Saturday, July 26, 2008

Planning. Planning ,Whose Been Planning?

I have, I have!
I have really enjoyed planning this coming year. I went back to my old paper and pencil method after using a computer program last year. The program will be amazing when I have to make transcripts but I never went back to it each week to check our progress. I do use it now to keep track of all of the books we have read... it prints beautiful reports. I thought about buying a plan book this year but opted to create my own in Excel. I am so proud of it. Creating my own spreadsheet allows me to breakdown each subject the way I need it.

First I glanced through all of the texts and planned the year broken up into 9 weeks. I still have some segments to research such as independent reading, art and memory work. I think we will start out with an original Fun with Dick and Jane basel reader I found on the shelf. For art I want to do some sort of Artist Study but I cannot decide who to start with, and I want to add in Drawing with Children occasionally.

After I have an overview of the year then I will go back and write more detailed weekly plan a few weeks at a time.

Here is the curriculum we will be using for first grade:
Phonics: continue Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Read aloud: Dr. Dolittle, James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Farmer Boy, Charlie & Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland.....?
Math: Math U See Alpha (finish) and Beta
Copywork: Creating own sheets with a handwriting font. Topics include personal information and nursery rhymes the first semester.
Language Arts: Following a Beechick style by focusing on capitol letters and punctuation in copywork and reading. Once we are finished with the phonics text we will use Language Lessons for the Very Young.
Science: Following the Well Trained Mind outline of Life science, Animals, Human Body, Plants. I am creating m own lessons.
Social Studies: Story of the World: Ancients
Art: I want to just do an informal artists/ picture study
Music: I dropped the formal study through the book Story of the Orchestra because part of the year we will be gone 3 days a week to some sort of music lessons.
Nature Study: If we get outside daily I will be happy!
Memory Work: I don't know what I am doing here....
Outside Activities: Piano Lessons, Keepers of the Faith, Library Club, Homeschool Choir, local University Homeschool Music & Gym classes

Whew! I am tired just thinking about it. But also very excited about a year of exciting topics.

6 comments:

A Dusty Frame said...

Sounds awesome:)!

I use Ambleside so a lot of my planning is started for me. I started looking at things last night and next week I am working on the first several weeks scheduling.
It really IS fun to pull it all together isn't it?:)
Lizzie

MamaGames - Alexa C. said...

I love reading what other families are doing! Thanks for sharing.

We're also finishing MUS Alpha and moving to Beta this year, working through the first Story of the World, and making up our own lessons on life science. I can't wait to see everything you do this year.

Anonymous said...

I like the weekly format because in our house we are pretty unstructured, but I still like to know what we want to accomplish on a weekly basis.

Since you are stuck on the artist, I have a suggestion that has worked for us. I check an art book out of the library (the ones by Gladys Blizzard ar good, but I don't just stick to that) and page through it with my son. He picks one or two that his really likes and then those are our artists for the month! I also use Google images to find a copy to make our computer wallpaper.

Dana Leeds said...

I feel tired when I look at my schedule, too. But, I'm so ready to get started!!!

It looks like you've got great plans. I can't wait to see what we both discover with our kids this year.

Sherri said...

Here Here! I'm still in the middle of my summer planning. I also prefer pencil and paper plans. I will try to make them look more professional as my kids get older. I also do the yearly plan for each child, each subject, then have it all broken down into the weekly plans each week. I can't imagine going into it without everything planned out.
Your stuff looks GREAT!!

Anonymous said...

Your Excel sheets have inspired me! I was trying to use a calendar like planner but there just isn't enough room to list everything. Thanks for sharing.