Ready . . . Set . . .Really?

Tomorrow is the big day. Now that Moonheart is safely settled back into her dorm and I've had a couple of days to recover, RobotBoy and I will be starting our 2008-09 academic year tomorrow.

I'm ready, right?

I keep reminding myself that I have only one child to teach and that, if things aren't going well, I have the flexibility to change them around until it's better. I have tons of resources and my lesson plans in place and our schoolroom and supplies all organized. And I've been doing this for a few years, now. So, honestly, why do I still feel nervous?

I suppose that's a mystery we may never solve. So, let's just go on to talking about the plan.

We're cycling back around to the ancients this year, and I've done my best to run that thread through all subjects and give RobotBoy the opportunity to make lots of connections.

Here are his shelves, with all the books for the year all ready to go:




History: We're going with our home-designed approach again, although I'm trying to kick things up just a notch or two from last year. I'm adding in the Parragon Atlas of World History as a spine, which RobotBoy will read alongside the first 40 stories from the Child's History of the World CD/ROM. He'll also read another 17-ish non-fiction books, magazines or articles about specific historical people, places and events. I've cut back a bit on the number of DVDs and videos from last year, but still plan to make good use of our Netflix account. I'm determined to increase his "output" for this year, but hesitant to insist on the heavy duty outlining and narration suggested in The Well-Trained Mind. So, I've collected/created worksheets and review pages for him to do each week. He may also do some hands-on projects, and we have at least three good field trips on the agenda.

Literature: I've pulled together a stack of more than 20 books the coordinate with our history study. I think RobotBoy will enjoy most of them very much. He has become fascinated with the concept of the "hero's journey" and delights in comparing various books and movies that tie in with that theme. So, we're going to spend some time chatting about Joseph Campbell and discussing those concepts as they come up in his reading for this year.

Grammar & Writing: He'll continue with Galore Park's English Prep (Book 2), but we'll skip the writing exercises in favor of trying out the progymnasmata approach as outlined in Classical Writing. I've modified the suggested schedule to fit into our routine. So, we'll be spending two weeks with each model: the first week reading and picking it apart for grammar and style, the second week doing the actual writing project. Our samples are all drawn from the literature or culture RobotBoy will be reading about in history in those weeks. We're also going to try again to get around to the next volume of Word Roots, which got dropped from our schedule last year due to computer troubles.

Science: I think he'll have fun with this, spending the year learning about science in ancient civilizations. He'll use Hakim's Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way as a spine, supplementing with the six-book Science of the Past series and Jeanne Bendick's Archimedes and the Door of Science and Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. For the hands-on component, he'll use Ancient Science: 40 Time-Travelling, World-Exploring, History-Making Activities for Kids.

Math: This is the subject about which I feel the most nervousness and ambivalence. Right now, the plan is to continue with the University of California open access algebra course he started last year. However, I have recently realized that I'm not doing a very good job of making math seem particularly interesting. So, we're going to try adding in some supplemental, "fun" math reading (The Number Devil, Murderous Maths). And, in an nod toward creating a connection to the history theme, he'll play around with the activities in Can You Count in Greek?

Languages: He's continuing with The Learnables for Spanish, doing the Grammar Enhancement package this year. For Latin, we're moving to Galore Park's Latin Prep, which I'm hoping will be as good a fit for him as is their English series. And, just for fun, he's going to do a light introduction to ancient Greek, using the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker from Classical Academic Press and Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek, book 2.

Other Stuff: He's also signed up to take two classes with Florida Virtual School, World Geography and a single-semester introduction to two-dimensional art. The geography class was my idea, the art his. At this point, I consider both of them expendable if we determine that his academic load is too heavy. And, although we're not doing a formal logic program, he will be doing a couple of puzzles a week from something I found on a bargain table called The Giant Book of Mensa Critical Thinking Puzzles.

Every time I sit down and type it all out, it starts to look like an awful lot of work. And when I remember that we're planning to continue doing four-day weeks (with Wednesdays off and/or available for hands-on activities or field trips), I really have to fight down panic. But RobotBoy just looks at the list and shrugs and assures me he can handle it. So, I guess we'll see . . . bright and early tomorrow!