A New Year Already!
2015-16 School Year Curriculum
Here's our line-up for our FALL season
Our Method to The Madness
We don't do a typical Middle or High School. We blend our middle school and high school in order to prepare our kiddos for Dual Enrollment Courses or CLEP test which are accepted by our local Community College.
Therefore, you will see many grade levels spread over several subjects for our kids. The focus of subjects outside of Math, English and Science is based on their interest.
Here's the Plan
Three Semesters: Fall/Winter/Spring
Speed Racer - (11yrs) our Blended 7th-9th grader.
- Block Schedule - some classes are only 1 / 2 or 3 days a week
- Total Hours Of School a Day - 5 to 7 hours
This was our original schedule - 3 weeks after school started, I re-evaluated and changed it to the one below:
Independent Work:
Python (Techrocket.com)
Vocabulary Word Usage (Membean.com)
Writing (Time4Writing.com)
Math Review (CTCMath.com)
Work With Parent:
English 7th - Grammar - Spelling (AbekaAcademy.com)
Spanish (Middlebury Interactive and Mango Languages)
US History (AbekaAcademy.com)
African American History (Movie Based)
American Government (AbekaAcademy.com)
Economics (AbekaAcademy)
Biology (Abeka Academy)
His new schedule will be the following:
We are able to get through all of these within 5.5 hours
Does in the morning:
CTCMath (for Math lab): M-F (Independent)
TechRocket (for Python programming): M-F (Independent)
Membean (for Vocabulary building): M-F (Independent)
Time4Writing (online): M-F (Independent)
Do in the evening:
English/Spelling/Reading - (Abeka) : M-F (with Mom/Dad or Homehelper)
Saxon (Math 7/8): M-F (with Mom/Dad or Homehelper)
Biology (Abeka): M-F (with Mom/Dad or Homehelper)
Economics (Abeka): T-Th (with Mom/Dad or Homehelper)
American Gov't (Abeka): M-W-F (with Mom/Dad or Homehelper)
Tiger Lilly - our Blended 9th-10th grader.
- Total Hours Of School a Day - 6 to 7 hours at least 1 day of the weekend for homework
Tiger Lilly's schedule is packed. She asked for the Homeschool Courses as they are her passionate interest in becoming a Video Game Designer. The last 2 years of homeschooling, she was able to succeed with this amount of coursework, so we are giving it a try provided her Dual Enrolled courses don't suffer.
Homeschool Classes
Japanese (Landry Academy) - Wed. Only (do homework on that day)
C Programming (Landry Academy) - Tue. Only (do homework on that day)
PC Pro (Landry Academy) - Mon. Only (do homework on that day)
Java (TechRocket.com) - Thu
Unity3D (TechRocket.com) - Wed
Animation 1 - (theanimcourse.com) - Tue
Community College Dual Course
Psychology (online) - Tue (Fri-Sat for homework)
US History 1 (online) - Wed (Fri-Sat for homework)
Computer Applications for Micro Systems (online) - Thu (Fri-Sat for homework)
College Math (In Person) - Fri (Tue and Thu for homework)
Classes I changed:
Why this Challenging Schedule?
We grew into it. My kids had been used to a 7 hour school day. Each class was about an hour long, they also had homework that they would do in the evenings and weekends.
When we started homeschooling, we started slow, but they didn't have any screentime on the TV, video games or cellphones until after dinner.
So when they finished their assigned work, they started asking for more things 'to do'. That's when I came up with Independent work that were online work that they could do and I could check when I had a chance.
Also, they liked changing things up after a few weeks.
Where's the Fun?
Yep, with their schedules, they love their sports. They do a sport daily which takes 2 hours out of their day, gets them out and chatting up with their friends. The weekend, My Tiger Lilly is in a Girl's Who Code and CyberJitsu girls club where she interacts with other girls. My Speed Racer loves dancing, martial arts, gymnastics and lacrosse.
Working Parent Juggling?
Both my husband and I work. However, my older two kids are living at home this school year.
Dad works from home a few times a week, Mom works a 40 hr work week and the college students are home at various times.
School Schedule:
A.M Schedule - Dad is the Instructor
Afternoon - Rose or Razor Ray will be home with students
Late Afternoon - Mom is the Instructor
Evening - Dad take Speed Racer and Tiger Lilly to sports - Mom is cooking dinner
Late Evening - Dad is the Instructor
Chores - Kids clean up before bed. All others will be done on Saturdays and Sunday after church
Meal Planning - Prepping of meals will be on Sunday (1) Crockpot (2) Grilled (3) Oven Baked
Marriage Checkup - Friday Nights are date nights for Hubba and Me.
It's that time of year! I think I have our new year planned loosely, but I'm waiting on one more book for my youngest. As the kids get older it seems planning gets easier.
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