2020-2021 Planning for your AL

[8filltheheart]

11 hours ago, 4KookieKids said:

What would you suggest for an easier program? That worked well for us for elem (BA along side Singapore), but we just haven't really found something else that I feel was a good alternate yet.

I think part of the problem may also have been that he was cheating at PreAlgebra. lol. He just did Alcumus problems, got them wrong, read the solutions to learn material, and then ended up passing the sections, he told me once he was mostly done, rather than reading the book and attempting the problems in the reading first. I didn't necessarily mind at the time, since my hands were kind of full with other kids and he's "ahead" anyway, but I think that maybe if he'd actually read the book, he probably wouldn't have gotten nearly so many alcumus problems wrong on the first try, and that would've greatly impacted his perception of his own work. 

This summer, my girls are doing a summer school online, so I've had more time to work with ds and review some of his preA. He's able to do *most* of the problems in the book, including challenge and star ones, but he can't write up his work or justify it at all, so my focus for the summer has just been learning how to write down a decent solution. So he comes up with the answer, and then I sit down with him and help him actually write things up. While I feel like it's not a huge challenge, given that he's already solved the problems, he gets bogged down way more easily than I would've expected. 

It doesn't have to be either or with AoPS.  You could do something different now and then jump back into AoPS later on when he is more mature.  My ds's first AoPS course was intermediate bc that was the first time I had really heard about it.  He did great transitioning into the program and it was all he used through cal.  IOW, your ds does not have to do AoPS alg and geometry in order to use AoPS intermediate.  It doesn't have to be lock-step.  Maybe look at a text like Foerster, Dolicani, Jabobs for alg for a yr.  Let him mellow out and make the decision on where to go next when you actually get there.

[Runningmom80]

10 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

It doesn't have to be either or with AoPS.  You could do something different now and then jump back into AoPS later on when he is more mature.  My ds's first AoPS course was intermediate bc that was the first time I had really heard about it.  He did great transitioning into the program and it was all he used through cal.  IOW, your ds does not have to do AoPS alg and geometry in order to use AoPS intermediate.  It doesn't have to be lock-step.  Maybe look at a text like Foerster, Dolicani, Jabobs for alg for a yr.  Let him mellow out and make the decision on where to go next when you actually get there.

 

This is what we did and we are happy to keep going without AoPS for now. I think DO is a great option as well. 

[Kathy in Richmond]

My kids used a combo of Miquon & Singapore for elementary,  Jacobs & Dolciani texts for algebra and geometry, and my old calculus texts. They also took many AoPS classes for extra "fun" math enrichment and contest prep. This was many years ago before AoPS had textbooks for algebra, geometry, etc.

I was a Dolciani kid myself, and we all did quite fine. I also have had Foerster on my shelves; he's good, too, just not my personal favorite.

[Runningmom80]

On 7/2/2020 at 10:37 AM, Runningmom80 said:

 

Well, I think the writing is on the wall for us and it will be back to homeschool for everyone, at least for 2021. 

My tentative plan for DS 13 (grade 9ish)

• AP US History - CTY
• Linguistics - Online G3
• Finish High school Spanish level 3 - HSA
• Algebra II - Mr D
• PE & Health - I'll put something together. I'm a yoga teacher so I may make him do yoga for a semester. lol
• Language Arts/English - still figuring this out. I think I can handle this too, but I might want a curricula as a guardrail. I should probably make a thread on the HS board
• Music - Always. Classic piano, producing his own music. I want him to make a YouTube channel or blog but he's sort of reserved. 

Twins 10 (grade 5)

• BW Arrows & Faltering Ownership (Possibly partnership writing for DD who has dysgraphia)
• Maybe MCT Town for DS
• Spanish - HSA
• Singapore for DD Jousting Armadillos or BA for DS 
• History - need to figure out
• Science - need to figure out
• Music lessons and hopefully some day back to tennis and lacrosse 

 

I'm not sure how many times is appropriate to post in a planning thread, but I'm sure I'm approaching the limit. 

For DS 13 I ordered Lightning Lit Early British Novels. We will take it easy while he gets his bearings in AP History. I may drop Linguistics. Science is still up in the air. I didn't even remember it was a subject when I posted last time. 🤣🤦‍♀️

My twins, I'm back and forth about a lot of what I originally chose. BW, while I LOVE Julie and BW lifestyle, I am often not that successful with the curricula. (this is definitely my fault and not the curricula)  I may just make a literature list and figure out writing. Maybe IEW? DS 13 had a writing workbook thing called "Write Brain" that he liked at that age. Maybe I'll do that for both of them and Big Life Journals. DD is dysgraphic so I'll have to figure out if she needs more as we go. 

Science! I bought SCI (Scientific Inquiry through Connections) based on BFSU and I'm really excited about it. 

History I think we are just going to do Horrible Histories and History Unboxed even though it costs a small fortune. 

Math: Ugh, I don't know. I have random pieces of Singapore, Jousting Armadillos, & MM. DS is kind of mathy, he likes it and he's good at it. He seemed to enjoy the puzzle aspects of his GT pull out at PS. I'm thinking of doing BA online with him and either Singapore 5 or Jousting Armadillos. Maybe JA just for fun on Fridays? DD says she likes Singapore, but it often tripped her up. I believe she just liked it more than MM because there was more space on the page. She would be level 4 I believe, and I'm hesitant to put her in the same curriculum a level below her twin. She does a lot of comparing despite my constant reassurance. I'm thinking of trying MUS with her. I can't figure out if this is a good idea or not. Anyone want to decide for me? 

DD will do AAS 4 & probably 5 this year. DS would do well with a bit of grammar but MCT is expensive and I don't know that he needs or would even benefit from the depth of all that. 

And not to harp on this but I will also be in at least 2 grad classes so I don't want to have to plan *too* much. I really want this to be a fun year for them where I get my DD a little caught up dysgraphia wise in case they go back to school in 6th grade. (I'm entertaining the possibility that we will stick with homeschooling after having a true comparison to PS.) I really wish something like BYL would work for us but we do not want to do US history again and my kids have read most of the books in the younger levels. Maybe I should look at MBTP? 

TLDR: I'm all over the place. 

[4KookieKids]

1 hour ago, Kathy in Richmond said:

My kids used a combo of Miquon & Singapore for elementary,  Jacobs & Dolciani texts for algebra and geometry, and my old calculus texts. They also took many AoPS classes for extra "fun" math enrichment and contest prep. This was many years ago before AoPS had textbooks for algebra, geometry, etc.

I was a Dolciani kid myself, and we all did quite fine. I also have had Foerster on my shelves; he's good, too, just not my personal favorite.

 

2 hours ago, square_25 said:

I'm a terrible person to ask about specific programs, because I write my own math lessons and therefore don't try much of anything. I really only know about AoPS because I've been working for them for more than 5 years now, from before I started homeschooling. The list @8FillTheHeart produced definitely contains the programs I've heard good reviews of (well, I think she meant Jacobs and not Jabobs, in case that confuses you!) 

I think keeping the AoPS books around is worthwhile, because some of their problems are fun! But sometimes kids need a gentler introduction than they provide. 

 

2 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

 

This is what we did and we are happy to keep going without AoPS for now. I think DO is a great option as well. 

 

13 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

It doesn't have to be either or with AoPS.  You could do something different now and then jump back into AoPS later on when he is more mature.  My ds's first AoPS course was intermediate bc that was the first time I had really heard about it.  He did great transitioning into the program and it was all he used through cal.  IOW, your ds does not have to do AoPS alg and geometry in order to use AoPS intermediate.  It doesn't have to be lock-step.  Maybe look at a text like Foerster, Dolicani, Jabobs for alg for a yr.  Let him mellow out and make the decision on where to go next when you actually get there.

 

I just wanted to thank you all for your ideas and wrap this part up, so I don't derail the entire planning thread. 🙂 I have been looking at Jacobs, and I've also considered just letting him do Algebra through something simple like Khan or Aleks for a year. (I like that it's pretty hands-off for me, since I have a lot on my plate with my youngers at the moment, am not in a rush since he'll only be turning 11, and figure that if it doesn't go deep enough, we can always go through it more deeply later.) I'll keep poking around and spend some more time looking at Foerster, since I've not looked at that one recently (kinda just fell off my radar!). Thank you all again!

[Porridge]

9 hours ago, square_25 said:

I really only know about AoPS because I've been working for them for more than 5 years now, from before I started homeschooling.

@square_25 you teach any of the online classes? I'd totally try to sign my DD up for your section 🙂

[Noreen Claire]

On 2/2/2020 at 11:01 PM, Noreen Claire said:

DS10 (6th grade)

Math: AoPS intro to algebra

Logic: continue w/ Blast Off w/Logic series and misc. Mind Benders books.

Science: Astronomy/Earth science (w/help from DH, an astronomy teacher)

History: Medieval-Early Renaissance, using Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Story of Science, and Light to the Nations P1;  reading lists from Living Math U2

Latin: finish Little Latin Readers & start Henle; also considering Portuguese Saturday school.

Language arts: Spelling Workout F; Grammar for the Well Trained Mind (red book2nd time through); Writing With Skill level 1

Literature: assigned books from the WTM reading list plus whatever else he wants to read, he usually has several non-school books going at once

Sports: He plays sports fall, winter, and spring. We will put in place a daily workout routine of bodyweight exercises and cardio, maybe add in some readings and call it "health class".

Misc.: He'll keep working through Code Combat for Python coding; typing program online; he's going to start some weekly cooking & baking lessons with me; we will learn some needlepoint skills together as a family (he's already a knitter). I need to find a way to fit piano and/or saxophone lessons into the budget (possibly online) 

Piano: Online Piano videos using a keyboard and headphones

 

DS7 (3rd grade)

language arts:  First Language Lessons 3, Spelling Workout C, Zaner-Bloser 3 handwriting, copywork/narrations/dictations across the curriculum

math & logic: Beast Academy 3, books from LivingMath U2, MindBenders/BalanceBenders/Math Analogies/etc.

history: SOTW2 / read alouds from LivingMath U2

literature: read-alouds from the WTM recommendations (to go along with SOTW2), plenty of read alouds, audiobooks 

science: astronomy/earth science (WTM recommendations)

Latin: start Little Latin Readers, possibly Saturday Portuguese school GREEK: Review what we learned last year and start Song School Greek.

misc: This kid need plenty of unstructured time for following his own rabbit trails -- he pulls random nonfiction books off of DH's shelves and reads until he either doesn't understand anymore or gets bored; he's self-teaching Python, BBC Micro:Bit, and Raspberry Pi, etc. What he really needs is an organized physical activity, but his social anxiety won't let him join teams. Maybe piano lessons. 

Electronics: 42Electronics Intro to Robotics

 

DS5 (1st grade)

phonics: finish Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

math and logic: Singapore Math 1A/B and MindBenders-type books 

language arts: First Language Lessons 1, Writing With Ease 1, and Spelling Workout A, Zaner-Bloser 1

science: (along with DS7 & DS10) earth science (library books) & astronomy (led by DH, an astronomy teacher)

history: (along with DS7) medieval & early renaissance (SOTW2 & lots of library books)

misc: he's playing soccer & maybe t-ball, weekly trips to the library, continue speech therapy weekly at the public school (depends on COVID - need to find home resources); maybe cub scouts; practical cleaning/cooking lessons; start CCD (depends on COVID); possibly Saturday Portuguese school

Just double-checking & updating as I take out all the new books and sort them to start soon...

[Runningmom80]

On 7/2/2020 at 10:37 AM, Runningmom80 said:

 

Well, I think the writing is on the wall for us and it will be back to homeschool for everyone, at least for 2021. 

My tentative plan for DS 13 (grade 9ish)

• AP US History - CTY
• Linguistics - Online G3
• Finish High school Spanish level 3 - HSA
• Algebra II - Mr D
• PE & Health - I'll put something together. I'm a yoga teacher so I may make him do yoga for a semester. lol
• Language Arts/English - still figuring this out. I think I can handle this too, but I might want a curricula as a guardrail. I should probably make a thread on the HS board
• Music - Always. Classic piano, producing his own music. I want him to make a YouTube channel or blog but he's sort of reserved. 

Twins 10 (grade 5)

• BW Arrows & Faltering Ownership (Possibly partnership writing for DD who has dysgraphia)
• Maybe MCT Town for DS
• Spanish - HSA
• Singapore for DD Jousting Armadillos or BA for DS 
• History - need to figure out
• Science - need to figure out
• Music lessons and hopefully some day back to tennis and lacrosse 

 

For my DS 13,

" Freshman English" is going to be Social Justice & The American Experience course I'm making up as we go. (You can see our resources here: https://dyslexiaida.org/ida-dyslexia-handbook/?fbclid=IwAR2ddmGwOwfZbx6OLnN24HcYfZgu5HXz2Z_lXKnPR0Nxw9PRx1CeiBDdBHQ) PLUS the NYT writing curriculum that someone graciously posted about on the HS board. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/learning/free-writing-curriculum-with-nyt.html?fbclid=IwAR0vbJNIYBgHjof4BhMY1LrqsLoc_ns4K3Ta5aoaH4Ry-Yw2JOU0oeAPE4w

Science will probably be Miller-Levine Biology with labs from Labpaq along with the crash course biology videos. 

 

Twins,

well that whole plan I quoted is kind of scrapped! But, I'm excited about what we ARE doing so I wanted to update. 

Both will do BYL level 5. This fits in so nicely with current events. It's US history and Biology. 

DS 10: Word Roots from CTC and BW both for added LA. He will do BA for math, and possibly HSA for Spanish. 

DD 10: my 2E dysgraphic. I'm going to be using Rooted in Language to help her with her spelling and writing. Possibly a BW writing project in the second half of the year. For math she is using Redbird online, which looks really great. (We haven't tried it yet.) https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/explore/redbird/redbird-mathematics.html (You have to buy through HSBC) I also bought her a cursive curriculum from Cursive Logic.

We will add in Outschool classes as things get stagnant. Both kids have really enjoyed them over the summer!

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Runningmom80

[ondreeuh]

On 5/27/2020 at 7:08 AM, ondreeuh said:

My 12 year old is definitely not PG, and I do have a bit of imposter syndrome affecting me here. On the other hand, what we do is pretty different than my local friends do. So here we are.
 

We normally school through the summer as we take many travel breaks during the off-peak season. Because of that, we just move on to the next thing and change plans throughout the year. Here is what we are doing now and what we have planned next. He is strong all around, but his main interests are the social sciences. 

Math: he recently moved over to AOPS after finishing up Math in Focus. Since it is a new program for him, he is working through prealgebra now to review and get used to their system. He is blazing through and it looks like we will be able to stay with AOPS. We’re just using the online book and alcumus. 
 

Grammar: currently he’s using Exercises in English to review what we did previously in Voyages in English. There really isn’t instruction in the workbook, so if that gets too annoying we may do WTM grammar (purple), though he likes being independent. Could do GWG too. 
 

Writing: We recently started Writing with Skill 1, and plan to continue. We will do creative writing on Fridays. I have Hot Fudge Monday and The Creative Writer on hand for that. I have him write an essay about once a month that relates to our literature units, and I’m going to add more history essays this year. 
 

Literature: we do various lit guides. We are currently finishing up Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On deck I have 20,000 Leagues, A Girl Named Disaster, Eragon, Maze Runner, Mosdos short stories, and a ton of others. I’m soon going to teach “The Hero’s Journey” and we’re going to use that model as we read through The Princess Bride and The Hobbit + LOtR. I also have a world mythology unit planned (Crash Course plus a book of myths & legends), Excavating English, and Adventures in Fantasy (writing a fantasy story). 
 

History: we are 1/3 through Bookshark’s History of Science. This is a perfect fit for him. I’m supplementing with k12’s Human Odyssey books. 
 

Science: right now it’s just history of science. I might try a McHenry unit. I’m ok with it being a light science year. He reads a lot of popular science books and is getting a solid big-picture understanding. Our next formal (textbook) science is physical science, but it will be a few months before we get there. 
 

Geography: he will soon start an online Eastern Hemisphere geography course. It’s a tutorial model, and it does assessments so the student can test out of what they have already mastered. Hopefully he will find it easy to complete in a couple of months. 
 

Logic: we are working through The Fallacy Detective now, then will follow up with The Thinking Toolbox and Art of Argument. Philosophy for Kids somewhere in there too. 

Well it’s nearly three months since I posted my plans, and they have changed a little. We finished History of Science, Fallacy Detective, The Thinking Toolbox, and the geography class. Oh and we did a whole bunch on The Hero’s Journey but didn’t get to LotR. 

We also are planning a move back to the states, and our new state is a high-reg state. So I have to be a little more intentional about things like health, art, and PE. 

Math: finish up AOPS Pre-Algebra this fall and then move into Intro to Algebra. We are loving this. 

LA: Vocab from Classical Roots A, and Essentials in Writing. I’m alternating writing units with our literature units so some of his writing will be about lit, and he will also write about history and do a research project. 

Lit: I’m using lit guides for 10 books, including Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Anne Frank and The Hobbit. We’re also keeping a reading log to document his interest-led reading (he loves popular science & history books). We’re doing a short story every Friday and graphing the plot.

Science: HST Physical Science. This should be really easy for him because he has a good background in this subject, but that’s fine. We should finish early, and then we’ll move on to Environmental Science. 

History: Hakim’s The History of US Series plus a whole bunch of biographies and a little historical fiction. I’ve added in documentaries on Fridays. We’re also reading through Painless American Government, and we’re doing an Elections unit study this fall. Oh and we’re doing a workbook on the history of American music that I paced to fit with our US history (fine arts: check!). And we will hit up some museums for state history and write a report. 

Spanish: Spanish for Children A with Dr. Seuss books in Spanish. I’m so ready to do Spanish since it is so much easier than French!

Logic: Art of Argument for sure this semester, and then probably Discovery of Deduction. 

Health: a health workbook that actually looks pretty good.  We’ll do projects on heredity, planning healthy meals, creating a truthful tobacco ad, and learning some first aid. 

PE: I don’t know. Hopefully XC skiing, maybe ice skating? Archery? Rock climbing? He has almost no interest. 

Other: speech drills on our own to clear up his articulation and italics to clean up his handwriting. Oh, and a 4-H cooking course. 

it looks like a lot when I write it out, but it’s really a lot of small things. That works for him as he loves to keep checking thing off his list. 

[Jackie]

On 2/2/2020 at 9:40 AM, Jackie said:

Everything is completely up in the air right now, even more so than usual. We are exploring private school options for next year. It’s so weird to say that; DD has been homeschooled from the beginning, and I believed she always would be.

If we do not find a satisfactory school option, we will likely do an extremely relaxed year, even more so than our usual. One idea that intrigued her was a completely arts-focused year. There are several theater groups and art classes around here. She could actually do Hoffman Piano. We could get a membership at our local makerspace and go to their meetups. We would need to keep her physical activity stuff on the schedule (currently parkour and aerial silks) because it is important for her to regulate, but she could potentially do dance or other more performance-based activities.

Wow, you can really tell the above was written pre-COVID, can’t you? We found a lovely private microschool, focused on Socratic discussion and hands-on work with a flexible attitude toward grade placement and class placement. It is amazing, but the week that we were going to put our deposit in was the week that everything started shutting down around here. DD continues to be homeschooled.

All those lovely ideas for homeschooling? They’re not really accessible right now, either. We did do an arts-focused summer at home, and she discovered that she liked the idea much better in theory than in practice. She was relieved to return to a more academic setup. She wanted to do more online classes, and I was happy to have a short break from being the primary teacher, so this fall is far more outsourced than our norm.

Current for fall:

Math: Review the first half of AOPS Intro to Algebra book and then get started on the second half. Make some effort to work on mental math skills to see if any speed can be gained that way. This is the one thing that I’m really hands on with.

English: online G3 Shakespeare Comedies class, Lukeion Witty Wordsmith word roots class, will do NaNoWriMo as usual

Spanish: Twice/week with Homeschool Spanish Academy’s middle school level

Other: Intro to Herpetology and Superstitions Around the world through Athena’s. Possibly learning some more robotics with the EV3.

Our local homeschool enrichment center is taking precautions we find reasonable, so she is doing one day per week there: chess, Arduino, prehistory through dioramas, dissection lab, and magic tricks. 

Her jujitsu place is taking some precautions, though I’m still nervous about it. But, as mentioned in the quote above, regular exercise is needed for any level of self-regulation. Sparring only takes place with those already in your bubble, and the one friend she is allowed to have in-person contact with was interested, so they’re both going three times per week.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Jackie