New year, new opportunities for learning. Somewhere around January I will be delivering twins, a boy and a girl, and I'm sure that our school days will be very different from what they are now. Life will change and we will learn all kinds of different things! All part of the joys of learning at home. Life is learning and we will embrace every part of what God has given us!

We loosely follow a classical method of learning. To find out more about classical education follow these links:

What is Classical Education?

The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers

On the Trivium

The Joy of Classical Education

4th grade curriculum:

We begin our day with bible which may consist of reading a Bible story, reading scripture, or doing lessons out of The Explorers Bible Study -- We would work on this for 30 min. We read the bold words, read through the scriptures together, discuss and answer the questions. This year I will require all her work to be done in cursive. We always choose a memory vs. from the lesson to memorize for the week.

Math U See Delta -- 30 min or so. Last year math was very frustrating for S. This year we plan to take things very slow and make it as fun as possible. For now we are not even using the book, but are just playing math games, sorting for multiplication and division, geoboards, using Math Wraps and general trying to avoid tears. When the tears come, learning stops. She also helps with the cooking a lot. We will begin the book when I feel she is ready.

Spelling Workout D. -- 15 minutes. We read the beginning of the lesson, do a pretest and write each misspelled word 3 times on day 1. Often, instead of the pretest, I have her read each word, spell it and use it in a sentence. Over the next three days we work on the activities in the book and sometimes do the writing section. If it is a particularly hard rule I will have her copy the rule into her spelling book. On day 5 we take the test. If she still spells any wrong we copy that word down into a "trouble word" section.

Rod and Staff Grammar 4 -- 40 minutes. This is a very in-depth grammar program. It teaches the concepts very well, but the work can be tedious and overwhelming. I would like to be able to do one lesson per day, but sometimes we need to spend more time then that. Some lessons are very easy to understand and we may do only the odds, or do the lesson orally. Others require more attention.

Reading -- We do three different types of reading. I read aloud to her from history books or good read alouds or she will read something history/science related on her own. Click on the 1000 Good Books link at the top of the page to get an idea. She also spends time reading challenging books to herself or to me. On the right is a list of books she is either working on or has finished. Other times she simply reads what she chooses for fun.

Writing -- Writing work is included in Rod and Staff Grammar 4. We do narrations in our history, write lab reports and book reports, letters and dictation (2-3 times per week). I will also be implementing the Institute for Excellence in Writing this year. This program simply incorporates a plan and structure into whatever writing program you are using. It's a wonderful way to teach children to become articulate writers.

Apologia Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day--A creation based science curriculum that covers ocean life. We will be using a lap book approach in order to make it very hands on and fun for S. I think she'll get more out of it. I'm really looking forward to using this book. I love the writing and simply immersing her in the subject instead of just skimming the top.

History with Story of the World 3. Late Renaissance/Early Modern Times -- About 30-45 minutes a day. Throughout the week we read a chapter or two, possibly listen to the audio accompaniment CD, do a narration, map work, coloring a picture (if she wants to) and orally answer questions. On Friday we do a project from the activity book. Cooking, playing, art, building...it could be anything on that day. I also read something history related to her during mealtimes.

Prima Latina Latin -- IF WE DECIDE TO DO LATIN THIS YEAR this is an easy to follow Latin program. I would like to have the DVD's with this, but for now we just listen to the CD everyday, learn the songs and vocabulary and do the workbook exercises. We have a few Latin games that I am putting together to make it a little more fun. It's kinda boring to her and I want to make it a little more interesting. I don't want to make it too much of a chore, but I think it's important to teach it so I will plug on.

Art/music -- We don't do formal art. We have lots of drawing and craft books that she works on probably about once a week. We do the history projects, she takes piano lessons and I often have her listen to classical music while reading or drawing.

Memory Work -- One Bible verse per week, different Latin prayers and songs, list of rulers, war and poems from the time period of history we are studying. Oh, and skip counting songs. It really help with math facts.

Physical Education -- She does 12 hours of gymnastics per week and that is enough physical activity for anyone. Not only is she very physically fit, she is learning about hard work, perseverance, accomplishing goals, nutrition and working as a team. It's really one of the best sports you can do.

So, all in all, I think we've got a fairly complete year. We'll see what it holds!