Planning for Next Year...

We use a literature based curriculum. It's history focused. We race through history in a 4 year cycle. That means our children hit each century of history as a grammar (K-5), dialectic (6-8) and rhetoric (9 - 12) student. Nolan has ALWAYS been the youngest and what he's learned has been dictated but where they older student was. THIS year I decided to put him with Zander. He will be the oldest and that will allow him more leadership in his education. It will also allow for more "inviting" books that will hopefully capture his attention. By backing off the expectations in history, lit, etc we will have more time to focus on Language Arts (which are behind due to our speech and motor skills issues).

I took that list of books for the first unit and worked it again today.

I removed all books that I already owned.

I removed all books of which I had similar titles and felt confident skipping.

I ordered all books that are used 5+ weeks.

I ordered all lit books (or made sure I had access to a copy).

Then I considered that I won't be doing school as closely with our dialectic and rhetoric students - so I wanted to be sure to pick books that would have our worldview or would warn me when they don't (as is most often the case). I have found that the library has lots of books that I can easily substitute for the grammar levels but it is harder to find books for the older students that I can "tell" will be "ok" without reading. For instance our library had ONE book on a topic I needed for the Civil Rights movement for high school students (adults). I tend to buy what the rhetoric students need.

We are going to allow Arielle to move into dialectic (6th grade) because as a 4th grader she was reading all of the 6th - 8th grade assignments anyway. ::snort:: I want the confidence that I will be warned if there are "touchy" areas in her books since she is reading and learning above her age level.

I haven't been happy with the frequency of our Socratic discussions for the older children. I ordered the evaluation CD's for the older 3. This will give them tests and such that will document what they are doing on weeks when we aren't able to fit in a discussion. This will also allow Jamin to work at his own pace, rather than waiting for ME to discuss the week's work. It will be much easier for THEM to create a paper trail this way. Currently they create and save discussion notes from each week. We'll continue our round table discussions.

I went through the library and found which titles they had from unit 1.

I noted which books seemed to duplicate each other close enough to allow 2 or 3 levels of students to use the same book (art, fine arts, music).

I noted which books the library seemed to have LOTS of choices similar to titles listed and removed things like Marco Polo, Robin Hood, King Arthur from my shopping list.

I whittled the price from $778 to $556.00. I have a $200 credit with TOG (Thanks to y'all who've clicked the link in the sidebar before shopping!). $300 of the books I need to order are used throughout the year and some into next year - so that makes the first unit more spendy. I'll need to come up with $356 at this point but that is much more manageable than the FIRST time I entered EVERYTHING for all four levels for one unit - over $1,000.

Below are books that I plan to order on Monday. If any of you are familiar with titles and can say "that one is a duplicate of this one" or whatever - I'd love to hear your comments. I know some of these will only be used one week, but our library had nothing on several topics: Johannes Gutenberg etc. Any must haves? Any clinkers? I'm not so sure about the Music Appreciation book that is costing me $76. I was bummed as our library had many books that I WANTED to buy - De Paola and d' Aulaire..... but Mike and our budget will thank me. It was soooo nice last year to just order one of everything and be done with it....but I did miss those solitary library trips....anyone local care to find a sitter and make a date of it? We could sit on the courthouse lawn, sip some lemonaide or sweet tea and watch the action.

My Unit One List - clickable links

Pop Quiz Year 2 Unit 1
Year 2 Evaluations CD for Rhetoric Students
Year 2 Evaluations CD for Dialectic Students
Famous Men of the Middle Ages
Story of the Crusades
Year 2 MapAids (Redesigned Version)
Year 2 Redesign Tab Set
On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State
Discarded Image, The
Middle Ages: An Illustrated History
Faith in the Byzantine World
Vikings, The
Johannes Gutenberg: Inventor of the Printing Press
Stories of Beowulf Told to the Children
Medieval Myths, Legends, and Songs
Men of Iron
Aladdin and Other Tales from The Arabian Nights
Son of Charlemagne
Byzantine Empire, The
Story of the Middle Ages, The
Fine Print
Saint Valentine
Days of Knights and Damsels
Making of a Knight, The
Caedmon's Song
Brigid's Cloak
You Wouldn't Want to be a Crusader!
Vikings, The
Life in a Medieval Monastery
Knights
Johann Gutenberg and the Amazing Printing Press
Key Documents in Government Studies CD - Year 2
Theme is Freedom
Norton Anthology of English Literature
Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation
Story of Europe, The
Usborne Internet-Linked Medieval World
Renaissance, The
World Religions
Music: An Appreciation
Usborne Encyclopedia of World Religions
Our Island Story

©2008 D.R.G.

The Saga of the Red Paint Continues....

Yesterday after the massive clean up -

Me: Put these towels in the laundry (meaning of course the LAUNDRY ROOM).

Helpful Child: Got it mom (and proceeds to put towels with red paint in the machine...with other clothes....the boys now have pink t-shirts etc).

::snort::
©2008 D.R.G.

COUNTDOWN.....4 DAYS....ACK THIS IS EXCITING!!!

Sisters (2005)....

Sisters (2007)....

Lord help the mister that comes between me and my....everybody sing now... Sis TER!

And Lord help the sister that comes between me and my man!
©2008 D.R.G.

PRAYER REQUEST and a SUMMARY

Please pray for Josiah (19 yo). Tonight was a hard night at work....one peer with a brother dying of cancer and one that had to be fired. Pray for Josiah's witness and for God to be glorified. There is a chance that Josiah will not be able to go on vacation with us due to these situations at work. Please pray. I know it's not earth-shattering but we'd love to have him there and he'd love to be there.

Now....a summary of the day......

I crossed 12 items off the list.

We cleaned paint off pillars, patios, carpets, children and dogs.

Jamin made his homemade pizza for dinner.

I found out that Jared needs $100 more than we had calculated. God will provide work. I know He will. In fact, he has been asked to take out a rock thing in someones yard when we get back. It will come together.

Mike worked all day (this is his day "off")....I worked all day.

I put in all the titles I need for the first unit of next year and it came to $744...this is NOT paying for the syllabus....and we decided to combine Zander and Nolan on many topics next year so that saved a level of books.....I'm going to take the list and go through the library catalog tomorrow....then I'll scrutinize it again....for instance do we need an art book on the middle ages for EACH level...or would one work for all....does each level need a church history book etc. Mike looked at all the books around here and said, "I would think at some point we'd have all the books we need for a school year." The thing is I DID have a lot of the books on the list. ::snort::

I called Sprint. The official stance from the highest supervisor I could talk to is, "if you call and request the discount we will give it to you." BUT it doesn't matter that she told us we'd have it - we have to call and request it or they have "no proof of your military status". Um.....when I talked to them on the phone the did NOT ask for any additional proof, they DID see our ID etc at the kiosk and Mike LOOKS military....not many men his age walking around with a buzz like this unless they are in the military. ANYway....Mike filed a complaint with BB and I have contact info for the corporate office. I think they need to train the locals better.

I'm off to bed.....it's nearly mid-night. Whatever isn't done can wait until tomorrow.

OH - do you know what this means?

IT RAINED TODAY! YIPEE!!!!
©2008 D.R.G.

Unexpected Interruptions

I'm partially to blame for this. I've been inattentive. THIS is what happens when I get focused on "the list". THIS is one or two big reasons why I seem to be spinning my wheels.

No one was hurt.....

Zander and Stacia painted....ugh.

We have been talking about Jared painting the neighbors fence. ::sigh::

What a sick feeling....I wasn't sure ti would clean up. (Jared wants to be 100% sure all readers know HE didn't paint that fence - it the dynamic duo). We got most of it cleaned up.....and I found that my parenting style has really changed. There was a time when I would have had a meltdown....but it's really much easier to mentor when you know that a natural consequence will follow the deed....why fret...get out the towels....

Zander will think twice before doing this again. I'm not sure about Stacia...she was having way too much fun.

©2008 D.R.G.

Does it really matter????

What do you think? Is the purple text hard to read on my blog? You can see it in the sidebar. I like the way the purple LOOKS but is it easier to read black????

OK - this PROVES I'm an obsessive blogger...this would bug me enough on a busy day that I would have to check. LOL

©2008 D.R.G.

COUNTDOWN....5 DAYS UNTIL WE SEE 'EM!

THIS time I shouldn't receive any calls from the Red Cross saying they've misplaced my daughters.....

©2008 D.R.G.