Highhill Education Curriculum 2013

Each Thursday I've been discussing our subject based curriculum plans with a linky at the end for other bloggers to share. Here's an overall summary. Our curriculum this year will be similar to last year, but this year I want the kids to have more say in their education.

Although I have several minimum requirements (reading, writing and math), when it comes to afternoon science, history and art studies I would like the kids to lead the way. I've planned several lessons, but after those run out I'm hoping they take over. Although I'm laying out my current plans for the school year they are likely to change a bit based on interests, opportunities and what's working and what's not. 

Reading
Each child has a shelf on which I put books for them to choose from when I read to them. Every morning I plan to spend about 20 minutes per child reading a chapter or short story they choose. I will read to my 7th grader alone but since my 1st and 5th graders tend to enjoy the same stories I will read to them for roughly 40 minutes.

Writing
My main writing goal this year is to inspire the kids to enjoy writing. My secondary goals are for the kids to write every day, work to improve rough drafts and have some variety to their writing. They can choose to write book reviews, keep poetry journals, enter short story writing contests, write letters to friends or write their own novels. Whatever they choose I hope to encourage them in this subject.

Inspired by the Wizard of Oz stories, the kids have been making up verbal stories about their personal lands all summer long. I've been talking about how great it would be if they described their lands and wrote down their stories for writing. 

Math
This year I plan to add a lot more math games and activities into the math studies with my 1st and 5th grader. Last year we spent so much time at the hospital that games with my 5th grader were nearly impossible. I just wasn't there. Since I was with Jemma, my first grader, nearly all the time, we were able to play plenty of games.

In addition to games, three kids with three different learning styles requires me to use three different math methods.
7th Grader - Math-U-See Algebra II - She will work fairly independently.
5th Grader - Life of Fred Fractions, Decimals and Percents and Beginning Algebra plus lots of math games
1st Grader - Math Games which involve adding, subtracting, multiplication and division skills plus a supporting workbook once a week.

Music
7th Grader - 30 minutes per day piano practice and 30 minutes per day violin practice
5th and 1st Grader - 15 minutes per day piano practice
We will listen to music from around the world to correspond with our history studies.
Since I like to expose the kids to music from many different genres, we will listen to classical music from Tchaikovsky and the music of the Beatles.

Language 
7th Grader - She chose to learn three languages
German - read chapter books
Spanish - read picture books
French - watch kids television shows and simple movies in French

5th Grader
German - read picture books
Spanish - watch Muzzy, Plaza Sesamo and read picture books in Spanish

1st Grader
German - read picture books
Spanish - watch Muzzy videos, Plaza Sesamo and other videos in Spanish

Science
This year for science we will be studying Earth Science through reading, videos and projects.


History 
For history we are planning to spend about eight weeks studying India and another eight studying Egypt. After that it's up in the air. Maybe the kids will lead the way?

Art
Since we haven't done many art projects in the past I hope to fit more in this year. The Art Club blog is full of ideas which I intend to try with the kids.

The Homeschool Help Series is written by several different homeschooling moms around the world and meant to help new homeschooling families get started. The series was on hold over the summer, and is just now resuming. To read past posts and see what's coming up in the future please visit my Resources Page.

Here's what the other homeschooling bloggers had to say about this year's curriculum.
Radical Changes - Bernadette at Barefoot Hippie Girl
Our Year Ahead - Chareen at Every Bed of Roses
Somethings Old, Somethings New - Nicole at One Magnificent Obsession
A Grammar Year - Hammock Tracks
Making Up Our Homeschool Curriculum - Lucinda at Navigating by Joy

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