Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Martha
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Posted: May 10 2007 at 2:34pm | IP Logged Quote Martha

Or give me a thump on the head if it isn't!
In July we will start our next academic levels. I will have the folling grades 7, 6, 4, 3, 1, K, plus 2 wee osmosis learners.
I'm used to having 5 subjects under "language arts", but have decided to try the CM method of one subject vs seperate spelling, writing, reading, phonics, penmenship, and grammar! I can't believe this dimunitive stack is all I'm going to use!

For all grades I plan on using:
Religion: Seton all the way for bible, religion, and Balt. Cat. plus enrichment as we go as always.

Science - Lyrical Science with literature studies

History: Geography Songs (learning some history via literature as we cover geographic areas)

FIAR and Catholic Mosaic as we feel led

Math:
Younger than 5th grade will be using either Seton's Math FYC or MCP.
My 2 oldest will be finishing Saxon 6/5, then I'll buy the next Saxon level.

Cursive First for those still learning the skill of cursive. the others will perfect thei penmenship through actual use in other subjects.

Language Arts:
Stories with a View to finsh before progressing to PLL for my 3th/4th grader.
PLL for my 2nd/3rd grader
hoping Intermediate Language Lessons comes out by then for my 6th grader
Lingua Mater for my 7th grader
English 1 for Young Catholics for my K/1st grader

I also plan on incorporating lots of creativity because I have several children who are really starting to blossum in those talents (I can easily see one becoming a famous artist and another is actively interested in machine design and yet another who is begging to design clothes and they need time to explore those areas.

I have some other materials. (Catholic curriculum junkie that I happen to be! ) However, these are what I'm planning on using as my core program for next year.

Is this enough? We are used to having a very intense and, what I think, is a rigorous program. I think a CM education can be that, in a gentle way?

ETA: I forgot to note Rosetta Stone Spanish.

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helene
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Posted: May 10 2007 at 8:32pm | IP Logged Quote helene

WOW!! I'm impressed. I don't get around to thinking like this until late August. May God crown your efforts with great success!

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MarilynW
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Posted: May 11 2007 at 5:57am | IP Logged Quote MarilynW

Sound like a great plan to me. I am streamlining too this year - separate Math and LA - but all together for everything else. I will plan some extra "work" for the 3 year old who is always asking for his "work"

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mariB
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Posted: May 11 2007 at 6:57am | IP Logged Quote mariB

Wonderful! I think I'll use Intermediate Language Lessons for my 6th grader too! After all these years, I'm finding less is more.
Love your plan!
God bless.

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TracyQ
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Posted: May 11 2007 at 12:31pm | IP Logged Quote TracyQ

Sounds like a wonderful plan to me!

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EmilyC
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Posted: May 11 2007 at 12:35pm | IP Logged Quote EmilyC

I think it sounds like a great plan!

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katilac
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Posted: May 12 2007 at 5:15pm | IP Logged Quote katilac

I would personally want more history for the sixth and seventh graders. Perhaps they could do some independent reading in history to correspond with your literature choices? Biographies are also a good choice.

I'm a big fan of 'history as a story' but I don't think historical fiction alone is enough for middle school students.
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Martha
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Posted: May 13 2007 at 9:09am | IP Logged Quote Martha

Here's the loose plan for history. I'm still gathering info for my plans.
We are doing American history/geography.
As we do each region, we will cover the individual states and study at least 2 biographies, in addition to some historical fiction and other reading. Starting with the making of our country and continuing through it's growth. In other words, the first region will be the 13 colonies, the last states covered would be the last in the union and in between there we would be covering the westward expansion.

This is not going to be a quick study at all and should be simple enough for the younger ones and more in depth for the older ones. Does that sound more like what you were thinking? I agree with you and we've been rather casual about formal history up to this point and have focused on other historical points before now, but feel the older kids need some american history and more in depth study of history in general.

I didn't write mroe than geogrpahy songs though because I'm making this study myself and it's still coming together.

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MarilynW
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Posted: May 13 2007 at 11:20am | IP Logged Quote MarilynW

Martha - I have (somewhere) our American History Plan with books (including picture books) to match different time periods. We also used Pioneers and Patriots as a reference. (older kids could do the questions if you wanted that). Extra resources we used were timelines and outline maps of American History - both which we had on cd and work out economically for large families.

If you are interested - I can email you details. If you would just give me time as I am in the middle of a lot of organization right now and not much energy to do all this nesting!!

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katilac
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Posted: May 13 2007 at 12:53pm | IP Logged Quote katilac

Does this sound more like what you were thinking?

Yes.

The 'geography songs' for a seventh-grader did have me worried!

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Martha
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Posted: May 13 2007 at 1:51pm | IP Logged Quote Martha

katilac wrote:
Yes. The 'geography songs' for a seventh-grader did have me worried!


It actually has bits of information about each location to help them remember where places are located, so I'm using it as a springboard into history. Rather than studying the geography of a history study, we are studying the history of a geography study. Which I'm sure is clear as mud!

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TracyQ
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Posted: May 14 2007 at 8:55am | IP Logged Quote TracyQ

I think your plan, and America study sounds great, Martha. I understood what you meant when you said you were learning with Geography Songs, with more literature put in, but I'm glad you explained it further, because it's very interesting, and it sounds like a neat way to learn history. I'm sure you'll have a great year!

It's so great when we can incorporate everyone together in the learning, and add more for higher levels, and less for lower levels. It sure makes it much easier on mom!!! I hope you share with us how your plan is working through the year next year!

Enjoy the journey through America! I sure miss the days when the kids were all learning together. Now that the older two are in high school, and their plan is more individualized, it's so difficult to find things for all of us to do together. So when we do anything together, I treasure that time!



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Nina Murphy
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Posted: May 14 2007 at 9:30am | IP Logged Quote Nina Murphy

Martha,

It's ENOUGH.

It's wonderful.

It's more than enough!

You're amazing!



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lapazfarm
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Posted: May 14 2007 at 11:09am | IP Logged Quote lapazfarm

Sounds wonderful!
Does Lyrical Science include some labs or experiments? Or will you be doing those in connection with your literature selections/FIAR, etc?
I have always wondered about the Lyrical science materials, but never had my hands on them to check them out myself. Have you used them before? Can you tell me what they are like?

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Martha
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Posted: May 14 2007 at 11:26am | IP Logged Quote Martha

lapazfarm wrote:
Sounds wonderful!
Does Lyrical Science include some labs or experiments? Or will you be doing those in connection with your literature selections/FIAR, etc?
I have always wondered about the Lyrical science materials, but never had my hands on them to check them out myself. Have you used them before? Can you tell me what they are like?


We love Lyrical Science. They are small books and they aren't glamorous at all, but they are chock full of learning in a very simple format. There are no labs/experiements, however it would be easy to do some rather than the essay questions. Rather than do every question in essay format, one could just as easily look up an experiment to do in Everyday Science Experiments. This is what we do about every other week or more if able and inclined. Seton's Science FYC series is very good too, they don't have it for every grade yet. So I will take some info from Seton and use it in Lyrical when it fits right.

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TracyQ
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Posted: May 14 2007 at 12:55pm | IP Logged Quote TracyQ

I have three of the Lyrical Science! This year, I decided I'm going to shop from home for curriculum (except for what I can't, like the next level of Saxon, etc.). I'm going to really USE what I already have, and stop reading about the other great stuff I don't have!

Thanks for reminding me about this. It might be just the ticket for my 7th grade daughter for part of her science.

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