It is that time of year again when I put all of my school plans together and get ready for another great year of home school! I always begin with a prayer for each individual child and what their needs my be. I also review my home school education books or study something knew. This past summer I read a great book called, Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver Demille, a companion book to A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille. These phases rang true for me and I felt I needed to incorporate them into my family and I am excited to see what will happen this year. I highly recommend this reading for everyone, homeschooler or not. With that in mind here is the plan for our 2014/2015 school year
Morning Routine
After morning chores each child and Mom sit around the table for personal scripture study. Each child will have his/her list of age appropriate resources for scripture study. Mom has the following:
Gospel Library - Scripture Study
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Ensign Magazine - Words of the Living Prophet Today
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General Conference Messages
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Scripture Study Journals from the Red Headed Hostess
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We study by ourselves for about 15-20 minutes every morning before breakfast. This is quiet time where no talking is allowed and then during breakfast, right after study time, we can discuss what we learned together. After breakfast we start what I call, Family School, which are subjects we learn about together as a family before separating into individual study. Devotional and outdoor hour are the only ones we do every single day, the others we may do some one day and some another.
Family School
Devotional
Devotional consists of a song or hymn, prayer, pledge of allegiance, memorization scripture, article of faith and Family Proclamation. We then have a short lesson given by either Mom or one of the children. Each person is assigned a day of the week and they are in charge of putting together a thought or lesson. These are some of the resources we use in addition to our personal scripture study materials. The Little's teach from Behold Your Little Ones and use the activity folders or they teach us what they learned at church that week since they usually come home with handouts or activities.
Music Resources
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The Family Proclamation
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Children Scripture Lessons from the Red Headed Hostess
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Old & New Testament Lapbooks
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Outdoor Hour/Nature Study
We love outdoor hour around here, even in the winter. I like to print out the monthly challenge from the Handbook of Nature Study blog and we use that as a "guide". The children are really free to explore and observe whatever their hearts desire. We then come in and if they choose, draw or write about what they observed in their nature journals or nature notebooking pages. Big Man is the only one that does not like to use his nature journal, but I do require him to have at least one entry during the month. We also have a nature table that was Little Man's project last winter and everyone has enjoyed it, especially the Little's, they are always bringing in some treasure to display and continue to observe and play with. We also have lots of nature books in this area and we use the Handbook of Nature Study as our resource and guidebook.
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The Nature Table (shelf)
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We set up a small bookshelf in a little part of our living room to house all of our nature study materials. We post the outdoor hour challenge right above the shelf and have that wall for drawings the children may have, posters of what we may be studying and our weather chart. The shelf itself has a book bin that keeps our garden journals, the outdoor hour monthly newsletter, our weather lapbooks, the Ranger Rick magazines and any seasonal books we are using a lot. There are also baskets to house the "treasures" brought in by the children and this is changed from season to season as we retire old treasures and bring in the new. All of our field guides and nature books are on the shelf as well as the nature journals, binoculars and magnifying glass. Little Man helped put the shelf together and organize all of the contents in and on it, this is his love so he was the one in charge. His prize possession is a snake skin given to him by a neighbor with a corral snake, he has to show this to everyone that comes to the house and since the shelf is located right next to the front door, literally everyone gets a peek.
Books on Our Nature Shelf
The children love science and we love the Exploring Creation Series by Jeannie Fulbright. This year we are going to study the last two in the series we haven't yet covered, Astronomy and Anatomy. We also use notebooking pages for each section in the book we cover. The children still look back in their notebooks from past years as a reference guide. Because we do this as a family I also use books on the same subject for the Little's but more for their level of learning and exploration.
Exploring Creation - Science
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Herb Fairies
We study an herb every month and because we love it so much, this usually happens everyday. This spring I came across Herb Fairies and it quickly became my children's favorite part of the day. They love the stories (if you aren't into fairy tales though this is not for you) and it gets them so excited to learn more about the herb of the month. We keep an herb journal, do some herbal crafting with the herb and observe it up close and personal for those that are in the yard or around the neighborhood. I also love to use Herbal Roots Zine and of course my herbal library.
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Art and Composer Study
I think it is important to study the arts but we keep it pretty loosey, goosey around here. I usually have a piece of artwork displayed for a 2 week period in the main school area and we talk about it here and there. I like to use the Ambleside Online schedule of artist and composer because they have done all the work for me, complete with a PDF picture to print and post. We also just listen to classical music in the background rather than an actual period of listening. If you want an actual program to follow Harmony Fine Arts has some great lesson plans and study materials. Homeschool in the Woods also has a fun Activity-Pak for bothartists and composers that we have used and loved.
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Patterns of Liberty and Family History
I mentioned before that Patterns of Liberty was the basis for Patriot Camp this year and I am excited to have it available to use in our school this year. I will be reading a story and doing activities based around that story or person once a week. I also will be telling stories from our family history and encouraging the older children to get involved in researching their ancestors and helping in uploading pictures and histories to FamilySearch.com, where this information can be viewed by others. FamilySearch is a free resource available for everyone to use not just those of us that are LDS, I encourage everyone to utilize this amazing resource for bringing us closer to our family members and ancestors.
Read Aloud Book List
I like to have a book we are always listening to as a family. This may be one we borrowed from the library on cd that we listen to in the car or while doing chores. It may also be one I sit and read to the children while they work on quiet activities, needle work, quiet play for the Little's or whittling for Big Man. I let this go last year because I allowed myself to get too busy but we all loved it and it is something I will put on my priority list this year. These are just a few of the books I have in mind for our read alouds this year. I may also pick some off the first grade and fourth grade free reading lists.
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Personal Study Time
Once we finish our family school the children go off to do their personal studies and I get to read some more with my Littles and guide and help them where needed (and wanted). They will mostly explore and play on their own both indoors and out and I will be available to all for guidance.
Phases For My Children This Year
Preschool (Core Phase)
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First Grade (Core Phase)
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Fourth Grade (Love of Learning)
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Seventh Grade (Transition to Scholar)
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Notebooking
Just a quick note about notebooking. As I post the plans for each child for the year you will notice many links to different notebooking pages from notebookingpages.com. At first I would purchase one set here and one set there but realized I would be much better off joining the notebooking pages treasury. That has been one of my best purchases! With the treasury you have access to all of their notebooking pages, with more to be released each year. You also have access to the notebooking web-app, which allows the child to design his own page online and then print it out for his notebook. These have been a big part of our homeschool, something the children enjoy making and a way for them to write, narrate and be creative in expressing what they are learning.
