Well, it is that time of year once again, planning the next years curriculum. Here is a breakdown of what we will be doing.

Our style is the Robinson Curriculum (RC). I love the RC because of its simplicity, the 3r’s.

I will start with Bible. Bible isn’t part of RC, but most users add it in. This year we will use Student of the Word (SOW) for Bible. Like many others, I like how SOW has the student do different types of studies each day. They start by writing a prayer letter. Then each day they either do an outline, a topical study, character study, vocabulary or word study, setting, and commentary. This is actually the Language Arts of the SOW curriculum.

That isn’t to say that we will not do other Bible Studies. We will actually begin the year with Because You Are Strong by Daniel Forster. I plan on doing Beauty in the Heart by Pam Forster too.

Next comes math. The kids have been having success with Saxon, so they will continue using Saxon. They will continue with Saxon Algebra 1/2.

After math, comes writing. Along with writing, we include vocabulary. The kids will continue with English From the Roots Up Volume 2 and also begin SAT: And College Preparation Course for the Christian Student, one lesson a week. I like this because it has it all. In the beginning, it gives a list of vocabulary words, but then it has the student build their vocabulary by the books they read, noting words that they do not know the meaning of. It also has them defining words in context. There are also writing and essay assignments. They start out simple and get harder as the student progresses through the book. There are also reading comprehension assignments. Each lesson starts out with Scripture reading and applying it to everyday life. The author recommends doing a daily devotional, which he provides an outline for and Scripture selections to get you started. Even if my kids aren’t college bound, I think this book will benefit them.

SOW has a nice creative writing section, so I am going to include the assignments for the kids daily writing along with their Bible and SAT.

This year they will begin writing a current events paper every two weeks. We subscribe to World, Answers by Answers In Genesis, the local newspaper, Top Story from World, and other news magazines that they can utilize for their current events.

Book summaries will also be required during writing time. After they finish a book, not including a textbook, they will write up a book summary.

During writing, they will also answer the chapter Bible questions from Notgrass World History, answer the SOW Bible related science questions for A Beka Biology, and do the mapping from A Beka World Geography.

Reading follows writing. They will read for 1 1/2 hours. Within that time, they will read history, science, geography, (auto)biographies, and literature. They are also working their way through the Bible, so they read a couple chapters of that too.

History will be Nograss World History, Science will be A Beka Biology, and geography will be A Beka’s World Geography.

They never did get much typing in last year, so this year NEEDS to be the year. I am planning on giving incentives when they reach certain speeds. $$ always works. 🙂

We will continue with our evening story hour. During this time, I am hoping to implement Getting Started With Latin. This will be our second attempt at a Latin program, so I am hoping we have success with this one. I know that once we finish, we will need to find another program that will go further, but at least we will have a foot in the door so to speak and we can decide if we want to pursue it further. I do think it would be beneficial, I guess I am not very confident that we will get to it. I should change my outlook, okay, my attitude, and give us more credit.

I think that about covers the basics with academics. June has been hit or miss with studies. They got a few lessons of math in and some reading, but not much else. I am looking forward to getting back into a routine. I say routine loosely, because it seems like we are always trying to get into a routine. lol!

So how is your yearly planning going? Are you trying something new this year or sticking with what you are use to or what is working? For us, RC works. I tried adding things or going another route, but we always come back to RC, so it is where we are staying. It is not a comfort zone, just what is working.

Happy planning,