School Year Eve
It’s that time again: the school year is about to start, and the new books and other materials are looking shiny and attractive. Picking out materials is always a favorite part of home education for me! By May (earlier than May, if we’re going to be brutally honest), the bloom will be off the rose, but I like to savor this feeling of anticipation I always have on the brink of a new year.
This year I’ll have a 6th and a 9th grader, and the year will see some new directions for us in terms of curriculum. The main innovations will be in science, history and writing.
I’ve chosen Apologia General Science for this year, complete with text and tests, student notebooks, and the audiobook version of the text for my auditory learners. We have really enjoyed Real Science-4-Kids in the past for biology, chemistry (we used RS4K along with Ellen McHenry’s The Elements), physics and astronomy. But for a full-year course suitable for our grade levels, I thought I’d try something different. I approach science with some trepidation, knowing that Apologia takes a more literal view of Genesis than I do. But if my kids were in public school, chances are they would be getting different worldviews from different teachers, and my philosophy is that we have nothing to fear as Christians. Differences are opportunities for discussion and further examination of our own assumptions. Why should I feel any differently about this? I’m looking forward to the structure and general meatiness of the course, and my youngest has wanted to start for over a month due to the appeal of the student notebook. She’ll get her chance soon!
In history, we’re still taking the chronological approach advocated in The Well-Trained Mind. This year we’re up to the Middle Ages and will be trying out Biblioplan. I ordered the textbooks as hard copies and the four companion books (geography, planning resources, activities, discussion guide) as digital copies that we printed out here. It reminds me a little of Tapestry of Grace, but without being quite so overwhelming. Much of our literature and writing for the year will come through our history study.
In writing I’m taking the leap from Rod and Staff to Brave Writer, using Julie Bogart’s Writer’s Jungle. Rod and Staff has served us well in grammar instruction, and I’ll continue using it with Younger Daughter till she’s through 8th grade. But for Older Daughter I feel that Vocabulary from Ancient Roots, copywork and dictation provide sufficient focus on the nuts and bolts of language. Brave Writer appeals to me as a former writing instructor because it doesn’t advocate teaching writing through formulas. It doesn’t hide the difficulty of writing behind a facade of checklists and rules. Instead, it focuses on helping the student to face that terrifying blank sheet of paper by reaching down into herself and sorting out her own perspective and voice. It will be a new adventure for us, but one that includes more writing than Rod and Staff has required. The writing will also be more varied than the book summaries we’ve been doing for years.
State history and critical thinking for YD, Spanish and health for OD, and a few other subjects will round out the year. We’re enrolled in a co-op for music, art and gym, and it has been a good fit for us in the past. But lately I have had the sense that it’s not working as well for us, and though there are other co-ops around, I’m not sure what we would do to replace it. I remember that early in my home schooling endeavor, I read in The Well-Trained Mind that it can be difficult to find group opportunities that really fit. We have chosen this co-op for its social opportunities for the girls, rather than for its school-related content. But to me the ideal is interest-centric socialization, where you join with others who share your interests and the social life falls into place around the shared activities. 4-H has provided a great social framework for our interest in horses. I’d like to find (or help to create) its equivalent in our other areas of interest (art and nature).
For the moment, though, we have a fair amount of new experience sitting on the shelf downstairs, waiting to be used. I hear the books calling — but for just a little while longer, I’m going to enjoy a summer that has flown by all too quickly!
