My 2013-2014 curriculum picks

After months of looking and figuring and relooking, making notes, listing pros and cons, budgeting and doing it over and over, I have finally finalized out 2013-2014 curriculum picks for Emma and Daniel's 3rd and 11th grade year.
For Daniel:
History: Sonlight Core 100 for American History and Mystery of History Volume 3 to continue World Study (this is being continued because Daniel asked to continue it, he loves MOH)
Science: Ace Paces Chemistry plus other books (see my blog post discussing Daniel's Science) for half a year and Signs and Seasons for Astronomy for the other half (this is the plan unles Daniel decided on another science topic for the 2nd half)
Math: Teaching Textbooks Geometry
English: Sonlight core 100 literature and writing assignments plus some extra books from the readers in Core 200, Vocabulary from Classical Roots book C and D, and Wordly Wise

Daniel has finished all his electives and his 2 years of Latin so he has just 4 subjects this year. He will continue Fencing and the mixture of activities the Home School Assist Program offers for Teens.

For Emma:
History: Sonlight Core D, plus Time Traveler CDs, and American Girl Doll Books
Science: Sonlight Science D and Apologia's Flying Creatures
Math: This is still up in the air. Either BJU Math 4 or just play math for the year since she is ahead a year. She would create a math journal and also use grade 3 week essentials
Language Arts: Sonlight LA that comes with core D, the readers from core D plus finish the Mensa Reading List for K-3 and start the Mensa Reading List for 4-6. We will continue to follow the spelling as outlined by Ruth Beechick's You Can Teach Your Child (see the blog post I made on how we are doing this)
Art: Home Art Studio grade 2 and 3, (see past blog post on this)

I am not adding in any specific physical activities because she is very active still. Nature Hikes will continue each week as will her nature journal.

All my carts are full for the companies I will be buying from and am eager to hit the pay buttons. Neat thing, with Sonlight you can pick an interest free time payment plan that is 4 payments spread over 9 months. This makes it nice so a big chunk of money is not gone from our accounts. Once I get all my materials I will have to practice patience. In the past, I tend to drop what we are doing because the new stuff looks so good and I cannot contain myself or the kids....but I will be good this year. I promise. I should be able to hold off till July....I think.

Dot, dot, dot...

We have been studying France in Geography these last two weeks and part of our cultural geography study was on the french painter Georges Seurat. I picked him from the long list of french artists because I thought painting a picture using pointillism would be different. We used the book by Mike Venezia (I love his books and so does Emma) to first read about Seurat and piontillism.

Besides pointillism, Seurat also realized that if you paint a picture where the eye is drawn upward the picture gives off a happy mood, down is sad, and across is calm. Many of his pieces have a more directional feel to relay this feeling.
Next we tried our hand at pointillism.

I helped some, but just a little, Emma would get tired of the constant dot making so I filled in here and there. We had to make sure to add in darker greens for the shadow of the tree and yellows to show the sun shining on the ground and sky.
For the last part of our lesson, Emma filled in a notebooking page. I use History Scribe for the notebook pages (love this disc, I bought it for $5 but I see it has gone up in price).

We are enjoying learning about the different artist and I will probably go through each on the Venezia books the library has. This summer we will be taking a trip to Chicago's Art museum to see some of the works from the artists studied. I can still remember the Seurat painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, when I saw it when I was a young girl. Truly breathtaking.

The final say on Science for Dan

At least for this coming year.
I have been trying to figure out HOW to do Chemistry next year for Daniel since he is having trouble with the Chemistry aspects of Biology and because he is dreading the subject. I looked at curriculum. Posted on forums about what to do. Looked at non textbook ways to go about it...looked and looked and looked. Yesterday I got a brainstorm, does he REALLY need a full Chemistry course? What is actually needed for College admission at our local University? What is actually needed (in science)at the local High School to graduate? I checked. Local high school you need a Foundations in Science and Biology plus 2 more years of science electives. These can be anything from Astronomy to Zoology. In other words, Chemistry is not a necessity. The University requires undergraduates to have 3 yrs in Science, 2 of those years need to be either Biology, Physics, or Chemistry. He will have Biology and will be taking Physics. As long as I add in another science (does not have to be Chemistry) then he is good to go for the University. CHEMISTRY IS NOT REQUIRED!!!
However, to be a good homeschooling mom, I will be requiring some Chemistry. A general knowledge is important. With that he will study Chemistry and Astronomy (he might change this, but for now) and earn a half credit in each.
The Chemistry course will consist of:
ACE Paces Chemistry books 1121-1126
MicroChem kit for labwork
The Elements
and read these and/or others similar to these
A Poisoner's Handbook
The Disappearing Spoon
Napoleon's Button
Periodic Tales

This will give him a basic Chemistry course. If he enjoys this he can do the other paces for Chemistry, 1127-1132.
For Astronomy, the tentative plan is to use Signs and Seasons. This will be carried out for the whole school year but only used a few times a week, resulting in a half credit earned.

Whew...I am so glad this is decided and I can stop blogging about this science dilemma.