2011/2012 Plans Made!

Pin It Woot! The big ole' "this is what worked for us and this is what didn't" and "this is what I loved about this year and this is what I hated" has been hashed out in my mind and we have a plan for our schooling next year!

Starting with the oldest ... wow, 8th grade!
It is official, we're going to go ahead and move her up a grade in church. I left her with her current group when we moved her from 2nd to 3rd grade at school several years ago because I didn't want her to miss out on a year of AWANA and I didn't want to move her in Sunday school in the middle of the year. I figured we'd move her, or not, when she got to youth, and I've kind of been agonizing a little over that decision. The group of girls in her current class are fabulous. They're pretty close knit and I love every one of them. Ultimately though, I think she needs to be with the group she will graduate with. At least that's what I think for now. It's subject to change ... LOL

For school next year, we will continue using Heart of Dakota for her mainly. She'll be using the Resurrection to Reformation curriculum, with the extensions, which is a continuation of what she's doing now. She will continue with Bob Jones English, but I think we're mainly going to focus on grammar with that. We've started Institute for Excellence in Writing, and I think she and I like that better for writing, so we're going to continue with that. Add in Teaching Textbooks pre-Algebra, and she'll be good for next year.

Then the middle one ...
She will be in fifth grade next year. FIFTH GRADE. I can't believe that! We are for sure going to be using Bob Jones Reading 5, and Bob Jones English 5 with her, along with Teaching Textbooks 5 in math. She will be joining in with her sister again for Heart of Dakota, Resurrection to Reformation. This is a bit of a stretch for her, as was this year, but I think she still got enough out of it to make it worth it. We will adapt it to fit her needs; she won't do the extensions and we'll ease up some of the other work for her as well. My long range plan is for her to repeat both Creation to Christ (which we did this year) and Resurrection to Reformation when she is in 7th and 8th grade. This is mainly for my benefit because it's so much easier to combine the two girls, and really, this is my last year to be able to do that.

Then the little one ... yikes. It's going to be interesting having him at home for school next year! He will be doing kindergarten, which I'm thinking at least educationally, should be somewhat easy because he has gotten such a great head start from preschool this year. He will be doing Bob Jones K5 Beginnings for phonics and handwriting. We're going to jump on the Heart of Dakota train with him too, using Little Hearts for His Glory. I was planning to just use the BJU Beginnings and add some math, but then I got my hands on the HOD curriculum and think he will really love it. We may stretch it over two years; I'm not entirely sure yet. Since all three kids will have some DVD driven classes, DVD time will be at a premium around here, and we'll just have to see how the scheduling works out.

The one thing I have not yet decided regarding the little one is math yet. I'm leaning towards using the math that was recommended in the HOD guide. I love Math U See for little ones, but I don't love the Primer. He has a pretty strong grasp on numbers, so I might just jump in with Alpha and take it slowly. I really am just not sure yet.

So ... everything (except math for the little one) is nailed down, and a lot of the stuff I already have, so I'm calling this a good head start on school for next year. This is actually the easy part though; I've known for a while what I was going to do with the girls because of how much we have enjoyed school this year. The hard part will be working out a schedule ... and of course, implementing it.

It feels good to have plans in place, anyway! :)