I don’t post about homeschooling often, although we are in to our 11th year now. I used to have a blog that was strictly focused on our homeschool journey but I stopped posting shortly after Merle was born. I was just too tired and muddled headed to put in the effort.
I figured that I might as well lay out our plans for this year. We just started on the Tuesday after Labour Day, so things may still change if we decided that we don’t like a class, topic, or the course material. It’s kind of like the dropping a class time period that you get in college or university.
We don’t follow the Ontario curriculum really. I thin it would defeat the purpose for us and sort of suck the good parts out of homeschooling…..the parts that let us follow there interests and passions.
While the girls have designated grades that they have to be in for our record purposes their course and skill levels are all over the place. This depends on their strengths and weaknesses, or areas they need to build up some skills before moving on to the next level.
Since the girls birthdays both fall before Dec 31st they are placed in those grades accordingly, although they would both be one of the youngest in their classes because of this. The typical Labour Day age cut off date makes more sense to me and if that was the case they would both be in one grade earlier.
It’s weird though because in the mom December 2010 birth board that I am part of (from when Merle was born), all of the kids are born in the month of December (except a couple of kids that were born early). Most of them just started grade 3, while Merle is in grade 4 due to the cut off date here. It’s weird. This should be universal I think.
This are our homeschool curriculum for the 2019/2020 school year.
10th Grade Homeschool Plans
- Math – Thinkwell Algebra (here is a coupon code for Thinkwell) and Khan Academy Algebra
- Language Arts – Writing & Rhetoric the later books. You can find both the student books and teacher guides on Amazon.
Writing With Skill (Student Book and the Teacher’s Guide)
Books: The Great Gatsby
Merchant of Venice
Catcher in the Rye
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1984
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
The Crucible
Hamlet
Emma
The Complete Short Stories and Tales of Edgar Allen Poe - History – History Odyssey Ancients with the following books:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Boys’ and Girls’ Herodotus
The Life of Alexander the Great
Callias: The Fall of Athens, A Story of the Peloponnesian War
The Last Days of Socrates
Lives of Famous Romans - Science – Anatomy & Physiology, and the Fascinating Logic of Medicine
The Great Courses Video Lecture: Understanding the Human Body - Art History – Khan Academy Art History
Janson’s History of Art (we bought is used on Amazon)
Sister Wendy: The Complete Collection DVD’s
The History of European Art Lectures. - French – Assimil French with Ease and workbook,
Breaking the Barrier French Interactive book,
Rocket French
Rosetta Stone - Logic & Philosophy – The Great Courses Video Lectures: An Introduction to Formal Logic, and The Big Questions of Philosophy.
The Examined Life: Advanced Philosophy for Kids
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature – Open Yale Courses - Electives (each of these are a 1/2 credit for one semester each this year):
Introduction to Palaeontology
Biological Anthropology
Grade 4 Homeschool Plans
- Language Arts – Handwriting Without Tears
Writing & Rhetoric (the early books) Teacher Guide and Student Guide
First Language Lessons (main text and student workbook) - Math – Singapore Levels 3A, and 3B
- Science – Astronomy Teacher Guide, Student Pages, and Stargazers Notebook
- History – History Quest: Early Times
- French – L’art de Lire 2
Duolingo Kids - Art – Meet the Masters
Artistic Pursuits - Music – Keyboard with MusIQ Homeschool monthly subscription
- Logic and Philosophy – Logic Puzzles
Philosophy for Kids - Geography – Sheppard Software
GeoGuessr (my favourite game) - Books: D’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Homer Price
A Christmas Carol
Tales from Shakespeare
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
A Secret Garden
Anne of Green Gables
Current bedtime series: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
When I see it all laid out like this it seems like a lot. The amount of books seem like non stop reading but it is a combination of quiet reading time, us reading together, and bedtime reading throughout the whole year.
I hope this didn’t bore you to tears. If you have any questions then hit me up below.
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Age cut offs dates are kinda crazy. My birthday was literally the day after the cut-off so I was 6 for most of kindergarten. Meanwhile my daughter will be starting school in the UK at four. Her birthdate is two weeks after mine! I feel like I was a bit too old for my grade level and she will be too young.
It’s totally crazy. I can see why people redshirt their kids, but I don’t think you can do that here. It’s funny though because when I was young the cut off date was in September. I have no idea when or why they decided to switch it over. I had a friend in High school whose birthday is Halloween. She was the same age as me but had to be put in the year behind. She was always the oldest and felt weird about it.
Wow, all of this looks absolutely fascinating to me, Sara, and thank you for sharing it. I’m impressed with the level of work the girls are at as well as the lush combination of learning materials. I’d love to be “in class” with them. If you’re up for some periodic updates, I for one would be interested. Plus, a roundup at the end of the school year would be very interesting.
FYI, I’ve seen some of Sister Wendy’s TV documentaries (I seem to remember one as a visit to the Uffizi in Florence, which I actually visited as well).
Cheers, Ardith
Thanks Ardith,
We’ll see how well everything works out. I’ve be known to change things out all of a sudden if I feel it isn’t working 🙂 I get the feeling that the science will be completed a lot quicker than I thought so after we will probably do a quick overview of Biology or maybe a pre-chemistry to get ready for next year.
I think a round up is a good idea. It’s also helps me with my record keeping in case I have to write up a spiffy transcript for when/if Roo decides that she may want to go to college. She is in no rush and honestly I would rather her wait until she is quite certain, and not go just because it is the next expected step. I did that and regret it. I would have totally benefited from waiting 3-5 years.
I love Sister Wendy. I so appreciate it when someone can present something they are obviously passionate about in an educational, and humorous way. I learn so much more when the person is excited about the topic.
Sara