Curriculum Plans for 2020-2021: Large Family Style

When the new homeschool year begins this fall I will have children in grades 10, 9, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, plus a 4yo and a 2yo tagging along and a child off to her sophomore year of college. As of today, most of our curriculum has been planned, purchased, and placed on shelves. 

Group Subjects

History - We're using The Good and the Beautiful History Year 3. Topics we'll study fall under four broad categories: Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel, Ancient Africa and Native North Americans, Westward Expansion and Industrialization, and World War II. 

Science High School - Joseph and Emma will be grouped together for science. This year they chose to study chemistry and astronomy. They will use Exploring the World of Chemistry and Exploring the World of Astronomy, both by John Tiner. They will also use the Chemistry 101 dvd series, do a set of experiments, and spend time with the telescope at night. 

Science Elementary and Middle School - Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, and Samuel (with tagalong Tobias and Rebekah when they are interested) will be using science units from The Good and the Beautiful. We have a stack of them, and I will generally let the kids choose which unit we start each time. There are also a few more units coming out in the next several months, including geology, which I'm sure the kids will want to do. The units I currently have that we've not used before are: Energy, Chemistry, Space, Water and Our World, Arthropods, Meteorology, The Human Body part 1, and Botany. 

Elective: Culinary Arts and Nutrition - Joseph and Emma both chose this elective, so we'll be in the kitchen together, meal planning, shopping for food, and cooking. 

Elective: Boomerang Book Club - Joseph and Emma will be doing this elective together. Daniel may choose to join in. We will be reading the following ten books and using the Boomerang guides from Brave Writer to go along. 

• Emma by Jane Austen
• A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
• Our Town by Thornton Wilder
• Refugee by Alan Gratz

Individual Subjects 

Language Arts - All my kids will be using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts at various levels. For Joseph, Emma, and Daniel this is their third year with TGTB LA, and they will be doing level 7, 7, and 6. Oliver and Mason will be in their second year with TGTB LA, and they will be doing level 4 and 3. Caleb and Samuel will be in their first year with TGTB LA, and they will be doing level 2 and 1. It is a solid program that rotates through a variety of subjects over the course of the year in spelling, reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, geography, poetry, memorization, artist/picture study, and art. 

Math - This year we are split on math. The kids doing Math U See, our old standby, are Joseph (Geometry), Emma (Geometry), Daniel (Algebra 1), Oliver (Zeta), and Caleb (Delta). This year we are moving Mason and Samuel to The Good and the Beautiful Math. The reason is pretty simple - TGTB math is full of fun, hands on, and practical day to day math. Mason, especially, needs a change for math. His learning issues stemming from his hydrocephalus and spina bifida seem are small, but beginning to show in math (he has memory issues and executive function issues). Math U See is black and white, basic at these levels, and doesn't address real life math things like time, money, measurement, fractions, etc very well in their early levels. Things are either not addressed until later (fractions) or only addressed once or twice before moving on, so kids lack familiarity. 

Handwriting - For my younger kids who still do handwriting, we use Handwriting Without Tears. 

Literature - Many of our subjects already include books, but we read more than that. In our home children are expected to spend time reading every day. We read a wide variety of books, depending on a child's age and interests. We have a large shelf full of books from The Good and the Beautiful Library. We find books at our library using The Good and the Beautiful's free Book List. We take recommendations from friends and librarians, and use book lists found online. We read, read aloud, or listen to audio books. It all counts! 

Those are the major plans for the coming school year. Everything else is pretty child-led. If someone has an interest, we explore it. We leave room in our days for following passions, playing games, being out in nature, getting together with friends, going to our book club group, and just being a family. We study the scriptures together each day. Kids practice piano regularly. Art materials are right where kids can grab them. We go on field trips. We learn and grow together.