All I can say, is I am so glad we school year round after the way this year has gone. My short 6 month (is that short???) stint of working while Jerry was looking for a job really put us behind! Lets just say that he was NOT created to be a homeschool teacher :) We are getting nicely caught up. Sierra is behind in History and Science but those will be caught up by the end of July! Unfortunately it appears that I did not catch her math weaknesses this year while its been so hectic so I am doing some remedial math with her this summer. Then we will start VideoText Algebra in the fall. (albeit probably a bit later than the rest of her 8th grade materials, I have a plan on how to get her nicely caught up and that may run a bit into the fall) That is one of the good things about homeschooling! I have to freedom to take as little or as much time to get my kids where I feel they need to be. Would she be behind if in the public schools? Probably not but for our goals and her long term goals, she is at the moment. Anyways, It will take maybe (if all goes well) 3-4 months (not to bad in my opinion) to get her caught up and going again. I really struggled with where to go with her for math after getting her caught up. Do we stick with Chalkdust? Do we move on to Teaching Textbooks. I just could not get past the review of teaching textbooks to go there with her. Although the reviews are decent for the most part, nearly every one said that it was atleast a year behind grade level. Sounds ok right? Just put her in a year ahead? Nope- they do not have the depth I am looking for. I would LOVE to continue Singapore with her, but her learning style completely clashes with the Singapore method :( . So at the moment, I plan on doing VideoText Algebra with her and Patty Paper Geometry once I have her caught up to par.
I am so excited about starting this school year! It should be so fun! We are going to do My Fathers World Exploring Countries and Cultures. I am going to add onto that and teach also about the government and economic systems of each country we learn about. I can not wait! For some reason that is something that has always fascinated me! Sierra and Taryn will be doing most of that. The boys will be listening in as their ability lets them. They will cycle through and do ECC 1 more time before they both hit High School so I am not to worried about it. It sounds weird to talk in terms of my Kindergartner and 1st grader and high school LOL.
Brock has come such a long way in his school abilities! He is at a 1st grade reading level, end of 1st grade math level. If you know what the boy put me through at the beginning of the school year, I didn't think he would EVER read or do math! I am so excited. The last few months he has made such amazing progress. Now that I know more about his needs it has helped me to really teach him where HE needs me to teach him at! I am going to wait a year to start formal science and history with him, because in his second grade year Taryn will be in 5th grade and Jayce in 1st grade and they will both be beginning the Classical history and science cycle over again. So I will have him do it with them (much easier instead of doing 2 cycles with him just 1 year ahead of the other two) I am so excited about restarting the cycle again! Using My Fathers World's history cycle looks so fun! I will be adding to their science though and they will start over again in 1st (and 2nd for Brock) and 5th grade biology. We will be using the Gods Design for Life series, plus adding in supplements for Taryn to make it more rich for a 5th grader.
Now it appears I am rambling because I am talking about plans for over a year away... I guess its time to go LOL.
So back to the point. This year with Brock and Jayce I am planning on just doing a light science over view with experimentation! That should be fun. I am getting books from Sonlight Core A (or B??) Whatever the core is that is for cultures. I have so many books to add to the girls studies. I have to some how narrow it down. That is going to be hard! I love adding in lit to our studies. It makes our studies so rich and deep. Amazing! Classical Education is about a rich and deep education, I wish I was taught this way. I am so glad I am able to do this for my kids!! God has been so good to us :)
