Planners, Planning and Planned-Out

This is a totally revamped school year and in doing so I've created a lot of work for myself. I know, or rather I hope, that it will all be so worth it.

I'm awaiting the kids' planners. They're a bit like the Good News planners but these appealed to me a bit more for some reason.

I ordered the Pope Chart from Ignatius Press. Who doesn't love Ignatius?

From Love to Learn I ordered some really neat manipulatives. The shapes are magnets and I use a cookie sheet for the kids to put the pattern down and use that way.

See the shapes stay where you put them!

I also got the letters and numbers container. There are upper and lower case letters which is nice.

For planning the school year I'm using Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education . It comes with a DVD so it's as if you're at a conference. Sonya goes through 5 steps - step by step. The five steps are: The Big Picture, Your Year, Your Term, Your Week and Your Day. She makes it real easy as she breaks it down for you and gives you good ideas as she goes. In the manual she shows you some examples from her own family's year, term, week and day - so it helps if you're more a visual learner. And not only examples from her own family but from others' as well [with different family dynamics]. I might add that you don't have to be a CMer to utilize this planner - I don't consider myself a CMer, though I am implementing some of the ideas this year.

I'm still in Your Term. Books were slowly filtering in last week and this week and by now I think I've got them all - with a few on backorder. I'm finding that it is very involved, but I'll be thanking my lucky stars later. Or should I say, the kids will :o)

Science [3rd, 1st and K] we'll be using Serendipity [science baskets]. For books that I couldn't find at the library [which is near zilch] I bought on Amazon.

For the 7th grader - Concepts and Challenges [MODG syllabus]

I also bought a Mr. Wizard DVD through Seton.

History we're studying the Ancient world. We'll do it together somewhat. Here's our history shelf.

This is a cool book on ancient Rome. It's a flap book. Here you can see a home...
...and here's the inside which is revealed when you pull back the flap. Neat!The army...

And then... the Bath House [we all know where this is going]:

Uh oh - this can't be good...and then voila! [this could stay under a flap! - fyi, it's not under a flap! Pun somewhat intended!] I think I'll need to create a flap of some sort - ewwwww! What a visual!
My poor kids. They'll be so scandelized. This is the image they'll have of Romans - ancient or modern - it won't matter. LOL!

I got the CD set for Story of the World - I believe I purchased it through Love to Learn - different than Love 2 Learn. Bonus as well because they don't have shipping costs only a small handling fee.

We'll also be studying 4 continents this year: Europe, Africa, Australia and South America. This should be fun. I say should because I'm not sure all that we'll do. In other words - I haven't totally planned this one out :o) I have found this site for additional fun. "Oh goodie!"

Religion we'll use Faith and Life through CHC and of course, the handy-dandy Baltimore Catechism. #1 for the 3rd grader and #2 for the 7th. Dani also has Bible History - I found a workbook for it on Seton's website. Cha-ching!

Spelling CHC for the 1st and 3rd graders. Seton for Dani, my 7th grader. I'll be combining spelling and vocab this year. Something I've never done - but it makes sense... especially to Dani! LOL

English for Therese, my 3rd gr, is CHC. And for Dani Voyages 7 and Daily Grams [MODG syllabus]

Phonics for Sophia [1st] and Therese [3rd] are both MCP which I got through Seton.

I've also got a Picture Study planned with Rembrant, Kincade, Rockwell, Michelangelo, and Grandma Moses - well, it's in the beginning stages - I know who we'll be studying :o) Not sure of anything else at this point. I'm ordering some cool things through Dover Publications. Love that site!

We'll do a little bit of Spanish and Latin all together as well. With Latin I'm going to concentrate on the prayers and hymns - things we'll actually use.

So that's about it. I have lots of little Montessori-type activities for the littles. More of that in upcoming posts. I know you're excited!

So, needless to say - after weeks of planning... whether on paper, on the computer or in my head - I'm officially planned-out! Not a good place to be when I'm not even done!

Our first day of school: September 8th!