Savannah's Weekly schedule

It's so pretty...

So this is it.  Charlotte's looks similar except she doesn't do quite as much in the morning.  I kept the mornings light because on Tuesday & Wednesday we are going out of the house.  Tuesday is piano lessons for S & C and the library for M and Z,  and Wednesday is a homeschool co-op for S & C and hopefully gymnastics for Maddy.  The rest of the mornings of the week contain fairly independent work for Savannah and Charlotte.  I plan on giving my attention to Madelynn and Zachary on the mornings we are home, doing schoolish things and reading to them.
During the afternoon, right after lunch, Zach goes down for a nap and Madelynn will start going to quiet time for about an hour while I work with Savannah and Charlotte on the teacher-intensive stuff, mainly spelling and latin. 
Devotional and recitations: that is our memory work.  We are memorizing some of the gospel standards, some of the articles of faith, 6 primary songs, poetry, and The Living Christ as a family.
Then there are the chores.  They don't have to do them at a specific time of day, but they do need to be done before dinner.
I'll be putting Maddy and Zach to bed around 7 or 730.  Savannah and Charlotte will alternate reading the BOM or practing piano with me.
Caroline, of course, will play quietly throughout the whole day, taking long naps during my busiest hours.
And this schedule will be moved around at least 10 more times, and perhaps abandoned all together before the month is over.

Memoria Press & Highlands Latin School

This coming up year (that I'm so excited about, if you can't tell) is largly patterned after Memoria Press's homeschool curriculum and Highlands Latin School.  Memoria Press sells curriculum packages for grades K-6.  Highlands Latin School uses books of Memoria Press's books.  If you visit Highland's website, you'll find out immediately that the students are excelling with it.

Up until now, my kids have not done a great deal of seat-work.  We've done math daily and usually some copywork or handwriting.  Our focus has been on reading great books Charlotte Mason style and lots of free time to be a kid.  It's been great and I wouldn't change a thing for grades K-2, and will continue doing light school for those grades.  However, now that Savannah is entering 3rd grade I feel that it is time to focus more on academics.  The goal this year is to ease into seatwork, learn to focus, and practice lots of writing (not composition, but the actual act of writing). 

I have always LOVED the look of Memoria Press's products, but have never actually owned any until now.  I purchased (used) the Greek Myths teacher and student guide.  I love it.  Savannah will know Greek Myths inside and out by the end of this course.  It is plain and simple and intense.  I've also just purchased Latina Christiana I & Prima Latina (used) that I am anxiously awaiting to arrive in the mail.  I like plain and simple, to the point curriculum.  MP seems to fit that bill. 

If you like what you see and are interested in trying out their products as well, this blog: http://goldengrasses.blogspot.com/2012/07/memoria-press-delivers-core-6-review.html  is giving away three different teacher/student guides.

The UNofficial PLAN of 2012/13

Savannah is starting 3rd grade on August 20th.  Here is the plan so far (and, as always, I reserve the right to change my mind)

Ahem... drumroll please.
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The curriculum:
Prima Latina
Math Mammoth 3 and XtraMath
Spell to Write and Read
Rod and Staff English 3
D' ulaire's Greek Myths (again) with Memoria Press's study guide
Story of the World: Middle Ages & Our Island Story (history of Britain)
Linguistic Development
Discover the Scriptures: Old Testament

The little things:
* Read literature for 1 hour daily and use free online lit guides for comprehension questions and vocabulary.
*Learn the 50 States, where they are located, the postal abbreviation, and the capital.  Using black line maps, hopefully a geo puzzle, online free games, Geography Songs, free worksheets online, etc.
*Narrate the Story of the World
*Learn cursive
*Read, summarize, and illustrate sections from the Apologia science books.
*Orally read from McGuffey Third reader once a week
*Poetry Teatime once a week
*Piano
*Homeschool class

Notes:
I think Prima Latina will work out great this year.  Next year I have my eye on Latina Christiana I from Memoria Press and then latin will become a major focus in her schooling.  This year is just a gentle introduction.
MM and XtraMath have been hits in the past, so I'm sure they will be winners this year as well.
SWR- we'll see.  I like the Spalding method, but if it just takes too much time it will be the first to go since Savannah is a natural speller.  How it works: day 1: 20 new words, day 2: dictate 5-10 sentences with yesterday's words, day 3: 20 new words, day 4: dictate 5-10 sentences with yesterday's words, day 5: test on all 40 words.  I think it can work like that.
R&S- another we'll see.  I'm all about delayed grammar and R&S is known for thoroughness.  I like it, but it may be too much.  I want grammar this year to help with latin next year.  She probably won't take grammar again until 5th or 6th grade.
Greek Myths w/ study guide- I am hoping this will be a raving sucess.  She loves the book; now she will memorize it.  There is a National Mythology Exam in February that I would like her to work towards.  She would win a metal for the number of questions she gets right, if I understand it correctly.  Lots of homeschool nerds take it.  I don't know if this is something she will enjoy or not.  I hope so.  Greek Myths study will be a large focus of her schooling this year.
SOTW 2- I'll read 2 or 3 sections a week to the girls and have them narrate while I write their narration down.  They don't particularly love SOTW, but they sure learn a lot from it.
Our Island Story- this will be an audio book that they will listen to at night.  It is mostly set in the Middle Ages, but most importantly it sets the stage for understanding American history; understanding Britain history is fundamental to understanding WHY the settlers crossed the sea and why freedom was so important to them.
Linguistic Development: or in other words, memorizing 80 poems and being able to recite any of them on cue.  We've already started this and the kids love it.  We are on poem #3.  Btw, I'm sure this will take a few years.  20 poems is the goal for this year.
Discover the Scriptures: Old Testament- we'll see.  It is a workbook for the church's scripture readers.  This is her only busy work, but it may prove useful.
Homeschool Class:  Fort Rucker offers homeschoolers a class once a week for two hours.  It includes PE (skating, Karate, games), computer skills, and art; She makes friends there and that IS important.
Piano: I don't teach her, I pay for a piano teacher.
Poetry teatime: this is where we sit at the table, each with our favorite book of poetry, and take turns reading a poem.  Since maddy can't read yet, she chooses a poem for one of us to read.  We also sip "tea" (chocolate milk) and eat a snack.  SO much fun!
Since Savannah is 8 she will now be reading from the Book of Mormon for 30 min. a day and writing something in her journal about it. She'll also be working on a Faith in God goal every 6 weeks or so.

Charlotte will be going into 1st grade according to her age, though she really could be considered a 2nd grader.  She is very mature for her age.  I don't know yet what I'm going to do about this...

Anyway, she will finish the second half of Math Mammoth 1 and XtraMath
Spell to Write and Read
Story of the World: Middle Ages & Our Island Story
Linguistic Development
Prima Latina
Copywork (2 sentences in cursive from any of her books, her choice)
Read literature together daily
Learn the states
Poetry teatime
Notebook the Apologia books if she wants to, but not required.
Piano
Homeschool class

Madelynn: Pre-school

Work on handwriting
Spell to Write and Read
Essential Math A
Maybe gymnastics.

Everything for Madelynn is optional.

Religion:
As a family, reading from the Book of Mormon for LDS Families has been a great sucess for a few years now. This year I have the goal of memorizing The Living Christ as a family. We already have memorized, "As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millenia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of his matchless life..." There are some big words in there! Zach is super cute saying it; so is Maddy. There are FREE study helps on Discover the Scriptures website that I highly recommend if you want to do this with your family.
And then there's the daily devotional. We sing a primary song, have a prayer, memorize (this year) the articles of faith and the gospel standards for primary kids. Then we watch a scripture movie on lds.org or read out of the Friend magazine. This has worked well in the past.

That's it and that all folks!

**APPLAUSE**        **APPLAUSE**     **APPLAUSE**

Thank you!  Thank you everyone!!!!  I just want to especially thank my husband for not banning me from the computer.  So many hours of research and planning and printing and buying and selling and buying and changing my mind...  I know my Dear doesn't have a clue as to what's going on and yet he tolerates my insanity.  I love you, dear hubby of mine!