Homeschool Plans for the Week

December begins this week and I’m just not quite ready to admit that.  Where has the year gone?  We have rain and snow in the forecast this week.  I’m sharing our homeschool plans for the week today because lists are motivating.  I have two doctor’s appointments this week that will throw off the schedule a bit (one ultrasound and one midwife appointment) but this is the goal for each day.

Family Memory Work
We are still memorizing The Family: A Proclamation to the World and have dived into our Christmas songs for this year.  I have some flashcards coming from Signing Time that will be added to the binder for ASL and Spanish.  The front of each card shows a picture of what you’re to sign, the back shows how to sign it.  We’ll use the front to have younger children practice the signs and older children to practice the Spanish word for that item.  Now to wait patiently for the flashcards to arrive…  You can learn more about our memory work binder here.

Math
Makayla is working on division by 4 and after that will tackle averages.  Joseph and Emma need some more review of the addition facts they’ve learned up to now.  I think I’ll pull out the math songs from Math U See to introduce a new way to remember them.

Reading to Mom
Joseph and Emma read to me from a book each day.  We’re just practicing and practicing.  One of these days fluency will happen.  Daniel is also reading to me most days because he wants to. 

Writing
The older three children continue their WriteShop levels.  Makayla is writing a humorous story this week.  She did her brainstorming today and it’s going to be about a girl studying kangaroo rats in Australia.  One of the rats is going to grow to the size of a real kangaroo and cause mischief.

Greek Myths or History
As long as interest continues I’ll read a Greek myth to the kids each day, or we’ll study whatever historical subject they’re interested in.  This is pretty free-form for now.  Last week was pilgrims and Wampanoag indians with Greek myths.  Who knows what will catch their fancy this week on our history book shelf?!

Succulents Science
We have a pot of succulent plants and discovered this morning that two are flowering, so we’ll do some plant observations and study.  I’ll pull out our botany book so we can learn more about the differences and similarities between succulents and other plants.  The girls have been sprouting bean seeds too.

Read Aloud
We really need to start Ozma of Oz if we’re going to have any hope of finishing it before our next book club meeting.  Last week I didn’t do any extra reading aloud because my mouth still hurt from dental surgery but today it’s feeling pretty good.  I’ll try to get started on this today.

Delight Directed Studies
Pretty much anything else is led by the children’s interests, and history and science are pretty interest driven as well.  Emma is usually doing some art project whereas Joseph is building or designing things.  He has K’nex out this week.  I have no idea how he builds with those things!  They’re just out of my league…LOL.  Give me plain old blocks any day. 

What are your learning plans for the week?