Curriculum for next year

This time of year is fun because you are finishing up the school year and also a little stressful because I am finalizing curriculum for next year.  I think I have the majority of it set.
N. is the easy one.  After 2 wonderful years of HOD we see absolutely  no reason to change.  In fact I am really not changing anything with him.  If it isn't broke why fix it.  He will move into the HOD Resurrection to Reformation guide, or RTR for short.  I have already purchased all the books and I am pre-reading the history books that he will read on his own.  All I can say is Wow!  Who knew history could be so exciting.  It sure wasn't when I was in school.  The history spines are "Perils and Peace" and "Monks and Mystics" which tell church history and show how intricately that is tied in with the secular history of the time.  Then he also will read "Famous Men of the Middle Ages" and "Mystery of History Volume 3".  I think he is going to love these books.  For Science we will focus on Earth Science of which he has had very little of.  He will also do a Picture study and study some of the great artists of the time and he will study Philippians for his bible study time. He has already looked at everything and is very excited.  He will continue with CLE math and also Rod and Staff English.

S. has been the one that has taken all the planning.  I have spent countless hours pouring over things for her.  I think it is now finalized though.
Science will be Apologia Physics.  We are going to do this at home instead of co-op with Daddy being the teacher as needed for this.
Math: She will use Lial's Intermediate Algebra.  This comes highly recommended and as she has looked at it she really likes the teaching style.
History:  This year she wants to study World Geography and Cultures.  She is admittedly very weak in this area since it isn't something that is on the test, public school didn't focus on it much.  We are taking the plans on Harmony Art Mom's site and have tweaked them to include a Mission component also.  The spine for this will be Trail Guide to World Geography with other books added in. 
English:  British Literature and Composition from Smarr Publishers.  This should be a very challenging course.
French 3: Tell Me More French
Bible:  A study of the New Testament using "The most important thing you will ever study"
Child Development:  1/2 credit using "The Developing Child" and other resources that I have.

Now I will spend the summer putting lesson plans into Homeschool Tracker.

Weekly update for the week of 4/4/11

What a great week we had.  I feel like so many things clicked for N. this week.  That is what I love about HOD is that the skills build on each other and what had once seemed like a challenge suddenly becomes something they can do with ease. 

His History Project this week was a Mezuzah case.  He decided that since next year many of his projects will require cooking that he should become more independent with this aspect of his school.  He gathered all the materials and then mixed the dough up by himself.  He then rolled it and shaped it.  We needed to add some flour because the dough kept sticking to our rolling pin. He ended up with some of the flour sticking on him, but he was very proud of his end product.

In his history reading he continues to read from John and wrote a very nice written narration this week about John washing the disciples feet.  He continues to slowly improve in his written narration skills.  The best thing is that he has confidence now that he can do it.

In storytime we finished "Traveling the Way".  This book is now his new favorite from the year followed by "The Boy from the Pyramids".  Actually though there wasn't a single storytime book that he didn't like.  His oral narrations for this book were fantastic.even to the point of retelling me what happened on a day that I had missed and his dad had read it to him.

The painting this week was a snowy scene to go with the poem "The Runaway".

In Science he continues with "Exploring the World of Medicine".  He has gotten over the hump with this book also.  He now looks at 1 or 2 questions before he reads and then reads only 1-2 pages until he finds the answers and then he continues this way until he answers around 7 of the questions.  I have let him decide the number of questions he answers because he has been very good about pushing himself to do a little more each day.

In Write with the Best he finished a letter to his Grandparents.  I love the gentle approach of this writing curriculum.  Writing is still the area he needs the most work on, but he continues to show improvement and he doesn't hate to write like he did before.

Hard to believe that our year will soon be over.  We have all the things for next year and he is very excited about all the books he gets to read and projects he gets to do.