What are you really excited about for the coming school year?

[bgtw]

We are going into our second year of homeschooling (3 days a week through a charter school...at home I'm responsible for LA and Math and any supplemental material I want to add).  I read WTM this past spring and it has really influenced some changes I am making for the coming year.  I am super excited and kind of can't wait for school to officially start again.  

 

I'm particularly excited about using WWE & FFL with my DD8.  Also, I'm really looking forward to the Ancients (the charter is classical ed based) and so we've already begun some related read-alouds.  I'm checking out a lot of stuff I think we might incorporated (like A Little History of the World). 

 

I'd love to hear what other people are excited about for the coming year.

[EKT]

Your plans sound great! We have been using WWE and FLL from the start and LOVE them so much! I hope they turn out to be a good fit for you!

 

As for us, we technically school year round, but there is definitely a sense that things "restart" in the fall. (We're pretty relaxed in the summer, mainly just doing math, writing, grammar, and read alouds.) So, for the fall, I am so excited about so many things:

• My youngest DD will officially be on the books as a homeschooler (we have to enroll her a kindergartener due to her age, but she's really at a first grade level), so I am super excited that she will finally be able to do "real" work in all the subjects. She is so thrilled and cannot wait to start building her portfolio. 
• I'm excited to have both our girls doing history and science together. We are taking a break from SOTW/the classical history spine and are going to spend the next two years studying American history using the American Girl historical fiction books as our spine/point of reference. (Heavily supplemented--OBVIOUSLY!--with tons and tons of non-fiction picture and resource books and the like, relevant to each time period. But my girls are psyched and I can't wait to dive in. I think they are going to fall in love with history. (We plan to return to the classical history cycle when my older daughter hits 5th grade.)  
• For science, we are going to work from Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding, which is new for us, so I'm excited to see how that goes.
• We're going to start keeping Charlotte Mason-style nature notebooks, so I think that will be a hit, too. 
• We're going to give All About Spelling a whirl. (I hope it works well for us...it was expensive! lol.)
• My oldest daughter just turned 8, so my girls are truly entering that most delicious territory of children's reading: middle grade novels! I just can't wait to read as many classics and Newberry winners as we can. (And Harry Potter, too.) ;-) We're already well on our way and I'm really savoring it. Reading aloud with my girls is my favorite thing in the world! (Though, picture books are still a big part of our day. I'm not ready to give those up any time soon.) 
• Right now, I'm cleaning out all our homeschool stuff and doing all my organizing and planning, etc. and I love just love doing that, so I'm feeling really inspired and excited right now. 

Excited to hear what others have to say; I love hearing what everyone else is doing. 

[bgtw]

Your plans sound great! We have been using WWE and FLL from the start and LOVE them so much! I hope they turn out to be a good fit for you!

 

• I'm excited to have both our girls doing history and science together. We are taking a break from SOTW/the classical history spine and are going to spend the next two years studying American history using the American Girl historical fiction books as our spine/point of reference. (Heavily supplemented--OBVIOUSLY!--with tons and tons of non-fiction picture and resource books and the like, relevant to each time period. But my girls are psyched and I can't wait to dive in. I think they are going to fall in love with history. (We plan to return to the classical history cycle when my older daughter hits 5th grade.)  
• We're going to give All About Spelling a whirl. (I hope it works well for us...it was expensive! lol.)
• My oldest daughter just turned 8, so my girls are truly entering that most delicious territory of children's reading: middle grade novels! I just can't wait to read as many classics and Newberry winners as we can. (And Harry Potter, too.) ;-) We're already well on our way and I'm really savoring it. Reading aloud with my girls is my favorite thing in the world! (Though, picture books are still a big part of our day. I'm not ready to give those up any time soon.) 

 

Thank you so much for mentioning your love of WWE and FLL (which I keep accidentally shortening to FFL!) ever since I picked it I've come across so many mentions of people switching away from it because of repetition/boredom.  We are doing a pretty minimal summer school 4 days a week, but I've started doing either WWE or FFL each day and so far it is really great.  I think my daughter will thrive from having these conversations with me (even thought they are scripted from the books).  

 

Last year I supplemented what my daughter was learning about the Civil War with the original Addy series of American Girl Books...we loved it!  That is an awesome idea for a spine!  Have fun with it!  

 

We did All About Spelling L1 and part of L2 this past year.  It is a great spelling program!  My daughter was not into the tiles or flashcards but the rules based spelling approach is so amazing.  We are switching to How to Spell this year because my daughter likes work sheets for spelling and I really want to stick with a rules based curriculum.  

 

Reading aloud is absolutely my favorite thing too! My DS5 was not interested in chapter books at all until we started the Harry Potter series.  Now we are almost finished with the 3rd book (both of my kids almost cried last night when I had to stop reading before the end of the second to last chapter...it was just too late!).  I've been collecting my favorite chapter books from childhood for years so we have shelves full of them that I can't wait to enjoy with my kids :)

 

Thanks for sharing! 

[AnnaE]

This will be my first year homeschooling.  I left my job teaching high school chemistry and decided to homeschool my kids this fall.  The last 8 weeks has been jam packed with me reading up and designing my kids education - a lot more fun than teaching a bunch of high schoolers that are at best bored with high school.

 

So DD and DS1 (5.5 and 4.5) are currently working on 100EZ lessons, ETC1 and MUS primer.  We also do FIAR with units designed around a good read-aloud I found or one from the FIAR series.  When we finish 100EZ lessons at the end of the summer we will move into our next phase of homeschooling.

 

DD will begin AAR1 (and DS1 might follow suit), ETC book 2, MUS alpha, SOTW  with activity pages, Art with come look with me books, and science I will use Sassafras adventures for a spine for studying biology (notebooking as suggested in WTM) and well as BFSU. I will probably still keep doing FIAR periodically - because it is just so incredibly for my kids. When DD finished with AAR1, we will probably begin AAS1, WWE and FLL.

 

I am a scientist (PhD in biochemistry) and I love the idea of BFSU.  I have thought through how to implement it over the past 2 weeks.  His ideas are good, but I feel like he will have another edition out in a few years with more specific lesson plans.  For now, I am going to take each lesson of his and design a 2-4 week unit around.  So we will start with classification.  Here are my ideas with classification.  He has a list of books at the end of this lesson and I have designed the following activities around those books.

 

1. Introduction to classification
   • Look at a grocery mailer together.  How is it organized?  What characteristics are common among each group.  List the groups/categories.
   • Read Sort it Out!
   • Do an activity suggested in Sort it Out!

 

1. Read If it were a set.  Sort a puzzle.

 

1. Read Sorting Money:  Sort Money in piggy banks.  Roll and deposit in bank

 

1. Read Sorting by Color. Sort and graph M and Ms.  Which color do you want?  How can you tell which has the most? Make a graph.  What is missing?  Would you have been able to determine which ones were missing before graphing?  How?

 

1. Reading Sorting by Size. Sorting blocks or beads.  Organize the same set of miscellanea according to different criteria.  Shape?  Color? Size? 

 

1. Read Sorting Toys.  Sorting rocks.  Identify properties: characteristics.  Look under magnifying class, touch-feel, see - size, color.  Make a chart:  Property: Categories: How many.

 

DS2 is 2.5, and will turn 3 in February.  I will probably start with letters with him and AAR - prereading level.  The preschool my two older kids went to was great with setting down the fundamentals for reading, I am excited to do this for DS2 myself!  Hope I can do just as good of a job as that school.

[AnnaE]

 

 

Reading aloud is absolutely my favorite thing too! My DS5 was not interested in chapter books at all until we started the Harry Potter series.  Now we are almost finished with the 3rd book (both of my kids almost cried last night when I had to stop reading before the end of the second to last chapter...it was just too late!).  I've been collecting my favorite chapter books from childhood for years so we have shelves full of them that I can't wait to enjoy with my kid

 

 

 

 

 

---My kids love chapter books, I would love to start these.   Is 5.5 and 4.5 year olds okay?  Oh I see yours is 5 (DS5 duh!)  I have a DD5.5 and a DS4.5 that I would love to start reading these too!

 

[Tanaqui]

Documenting! *headdesk*

 

Our plan is for them to go to public high school. NYC high schools are done by choice, there's very little zoning and even your zoned school probably has better programs within. In order to get into a decent high school*, they need a good seventh grade record. I don't wanna do this at all.

 

* Except the ones that are limited unscreened (that is, they accept anybody) or that require a test. I went to one of the latter schools. Older Kiddo is not suited for one of those. Those places are crazy.

[Jackie]

Beast Academy! DD probably will be ready for it around mid-year. She looked through the samples the other day and is hooked and so excited about it!

 

More Spanish! We are both learning Spanish and it's the first time I've ever made actual progress with a foreign language, even though it's still slow and painful progress.

 

A literature-heavy, culture-focused version of Ancient History. Making that one up as we go along!

[My3girls]

I am most looking forward to outsourcing German and Physical Science for dd13.  Yay!  lol 

[bgtw]

 

I am a scientist (PhD in biochemistry) and I love the idea of BFSU.  I have thought through how to implement it over the past 2 weeks.  His ideas are good, but I feel like he will have another edition out in a few years with more specific lesson plans.  For now, I am going to take each lesson of his and design a 2-4 week unit around.  So we will start with classification.  Here are my ideas with classification.  He has a list of books at the end of this lesson and I have designed the following activities around those books.

 

1. Introduction to classification
   • Look at a grocery mailer together.  How is it organized?  What characteristics are common among each group.  List the groups/categories.
   • Read Sort it Out!
   • Do an activity suggested in Sort it Out!

 

1. Read If it were a set.  Sort a puzzle.

 

1. Read Sorting Money:  Sort Money in piggy banks.  Roll and deposit in bank

 

1. Read Sorting by Color. Sort and graph M and Ms.  Which color do you want?  How can you tell which has the most? Make a graph.  What is missing?  Would you have been able to determine which ones were missing before graphing?  How?

 

1. Reading Sorting by Size. Sorting blocks or beads.  Organize the same set of miscellanea according to different criteria.  Shape?  Color? Size? 

 

1. Read Sorting Toys.  Sorting rocks.  Identify properties: characteristics.  Look under magnifying class, touch-feel, see - size, color.  Make a chart:  Property: Categories: How many.

 

DS2 is 2.5, and will turn 3 in February.  I will probably start with letters with him and AAR - prereading level.  The preschool my two older kids went to was great with setting down the fundamentals for reading, I am excited to do this for DS2 myself!  Hope I can do just as good of a job as that school.

 

 

Congratulations on starting to homeschool!  I love the activities you've come up with to go with BFSU.  The charter my kids attend 2 days a week covers science, but I love to supplement at home.  I'm going to incorporate some of these when they are working on classifying in class (they are doing Ancients/Biology this year).  

 

 

 

---My kids love chapter books, I would love to start these.   Is 5.5 and 4.5 year olds okay?  Oh I see yours is 5 (DS5 duh!)  I have a DD5.5 and a DS4.5 that I would love to start reading these too!

 

 

AnnaE, can you clarify what you mean by okay for 5.5 & 4.5 yr olds...do you mean too scary or just wondering if they will be able to comprehend/enjoy it yet? Or something else? 

 

My mom read parts of It by Stephen King to me when I was 5 or 6 (she was too scared to read it by herself) and read Of Mice and Men to me when I was about that age or a little older.  I credit her with my love of reading  :) and I'm okay with reading advanced stuff to my kids (although I was nervous with my first for a long time, until I remembered that I was reading Stephen King to myself by 8 or 9...) and I don't think the books (what we have read so far) are too scary.  I also like that I am there with them to help them understand or just to snuggle up to during the tense parts!

 

I know my son misses a lot of the nuance & probably misunderstands some other stuff as well.  We let him play a lego video game version of Harry Potter which is when he got really interested and I decided to try reading it (he used to get really frustrated when I read chapter books, "oh, no, another book without pictures!?").  I think having played the game helps with his ability to understand the books.  We also did a unit study (math, language arts and a bit of science) around the first book and I think that hooked him.   Now my kids are ALWAYS playing Harry Potter and it is so much fun to see them be so engaged with the story.  I think the fact that they are on the younger side means that they can enjoy it in a really active way now (I've actually watched them act out a Quidditch match in our front yard) and they later return to it and get more out of it. And I am really glad that I'm reading it to them at an age where they still enjoy read-alouds and are begging me to read more.   :)

[strawberryjam]

I'm super excited about everything. We've been transitioning into Classical schooling since December. This is the first year... (5th year of homeschooling) that I feel totally on the ball! I feel well prepared. I feel organized. I think my kids are going to have an amazing year this year and I can't wait to dive in!

[Aurelia]

I'm vacillating between excitement and trepidation. I recently came to the realization that the classical method really doesn't work for my child, so I changed things up a week or so ago and DD, for once, says she actually enjoys school. 

 

I switched away from R&S (I don't know why I keep trying it, it was, like, the third time, and it's been a miserable failure every. single. time.) and bought Super Grammar (basically a comic book about the parts of speech and sentences), dropped the vintage writing text in favor of NaNoWriMo workbook (and novel, once she finishes that), then Adventures in Fantasy, and tried to follow her interests for history and science instead of sticking to the 4 year rotation. She understands the parts of speech better, and is happy to not have to try to memorize the definition of everything. I've also made a conscious effort to add more art in the last month or two, plus journaling, so she puts pencil to paper in a more enjoyable way than just writing narrations and descriptive essays.

 

[Farrar]

The content things the kids and I have chosen for the fall... philosophy and evolution/extinction. I'm sort of psyched to do dinosaurs, which they never did much with when they were little (no interest).

 

Also, I'm excited about starting Faltering Ownership from Brave Writer.

 

And I'm excited about finishing Jousting Armadillos and starting Coconuts to Crocodiles.

[SnMomof7]

Our beefed up together time is going awesome, two weeks in.

 

I JUST changed our history plans to reading and narrating The Story of the Ancient World by Guerber/Miller. Super excited.

 

DD1 is pumped that Adam to Us digital instalment #1 will be here this week.

[SeaConquest]

I'm excited about continuing with Beast Academy, teaching my son to read in French and Hebrew, and adding Story of US audiobooks to our much beloved SOTW audio history rotation.

[Tanikit]

We are in the middle of our school year and right now I am excited about winter ending which is still a couple of months away. It is good to read about others excitement though as I need to re-look at our year and plan where to from here. My 4.5 year old is joining us a lot more now and while she is not due to start kindergarten next year (here they start kindergarten the year they turn 6) I think I am going to call her kindergarten and also allow her to attend any outside activities where she would have been allowed if she was in kindergarten (depending how strict they are). 

 

As far as chapter books for young children: my 4 year old is listening to some - she likes many of the books by Johanna Hurwitz, Rainbow Fairies (sigh), some Dick King Smith and Magic Tree House. I also read her some of the level 4 reading books (Step into reading and so on) which have short chapters and easy vocabulary - the more difficult vocabulary she gets through well chosen picture books. I will try Pippi Longstocking at some point with her as my eldest liked that book at this age.