Chemistry Curriculum Decided!

As I wrote about previously, I was wondering what to do about science for next year. I ultimately decided I could not spend such a huge amount of my homeschool budget on science at this level (1st & 3rd grade), so I crossed NOEO off my list, reluctantly. Pandia Press will have their Chemistry curriculum out this spring. They have some of the new book available via Adobe Acrobat pdf to preview. I checked it out and . . .

I’m going with God’s Design For . . . series. I got the two book set on close out at R&D Education’s site. I believe Answers in Genesis is coming out with a newly revised set of books starting in 2009 and that is one of the reasons (another being that R&D Education is going out of business) I was able to get it so cheap.

I thought the R.E.A.L. science Chemistry program looked fine, but I’m good with my decision. I hope the kids will like the different format with so many experiments (something they really enjoy). I plan to ‘beef up’ the curriculum with other books from the library on the topic we are studying each week. The authors actually recommend that.

Of course, we’ll see what life has in store for us this fall! God laughs when He hears me planning things. For now, we’ll finish up Apologia Astronomy and start into my eclectic earth science curriculum made completely of books and experiments of my own choosing! Crazy stuff.

The Best Laid Plans . . .

I have my book of lesson plans that I refer to daily to see what I thought we would do each day. We have only had three full days of school and already I am glad I am so flexible.

For example, this summer, Child #1 went after the Singapore math books I purchased for her to keep her math skills fresh. It went so well that the built-in review of A Beka’s math program is almost boring for her. I pondered simply skipping the first 29-some lessons completely, but think a little review is good. Besides, I haven’t been doing the mental math with her that A Beka’s program encourages. My lesson plans had us finishing Lesson 5 at the end of this week. We finished Lesson 8 today.

In another example, I planned to ease into Spell to Write and Read. I figured it would take about two weeks to review the 26 (alphabet) single-letter phonograms while doing some other fun games and such. On Day 2, Child #2 remarked that she knew all these so could we go a bit faster? So, the next day, I tested her on her knowledge. When I held up the phonogram card, she was to say the sound(s) as quickly as she could. If she hesitated or got them wrong the first time through (even if she corrected herself), I counted them wrong. She got 25 of the 26 single-letter phonograms perfect. She also knew 24 of the remaining 44 phonograms immediately and perfectly. So, a week early, I gave her a new Learning Log and we started on the Consonant/Vowel reference page.

I have also learned that I might have been a bit optimistic in how many pages we can cover each day in Story of the World I and Apologia’s Astronomy. Child #2 is doing great with Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and is completing, on average, three pages per day of Singapore Earlybird Math (1B).

Happy Labor Day!

I have no plans for anything “special” on Labor Day. My spouse is working and we are getting ready for school to start tomorrow!

Just a note about what we did last week before the official start of school:

History (Story of the World I)- We did some pre-reading from library books – mostly about Egpyt.

Math (A Beka 2/Singapore EarlyBird 1B)- Both older children completed a few pages in their workbooks. We breezed through three lessons already in A Beka Arithmetic 2. The math supplement books Child #1 worked on during the summer kept her pretty much up to speed. I plan to speed through the ‘review’ that is built in to the beginning of the math book. (How do year-rounders deal with this, I wonder?)

Spelling (Spell to Write and Read) – I gave Child #1 a spelling diagnostic test. She scored at the same grade level as her final spelling diagnostic at the end of May. Nothing gained, nothing lost. Still pencil-phobic!

Science (Apologia Astronomy) – I read the first page and a half of Chapter 1 aloud to all the kids to get a jump on that first week’s planned work.

Apologia – changes coming soon?

Since we are using Apologia’s Astronomy text this year, I was intrigued with an Apologia ad I saw in a magazine. I had heard Apologia had changed ownership, but the ad says there will be something new coming September 1st.

Help remind me to check http://www.apologia.com after September 1st to find out.