Our School Plan....

On Facebook this morning I, as well as many of you, got to see all the fabulous pictures of many of our friends' children returning to school. I am so thankful that Facebook exists. I just love being able to watch our friends' kids grow. I miss them all so much, but at least this way we can virtually be a part of their lives. Many people have asked about our homeschooling plan. I am going to share with you what we do.

First this year we moved into a year round calendar. We have school for nine weeks, then off for three, on for nine, off for four, on for nine, off for three, on for nine, off for five. Sound confusing?! Here's how it looks.

I have this on the wall so the girls can keep up. We are required to have a 180 day school calendar. Well 45 times 4 equals 180. Yes we will have school through holidays like Thanksgiving, but we'll just have an easier day then. Or I'll just adjust the days as needed, that's the beauty of homeschool! 

For math, we use Math U See. You can learn more about this program here. http://www.mathusee.com/ This program is what Deryn needed. It is multi-sensory. So our girls touch, see and hear their math. This set comes with manipulatives that allow the girls to see their math as they go along. We have a short video on Monday and then have exercises with that skill all week, then a test on Friday. 

For writing, we use Essentials in Writing. Here's the link for this one. http://www.essentialsinwriting.com/

Like Math U See, this program has short videos to watch on Monday then exercises to follow. There are no weekly tests with this program. 

For spelling, we use All About Spelling. http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-spelling This system teaches your children how to spell phonetically. I am a horrible speller and I am hoping the later lessons will teach me a few things. 

For science, we are using the The Young Scientist Club Kits. http://www.theyoungscientistsclub.com/retailstore/retail-youngscientist.html Each week we take the next kit and that's the science theme for the week. Each kit comes with a lesson and 3-5 experiments. The girls have their scientific notebooks to log in all our adventures.

Here's the compass the girls made during magnets week. 

Chaz explained to them how a GPS works. Ry then decided Daddy could use his own GPS and here's what she did for him. The girls were quite proud of their application of knowledge! ;)

We are currently doing a lesson on some of the world's greatest artists. We got this one from Confessions of a Homeschooler. http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/ She has amazing lesson plans on there. We will finish this lesson with a trip to the National Gallery of Art here in DC.

We are currently reading Aesop's Fables and The Story of Doctor Dolittle. We have many other books on the agenda for the rest of the year. All the books I have chosen have a movie tie in as well. So when we finish reading the book, the movie will be our Family movie night selection.

Now for history....since we are in DC, we go to it. We might talk about it a little first, but then we just go to it and learn as much as possible. You can say we "unschool" history. We use everything in our lives as conversations to move towards learning. We have used the Olympics to discuss geography. Chaz's health has been a huge learning experience. We take the girls to gymnastics lessons, swimming, horseback riding or just to the park for PE.

This blog entry is the abridged version of everything we do. I have had many friends ask me to list what I do out, so here you go ladies! I hope it helps! This works great for us. I hope some of it helps you as well.