Our First Week - 2012-2013 Year, Part I

Six weeks vacation time is in our experience the right amount so we all get relaxation - Mama has some time to plan for next year - and the children don't forget everything they've learned. We started our vacation back in late July, and started school again last Monday, on Labor Day.

During those six weeks the kids created an enormous card for their grandmother (about 5 feet by 6 feet!), we visited the island of Aruba for a week (where we also visited an ostrich farm), we celebrated Ballerina's fifth birthday, read books, did Chemistry experiments from a kit Builder had received as a gift, read and did some activities from the Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions kit, went to the pool often, and culminated the whole summer with a 6-day trip to Orlando, Florida followed by Builder's birthday. We went to SeaWorld for three days and drove almost an hour one day to visit Legoland! We all had so much fun. When my computer finally wants to cooperate with posting pictures, I really want to post pictures

I find it easier to start the summer vacation around Ballerina's birthday (late July) and ending this time right after Builder's birthday - bookends. It's hard to believe my oldest is nine!

This week we have started building up to our schedule gradually. After a few years of hours lost and wrestling with complicated homemade schedules, I've decided to go the easier route. I simply typed up by subject what needs to be done from weeks 1-6, weeks 7-12, etc. in Mac Pages. These are only the subjects which require some sort of organization in our curriculum, not "do-the-next-thing" curricula. Perhaps I should write another blog post about this, especially how I organized Elementary Science Education - Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU 2), as I know many people struggle with implementing this excellent science curriculum.

All that said, my schedule went well this week. I do suspect that I have too many things going on at the same time - for someone with a toddler. However, I like it this way. I only need to stagger, which is my favorite new tool. From Mondays through Thursdays, we do the basics (math, grammar, reading, science, history, poetry) and Fridays we do health & safety, geography, piano, and art. On Sundays, we read aloud Book of Virtues and Builder does Faith & Life on mycatholicfaithdelivered.com.

To speed things up a bit, I have Builder work the allotted time on the lesson - this year from 20-30 minutes - and if he doesn't finish, it's "homework", which cuts into his play and watching-Phineas-and Ferb-on-Netflix time. I anticipate this will reduce dawdling, daydreaming, talking, and interrupting.

To Be Continued..

Science Choices

For Third Year I feel I have to scale down the planning. I decided to go with a textbook, critical thinking style science program instead of BFSU. As much as I love BFSU (Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding), I feel I need to take a break from major planning and focus on History, which I'm planning all this year by myself - no SOTW, would you believe it. I also have a baby I want to spend with instead :)

Which program am I going to use for Third Year? Singapore Science, My Pals Are Here 3/4. I have the textbooks, activity books, Homework and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) books. To have extra information, skills and answers at hand I'm also seriously considering the Teacher's Manual. It's $80, but I can buy it used for less. This program looks solid and rigorous, quite fun, and fulfills my most important requirement: it promotes scientific inquiry and critical thinking.

The other reason I'm not doing BFSU 2 is that it looks like BFSU jumps in difficulty, and I feel Boy has to solidify some knowledge before going to the next level. Singapore Science seems to cover, especially with its chapters on Diversity and Cycles, the material I would like for us to review and solidify.

I want to go back to BFSU (Volume 2 this time) after this coming experimental year of trying out Singapore Science. Boy will be in 4th Year by then, and more likely to be able to handle the BFSU 2 then.

What if Boy ends up liking Singapore and wants to forego BFSU? I say we can always try to combine and expand first, and if Boy is thriving with Singapore and doesn't care for BFSU after that, we can forge ahead with just Singapore. I still love BFSU and can and will use with my two daughters.