plan organised in my head, as a framework, then I can get on with it in a relaxed, flexible way...

 

We've got for my oldest - Grade 2:

LLATL Yellow

CW Primers

Singapore 2B & Miquon for maths

I'm also planning on adding a living maths day every now and then, using the LoF elementary series, games (like tangrams etc) and other logic and fun maths books.

Science - BFSU

History, Literature and Poetry - Ambleside Online Y2

Language - Russian. Still undecided on materials but I'll be starting with what the library has before committing to anything expensive!

Art - CW primers has picture study, plus we'll be doing some actual drawing technique learning with a book I found and Mark Kistler online for fun. DD would paint and draw all day so I don't worry about art! :lol:

Music - Violin lessons and composer studies (when we feel like it!), hopefully a trip or two to the orchestra - trying to budget it in with DH!

 

My Son, in K:

LLATL Blue

Reading Eggs (he loooooves it!)

Miquon

Russian

Mechano type projects, puzzles

 

That's about all I want to plan for him, he'll be tagging along for a lot of the other stuff anyway...

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Although I always said our "school year" was January 1 to December 31, we didn't actually start-or stop--anything. We just kept working on things until we either finished them or got tired of them, and then moved on, whenever that was.

 

I did "promote" dc in the fall, so that Sunday school teachers, sports coaches, and grandparents wouldn't be weirded out. :lol:

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lol, yes, we're not really stopping. I can't wait to get into our new books so I think we'll take next week off (for spring cleaning :glare:) then jump in again.

Grade names are very much given on my whim, for everyone elses comfort! We're quite staggered (especially with math) because we had to find the right level of challenge and then just kept going from that starting point, we don't have any checks or reporting so it doesn't need any official grades...

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This may seem like a really dumb question but how does one school from Jan to Jan? I'm intrigued! Hypothetically I would love to start my year over fresh. We started in Aug and usually school year round but a number of things I purchased for my 8.5 yr old is not a good fit. Do you mind sharing your schedule?

 

Thanks

The same way one does from September through or June. :-) If you want to start over, just start over.

 

I do think it's important to know the Official Grade Level children would be in if they were enrolled in the local public school, but that grade level has nothing to do with what the children actually learn, or how well they learn it, or even when they learn it. IOW, in the fall, you would "promote" your dc to the next Official Grade, regardless of what y'all are actually doing.

 

We always took off a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter; a couple of weeks in late August/early September, and Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. We also took off random days for things like Mom's Mental Health Day, or grandparents visiting from out of town, or Disneyland in the middle of the week in March. :-) Otherwise, we just kept working on Stuff until we finished or got tired of it, then we moved on to the next thing.

 

Some people do have a more structured schedule--a certain number of weeks on followed by a week or two off--but I didn't feel the need to do that.

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Well, we are in Australia, so our seasons are opposite to yours. We have our summer break over Christmas holidays, so everyone starts the new school year in January. We don't follow the school terms exactly - we go by my DH's work schedule mostly - but the typical 4 term school year for 2012 is:

Term 1: 1 February to 30 March

 

Term 2: 16 April to 29 June

Term 3: 16 July to 21 September

Term 4: 8 October to 21 December

 

Starting in september has always seemed really arbitrary to me! Though I get the summer holiday thing...

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We started homeschooling in the summer, 5.5 years ago. At first, we followed a typical fall to spring schedule. But we schooled year-round and it was always strange, to me, to figure out when to call it a new year. July? August? September?

DS is a late December baby. About 1.5 years after we started homeschooling, I just decided it was crazy.

We didn't follow ps scope and sequence.

We didn't follow ps calendar.

Why should we follow their schedule?

So I just switched.

I totally go by DS's age, not grade, and I teach where he is at. (Because of his birthday, he is always "age x" for the full calendar/school year.)

DS had made a big developmental leap and needed new curriculum anyway, so it just seemed a good time to make the switch.

We do live in a non-reg state, so that wasn't an issue. I don't know about switching in regulated states.

I mentally keep track of where DS would be in public school, just in case we need that. But - honestly - most things around here go by age anyway, not grade. Sunday school is about the only thing that *always* goes by grade and we prefer to keep our child in church with us, instead of SS.

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We are January through October, here. And my olders have gone to live with their biological mother in another state and have entered a public junior high and high school, so all I have are a preschool, k, and 1st this year. I know I want to try and not use CLE for one year, but I still have no idea where we are going with all this. The catalogs are just rolling in and I know my time is short. I have ruled out HOD, SL, and OM. I am not sure what I am left with, though.

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My afterschooler will start second grade in Jan.

For maths, spelling, writing and penmanship, we will continue to do what we are currently doing. If we finish WWE-1, I will get WWE-2 for her. I have enough maths and spelling for the next 5 years.

For grammar, I have Serl's PLL.

For science, we will start BFSU. I know that she is keen to do science.

For history, SOTW 1, if she is interested.

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We start our new year in January too. I pretty much knew what we were doing for most subjects, but have been researching a couple of new things too-especially science which has me overwelmed!

 

Here's our line up so far!

 

Sonlight Core B

SL LA2

Horizons Math 1

A Reason For Handwriting

ETC

NOEO Science

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Although I always said our "school year" was January 1 to December 31, we didn't actually start-or stop--anything. We just kept working on things until we either finished them or got tired of them, and then moved on, whenever that was.

 

I did "promote" dc in the fall, so that Sunday school teachers, sports coaches, and grandparents wouldn't be weirded out. :lol:

 

:lol: I love this! Especially the promotions part.

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I just recently decided that we would start our school years in January. It seems so logical to me. I only have one that is doing school right now and she is already mostly doing first grade stuff. I will keep her age for social activities as a kindergartener but we are definitely jumping into all 1st grade stuff in January. I am excited to start SOTW and science.

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I like the idea of starting the school year in January, but I've wondered how that would play out in high school...graduate in December???
In my high school (many moons ago), a dozen or so students graduated in December every year. They were able to come back in May and walk across the stage if they wanted, but many didn't as they graduated early to get on with their life.

I don't see it being a problem now, with homeschooling. Most homeschool students in this area start community college at 16 or 17, so no big deal to start in January or September.

I have often been asked what I will do if I decide to put DS into public or private school, but I don't wish to borrow worries. It's a non-issue to me. (They would either test him and put him in according to test scores or they would put him in typical age/grade level.)

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We are Aussies too, so Jan-Dec is normal for us. I have definitely started to plan for next year as we have a baby due late January (right about when school would normally go back). So, I'm wanting to be organised :)

 

Next year I will have kids in 11th, 10th, 8th, 6th, 4th, 2nd as well as a toddler and newborn so life will be interesting.

 

My oldest two are using Sonlight Cores so they will continue with this - Cores 300 and 200 respectively.

 

From my 8th grader down I am planning on using the Higher Up and Further In curriculum with Australian history and nature studies added to it. I've been using it for the last few weeks with my younger kids and I love the depth and richness of all the CM style methods and resources. I'll be adding some of this to my older kids SL program as well.

 

So, whenever I get a few quiet moments :lol: , I sit down to work on mapping out each child's 2012 program. It's going through my head a fair bit, but I enjoy planning their studies - I'm a bit weird like that.....:tongue_smilie:

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I only have one on a Jan-Dec track, but I'm already planning how things will change in Jan to knock it up a notch for her 1st grade work (from the minimal K-work she does now). She wasn't interested in "doing school" until last Jan, so I waited. She's showing such progress, DH & I want to reward her with a "promotion" in Jan to First Grade. So, she'll be my "promote in Jan" child for at least awhile, I guess.

 

I plan on starting her on Spell to Write & Read. We'll continue with handwriting (Cursive First), math (Miquon-ish), and reading what her interest leads her. She's already sitting in on our history reading and doing the activities & coloring pages with the olders. I don't think I'll add her into Science unless she shows interest.

 

I don't know how you guys with all the kids do it. I have enough trouble fitting in this third kid while taking care of the preschooler & the toddler!

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Another Aussie

 

My DD will be in K again next year because of the silly way they do school entry in SA. She's already been doing K since Term 3 this year - I'm sure she won't need another whole year of it :glare:

 

So we will just keep working on what we are doing now until I feel she is ready to move to Grade 1 work - probably half way through next year.

 

So I'm not planning yet (although I have a few things in mind) I'll do that when she looks closer to finishing probably around June next year.

 

So we are basically following the US school year by default :glare:

 

But DD will be officially on the books as in K or Prep for next year although she will be starting 1st grade work after June/July holidays.

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RootAnn - I feel the same way, I'm stressing about adding a k-er in, LindaOz - I don't know how you do it! :bigear:

 

lol, sewingmama - my DD is staggered about a half year with maths because we just picked up where she was up to and kept going, so she'll complete 2b, 3a next year, instead of all of 2 or 3. :shrug:

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I'm a Jan-Dec schooler too. We will be following the Vic term dates next year so DD will start Grade 1 on Jan 31st.

 

What DD will be doing:

 

Singapore Maths-Standards 1a

Fitzroy Readers (aussie phonics/readers program)

Italics Book B (and either startwrite or buying the italics font)

GWG 1

HO level 1-ancients

Elemental Science-Biology

 

We are still undecided about a few subjects.

 

DD only has 10 days of her maths book left and then that will be it for Prep/Kinder!! I am so proud of DD and how much she has grown in the 2 terms she has been at home. Her handwriting has improved a lot, she is doing well with the maths and her reading is going well, slowly but well.

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