So many things to say. First, I'm pre-planning. I will have a senior in high school next year and formed a senior group for him to experience dances, yearbooks and graduations. I need to be ahead! I am ambitious and formed a new local homeschool group along with a six week co-op. So yeah, I'm going to be busy.
A note about this year's lessons, my kids grade levels and how I plan to school:
I have four littles beside my senior and 8th grader. I have a 7 year old 1st grader, 8 *soon to be* 3rd grader, and 2, 9 year old 4th graders this year. However, most of their birthdays would put them in lower grades by public school standards. Sometimes I think I should bring my 9 year old's back to 3rd grade technically. For all of them, this will only be the second year of formal schooling, which is why schooling them together works out great. My youngest has proven to be well ahead of his years, and his motor skills have completely caught up to the rest. He needs the challenge of a higher work level. My 8 and 9 year old's are more sophisticated and quicker to get a concept, but I have found the occasional gap, and so this blend also works great for them. The grade level everyone is working on is around a 2nd-3rd grade level.
I had two GREAT unschoolers for a very long time in regards to my oldest two. We LOVED unschooling and they were model students for that method. Then things got a little crazy as our family got bigger. Slowly, we eased into a secular Charlotte Mason Method of schooling. It worked great for our needs at the times too. I very much enjoy some traditional methods that you will find in public school classrooms. I use a mix of all these methods now. I would love to unschool but with six it was getting very chaotic and hard to keep up with interests and who was doing what It cause me way too much anxiety. :)
Our schedule goes something like this:
We school for, four days a week. Our Friday will be at our local homeschool co-op for a Fun-Friday co-op. We will rotate history and science every six weeks. We have school for three weeks, then have a Fourth Fun Week, which is filled with nature studies, music, art, dancing and field trips I want them to take. School usually lasts for us from about 8:am to 12:00 noon. A bit longer for my oldest two.
My posts should contain an entire week of schooling for 1st-4th grade and a complete schedule of what we are doing.
I usually find free resources, and ask that you please give these teachers credit by leaving them a comment when you can.
I'm excited for the coming school year and hope this can help someone else!
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