In which the reader is regaled with tales of the fantastic, the amusing, the disastrous, the educational.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

What we're doing this year

This is the post where I set out all my big plans. I wonder how long it'll take before things start to crumble!

US History: A Patriot's History of the United States by Larry Schweikert and Michael Allen. It's about 20-25 pages of reading per week and discussions. Not a lot on the big scale of things.

We'll also be checking in with source documents, watching movies and documentaries, and hitting the History Museum for a couple of their displays.

And we're reading Cokie Roberts' Founding Mothers for fun. :)

American Lit: It occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity to do an almost-unit-study by studying some great literature in concordance with our History lessons. Hence, we'll be working our way though Total Language Plus' American Literature: Short Stories study, and reading The Scarlet Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I haven't nailed down our fourth quarter novel or play study on modern/post-modern lit, but it's a ways off yet.

We'll also continue with Daily Grammar, work on Greek and Latin roots, and write a research paper.

Algebra II: We're using Teaching Textbooks. And I'm crossing my fingers because I royally stink at math. If she has any questions, at least she can ask DH the engineer.

Chemistry: I'm still stuck on this one! My homeschool co-op may or may not be teaching Chemistry this year, but I can't get anyone to answer my questions via e-mail. I may have to actually pick up a phone and talk to someone (horror!) If they're not doing it, then I need to get DD signed up for a local Christian school that will do part-time homeschooler enrollments per class. But they start in just a couple of weeks and I've got to know ASAP!

Spanish III: My mother lives with us and she's a native Spanish speaker who is also a former Spanish teacher. We totally have this covered.

Art, Music, Gym: Still working on these.
Need to find a piano teacher who doesn't cost a fortune.
Need to figure out what the local arts center is doing for classes this fall, but those won't start until after Labor Day.
And the YMCA doesn't start their next set of actual classes until Labor Day, as well.