Saturday, July 26, 2014

2014-2015 plans

Aspen


Aspen is my gymnast! She will be in 5th grade this year.  She will be doing Heart of Dakota Preparing Hearts for His Glory.  This will be our first year with HOD and I am so excited! Everything looks so good! 

History
 Aspen will do a one year overview of World History before diving into the history time periods more thorough, and I love this about HOD! 

Bible
Bible in woven throughout the program, which I LOVE!!  Aspen will also have a daily bible study time studying various scriptures, as well as scripture memory.


Science
Science will be done a bit differently this year.  I am used to a textbook science, and I love BJU Science.  To be honest, I am a little unsure if I will like science done in a living book manner.  However, I am going to give it a try this year.  Heart of Dakota utilizes the Unit Study approach, so sciences topics and history themes will mesh to allow for natural connections to be made between the two areas. I do love that she will be reading several biographies of scientists this year!! She will be notebooking, drawing pictures, and doing many experiments throughout the year.

Math
Saxon Math 6/5

Literature
Aspen will be using Drawn into the Heart of Reading for her literature studies, and will read the Level 4/5 girl interest book pack.

Language Arts
Rod and Staff English 4
Rod and Staff Spelling 4
Dictation as assigned in Heart of Dakota Preparing Manual
IEW Student Intensive A
Written Narrations from History and Science
Poetry from Robert Louis Stevenson

Independent History Reading/Notebooking
Aspen will have daily independent reading assignments that correspond with the time period she is studying.  

Read Alouds
The True Story of Noah's Ark
Tirzah
Aesop's Fables
A Triumph for Flavius
Fountain of Life
Viking Quest 1 - Raiders of the Sea
The Door in the Wall
The Wonderful Winter
The Family Under the Bridge
Twenty and Ten


Aiden


Aiden will be in 2nd grade this year!  He is my artsy boy!  He loves movies, and aspires to be a director or an actor someday.  He also enjoys playing basketball.  He is very tall for his age, and is a funny, very lovable boy!  Aiden will be doing Heart of Dakota Beyond Hearts for His Glory

History
Aiden will be learning about early American History from 1565-1865. He will also be notebooking after each lesson as well. 

Bible
I will be reading through Leading Little Ones to God with Aiden.  I love this book!!  He will also have scripture memory as scheduled in Heart of Dakota.  Just like in all HOD guide, bible is woven throughout the whole program! Very Christ Centered. 

Science
Science in HOD is unit based, therefore his science lessons will mesh with his history.  Science is only scheduled twice a week with HOD.  I am concerned this may not be enough, but that could just be my typical "do to much" personality!! ha ha  He will also be notebooking all of his experiments.

Math
 Saxon Math 3. 

Reading
Aiden will be working through the Emerging Reader's Set.  Aiden is a very good reader, but I want to instill a love of reading, so I don't want to push too fast.  After he has worked through the Emerging Reader's Set, we will move on the Drawn into the Heart of Reading Level 2 Bookpack.


Language Arts
Rod and Staff English 2
Rod and Staff Spelling 2
Dictation 2x a week
Weekly Poetry Study
Daily Copywork

Read Alouds
We will be reading through the nine different genres throughout the year. We will learn the different types of literature, identify and analyze a different story element for each genre, learn Godly character traits, and practice oral narration.  Love that this is ALL scheduled out for me in the Beyond guide! I love HOD!!

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
Sword in the Tree
Sarah Whitcher's Story
The Cricket in Times Square
The Railway Children
Pagoo
Mr. Poppers Penguins 
Follow My Leader
The Apple and the Arrow


Ashton


Ashton is my 4yo, and he truly thinks he can leap off of tall buildings in a single bound.  He has lots of energy and makes us laugh all the time.

We will be using Heart of Dakota Little Hearts for His Glory.  He will be on the younger side of this guide, so I may spread it over two years.  We will just see how it goes.  The following is what is what will be covered in the HOD Guide:

Bible Memory Work
Devotional Topics
Science Discovery
Art Projects
Dramatic Play
Thinking Games
Rhymes
Gross Motor Skills
Music

I am so excited about using HOD with my little man.  I know he will love it, and it is such a Christ Centered Program!!


I will be using Rod and Staff Phonics and Reading 1, and Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  I also own Reading Made Easy, and may use parts of that as well.  After teaching five other children to read, I have learned that sometimes a little of one program, and a little of this program is just what they need.  There are aspects that I love about all of the three above programs!!  But I REALLY love Rod and Staff Phonics and Reading 1.  It is a mix of sight words, and phonics and it gets them reading fast.  Even though they begin reading by "sight words" at first, I believe it gives them the motivation to keep learning because they are already reading a real book.  I love this approach! R&S is very thorough in teaching phonics rules as well... overall a wonderful program!

Math
We will be using Singapore Early Bird A & B

I also plan to use Rod and Staff Preschool workbooks.  Ashton LOVES workbooks and these books are precious!!  Handwriting, cutting, pasting, thinking skills, and more math will be covered in these books!!

Friday, July 4, 2014

Change in Heart of Dakota Plans!

You know how it goes... You research, analyze, pretty much go crazy trying to figure out what you will be using for your curriculum... then when you have it all figured out, it is like winning the lottery!! I know you know what I mean! LOL  So we were going to use HOD Beyond for my 7yo, and CTC for my soon to be 10yo.  However, my soon to be 10yo, started looking over the CTC and Preparing books that was on the table, while I was organizing and pretty much fell in love with the Preparing books.  She asked if she could please just do Preparing first before moving on the CTC!  How could I say no?  She was in public school last year, and although she had a decent year, I feel like her love of learning was lost.  She really wants nothing to do with anything "school wise" at all.  Her taking an interest in the Preparing books is nothing short of a miracle! So of course I said YES!!... Now, of course, I had just about everything planned and ready to go for CTC, so I feel like I am starting over in terms of organizing!  But it will be all worth it!

The only thing that concerns me about doing Preparing, is that she will be off track for the high school sequence and will hit MtMM when she is in 9th grade.  I know I can "beef" it up for credit, and have several ideas on how to do that, but she will miss out on one of the High School guides.. and I DON'T want her tooo..... I feel like throwing a tantrum!   We may do school 5 days a week instead of 4 to get all the guides in by the time she hits High School.. we will see!  That is, of course, several years down the road, so I need to just relax!  Why do we try to plan so far in advance?