Home School Weekly Wrap Up - Week One

It's been a short week but we've managed to get a good start to our school year!

This week I will be running through what the 'plan' is for each of the kiddos for the year.  The most significant change has been that Heather is attending a small school.  :)  We are confident that she will have an amazing year as she works through her subjects and gets to know her school.   I will miss her lots during the day but this is the right decision for her at this time.

The younger two will continue to stay home with me.  We have an exciting year planned for them.  I will go through what is on the school year agenda for each of them.   It will be very different having only the two at home!

Graham

He is technically in grade 8 but I have decided to add a few Grade Nine Courses in there for him.  He'll be doing Grade Nine English/Language Arts (Sonlight, Winston Grammar, and a book from the Wordly Wise Series), Art, Health Sciences and maybe a Grade Nine Geography, depending on our time.

He'll continue on with Jump Math Grade 8.   Jump Math is turning out to be a wonderful addition to our mathematical adventure and I love that I can access everything on line, including teacher helps and test.  The added bonus is that all this is free and we only have to pay for the work books.  It has been used in some schools across our Province, so it meets Elementary Guidelines.  This year is essentially pre-algebra in preparation for next year's Teaching Textbooks: Algebra 1.

Esther

Esther is in grade four this year.   She is taking Sonlight's Introduction to World History Part Two.  It's a full grade Package including Language Arts and Science.  We absolutely love Sonlight literature, and this is one of our favorite cores.  Our reading started out with Red Sails to Capri, a beloved book in our home.  Heather jokingly asked if we could wait until 5 to read it aloud!  :)  Esther is in grade 4 Jump Math but I will also tack on the rest of the Life of Fred Elementary Series.  She loves the stories and it's a great way to add some fun to the day.

Esther will be taking some piano lessons with me.  We started her out in Alfred's Piano Lesson's for Late Beginners.  I have enough piano background to teach her for the first few years at home.  She had her first lesson/practice this week which she was keen to start in on!

Both the kids will be involved in a local homeschool co-op, which will begin in October.  They will be attending a Homeschool Book Club.  Graham will be in the Senior one while Esther will attend the Junior. We may do homeschool swimming lesson's in the new year, we'll see.

So that's it!