School 2009-2010

Books are on the shelf, uniforms are hanging in the closet and my notebook is organized with paper and schedule. Several people have asked what our home school plans are so I thought I'd share - I'd love to hear yours!

• The Classical Academy Cottage School Program: (TCA/CSP)

Madelyn is attending the TCA cottage school kindergarten Tuesday and Thursday mornings for three hours each morning. The program has a language arts emphasis but she will also be taught music, art, Spanish and P.E. It is with other homeschoolers and the teachers have been very helpful thus far in partnering with us as we begin this year. The students start on September 1, and Maddie is counting the days! There is a uniform policy at the school and she can't wait to try out her uniforms!

Reading:

• Pathway Readers & Activity books
• Selected book list & book reports (I have a long list of reading material compiled from different curriculum such as Sonlight, Five in a Row, and 1,000 Great books.)
• Read aloud - from the list above as well as Madelyn reading aloud to her sisters

Math:

• Horizons

Penmanship:

• Zaner-Bloser

History:

• Story of the World, Vol. 1 Ancient Times

For nature and art we are following Charlotte Mason's methodology. Her schools are based on a three-semester cycle which we are going to loosely follow.
Art - an art notebook learning to appreciate and recognize art. Our first semester will be studying Claude Monet.
Nature - a nature notebook comprised of our nature walk pictures, bird charts, and other nature observations.

We are also going to continue Monday school with our friends, the Rokes. During our once a week class, we will be studying nine character qualities from the curriculum Character First and reading the books from Five in a Row, Volume 2. We also love doing art projects, cooking and other crafts during our time together. Mrs. Rokes will be starting Maddie on Suzuki piano lessons as well.

Ella will join us in Monday school as well as have her own preschool books. She has some simple workbooks from Rod & Staff and we also plan on starting Phonics Pathways with her. She already knows most of the letter sounds, thanks to LeapFrog DVD's from the library!

Other than their own personal seat work, we'll be doing the rest of our studies together. Troy has assisted me with making an efficient plan so that we have the most fun filled days that we can.

Time to enjoy the last warm days of the summer!