Odds and Ends...

I updated and adjusted my curriculum page: Plans 2012-2013. I did this after individual conferences with the kids, since even I was feeling overwhelmed looking at all we were "supposed" to be using!

image courtesy of wordywoman

First I met with The Boy. We pulled out all his books - a rather big stack - and went through them. I allowed him to eliminate a few... Writing Skills (which he feels is boring), Math Mammoth (as he prefers Life of Fred and Zacarro's Primary Challenge Math), and Word Roots (which he simply never got around to). Then, we went through other resources I had set aside. He was very excited by The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way... he even liked the Student Quest Guide! He also really, really wants to take the National Mythology Exam this year, so I pulled out our copy of the D'Aulaires Greek Myths, and am coming up with a rough "suggested course of study" for him. I think I'll have him approach this in a more Waldorf inspired way, with a Main Lesson Book to record notes.

Then I met with The Girl. While she doesn't really like Reading Pathways, she can see that it is helping. She is fine with Explode the Code, and loves Primary Language Lessons! She's not sure on the math programs right now other than that she enjoys Life of Fred! She says the Challenge math is "too hard", so maybe I will try just level one with that for now. She does still like Math Mammoth though, so I may work in some of that too. Then we talked about individualized studies, and she would still really like to learn more about world cultures, so we'll study that while The Boy is studying mythology--again, I think we might do a Main Lesson Book on this.

Image courtesy of combat-diaries

Finally, we all met as a group, to go over group resources. They love history (though we need to catch up on the Books of Centuries work!), so we'll continue with that. They feel that we are not doing enough science or art. And I agree. So we looked at the topics covered in BFSU, and they liked what they saw. I am finding there are good topical books to supplement this--while the author makes many recommendations, we need "higher level" books, and I think I'm finding some good ones! We're going to give it a good try anyway. They also love geography--I can't recommend Richard Halliburton's work enough!

As for art, well, I will work that in!

In other news... wow, next week I will have been married for SEVENTEEN years! And next week we have Thanksgiving, so I need to start preparing for that. It will just be us this year, which makes it easy. We'll read a few appropriate books over the next week, cook a nice big dinner (I love leftovers!), maybe go for a walk in the woods...

I'm also trying to decide on classes for spring. I do know I plan to take the Advanced Shakespeare class - I've had a few classes with the professor offering this course (he was a substitute for one of my professors a few times this semester), and he is fantastic, plus Shakespeare is his specialty, so I am really looking forward to this experience! I'm not sure yet what else I will take.

Do you have big plans for Thanksgiving?