2013-2014 Curriculum -- The Combo Plate

If last year was "The Whole Enchilada Years" because everyone was finally official, I don't know what to call these next four years -- because now I have a High School Student! This must be the beginning of the years when I get an enchilada, taco and a chile relleno combo plate!

Well, we are jumping into Classical Conversations with everyone (including myself), and this will create an interesting year.  I'm easing up on some subjects (like history) and doubling down on others (like math and writing).  I think we are all going to have a fun but challenging year.

9th Grade: The six strands of Challenge B will give Ben a variety of new learning experiences.  Not all the classes line up with a typical 9th grade, but that is exactly why I picked Challenge B over Challenge 1 for Ben's freshman year -- I wanted him to experience new, challenging and different opportunities for learning.  It took me a good month to realize that my initial search for high school learning opportunities and courses (the typical algebra, biology, history, english/ literature, Spanish 1 + electives) was, well,  just typical. ordinary.  bland.

And I wanted more than that for Ben.  I'm not content to have him replicate my high school course transcript at home.  Additionally, I found myself starting to think of high school as just a search for a course that would be necessary for another course -- just running on a  hamster wheel, chasing after courses just to fill a transcript with credits.  No thank you.

Using the chart below plus some other ideas I've gleaned (and the footnotes on this chart), I plan on being able to offer Ben a credit for freshman English (with grammar studied via Latin).  He's also going to be taking Spanish 1 (just haven't nailed down through what service/ coursework).

Finally, because of our fabulous experience with Homeschool Programming, Ben will earn a computer science credit for Windows programming.

We're working on a review of a Bible Study right now that I'm pleased with.  We'll continue on with it until it is finished then work on something else in my stash.

Fifth Grade: Luke will have a challenging year, too!

Classical Conversations' Foundations
Classical Conversations' Essentials (writing, grammar)
Math U See - Delta/ Epsilon
Spelling - We are reviewing Logic of English in August ... and we'll see what happens with that!
Literature - I'm going to pick some books that Luke and I can either read together or he can read independently.  Then I plan on using techniques from Teaching the Classics to discuss literary elements with him.
Science - I want to finish Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (a review product from January) in addition to using some experiments from our review of Super Charged Science that correspond to the science we're learning in CC.
Bible - Luke and Levi will be using Bible Study Guide for All Ages

Second Grade:
Classical Conversations' Foundations
Math U See - Beta/ Gamma
Spelling - sorta up in the air as we see how Logic of English works!
Literature - Levi will tag along.  Plus, he's still reading Pathway Readers and there is a workbook he'll complete.
Science - Tag along.
Composition - We'll use IEW's PAL Writing (not the spelling part)
Grammar - I'm not going to focus on this.  He'll be getting the grammar of grammar in CC and we'll talk about words as he's using PAL.
Levi needs to take swim lessons this fall or winter.  We just couldn't fit it into the summer financially.

I plan on being very intentional with art this year.  We have some lessons from See the Light that I haven't used yet.