Planning for 2011-2012 Part 1

I know it's a little early for this post but in the last couple of weeks I've had some time to think about where we've been and where we are going as far as school choices and I've made some decision that I want to record here as part of my brainstorming.

When we first started homeschooling A9 was still in Preschool, in fact she had two weeks of preschool left when we started.
Back then I made a four year plan. I planned for K, and 1st through 3rd grade. Now that A9 has finished 3rd grade it is time to evaluate where we are at and what direction we want to take for the next four years 4th to 8th grade.

Five in a Row was a Godsend back when we first started homeschooling. Four volumes with book lists and lessons for each of the books. All I needed to supplement it was math and phonics... later I added spelling and language lessons and this year we started vocabulary.

Now that I'm looking ahead I realize that I no longer need the Five in a Row approach. A9 is past picture books, don't get me wrong, she still enjoys them but she is very happy with chapter books than you very much!
We don't need to do Beyond Five in a Row since I no longer need to follow an unit study approach to our school. Beyond uses chapter books but it is more intensive, were you are taking four to six weeks going through one book.

Also, I have been branching out from the unit study philosophy. I have embraced a more Charlotte Mason/Classical approach to school lately. It seems to be the right fit for A9 and I at this moment in our school journey. This Charlotte Mason/Classical philosophy is of course books, books and more books... read good living books for EVERYTHING. It is also more history centered than literature centered.. although in most cases it uses literature for history as well.

Both philosophies are very similar except when it comes to language lessons. Were Charlotte Mason likes a more gentle approach to grammar and a later start (around 10 or 4th, 5th grade), Classical likes to start grammar nice and early (around 6 or 1st grade).

Charlotte Mason also likes to do lots of nature studies and arts at an early age, were Classical likes to pay more attention to grammar early on. We have done nature studies from the very beginning in our school and we have had a more gentle, later approach to grammar as well.

Classical likes to start history early on as well... they like to cover history in four year cycles starting in 1st grade.
1st, 5th, 9th -Ancients, BC 5000-400 AD
2nd, 6th, 10th - Medieval/Early Renaissance, 400-1600
3rd, 7th, 11th- Late Renaissance/Early Modern, 1600-1850
4th, 8th, 12th - Modern Times, 1850-Present

Charlotte Mason takes a gentler approach as well, btw don't confuse the term gentler with doing less, it is not like that at all. Instead of doing history in four year cycles you have the choice of doing it in 5 or 6 year cycles and instead of doing it three times in 12 grades you only do it twice, giving the earlier grades time to do nature studies and more creative stuff.

I like this approach as well.. I don't see the point of reading about ancient history to a 1st grader...

Taking all of the above into consideration, I have started to map out how the next four years are going to look. I have all the curriculum for the next four years beleive it or not :) history,science, math, language lessons, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and we are starting Latin as well as continuing with spanish.

My one concern was literature, how am I going to do literature now that I will no longer be using FIAR? Well, after reading about Susan Wise Bauer author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I have downloaded her audio lectures from Peace Hill Press, specifically What is Literary Analysis? When, Why, and How Should I Teach IT? and Great Books: History as Literature, I know this is the way I want to teach literature.

Stay tuned during the next few weeks as I start to plan our own Dampf Homeschool book list for the next 4 years of A9's schooling. This will be fun!

BTW X6's schooling will remain the same, we will still use FIAR but I am giving Reading made easy a long break and sticking with the code books and of course math! We need to get this child to start reading!!