Finally A Great Lesson Plan

After 2 months of school, we finally have a lesson plan that's working for us and I thought I'd share it with our readers.

Many people think that you have to cram every subject into each day. I learned early on that it's very difficult to do this and that the child doesn't seem to learn very well under those circumstances. So I've broken this down to a workable plan that we tweak as we go until it works. And we get our 4 hours each day that is required by our state.

Spelling - Monday - Wednesday, test on Thursday

Reading - Reading Comprehension on Monday
Read a chapter or two from his favorite book on Friday

Language Arts - Complete two pages each day Wed., Thurs., & Fri.
Analogies as extra learning on Tuesday

Math - Wed., Thurs., Fri. - One of each: add, subtract, multiply, divide
Work on new lesson: weight conversion, fractions, etc.

Social Studies/Science- Wed., Thurs., Fri. - Work on one subject one month and the other
subject the next month. You need to really get as much accomplished
as you can each month. Both subjects have a lot of information to cover.

Writing - Fridays only. You should be getting a lot of writing assignments with Language Arts.

If you finish early, EXERCISE. Remember those deep breathing & stretching exercises I discussed earlier in the school year. Many public schools are working that into their lesson plans as well.

History Help

Below are a couple of different ways to venture into History.

www.time-lines.net
See Bible and World History together!

www.bfbooks.com
History through Literature

Grammar & Spelling Help

Need help with grammar & spelling? Maybe you can find it at the following links.

www.egumpp.com
Master grammar

www.spelling.org
Tools for spelling

Writing Help

Below are a few sites you might want to check out for writing help.

www.vantageonlinestore.com
Because writing matters

www.excellenceinwriting.com
Consistently the best

Gas & School

My older son called me when he arrived at school awhile ago. He told me that he had overheard a conversation yesterday about gas stations in our area possibly eliminating regular gasoline. While he was driving to work he glanced over at the grocery store marquis where he works (they have a gas station also) and noticed that the regular prices were missing meaning that what he overheard was true.

I expect that soon the schools in our area will have to start making choices - eliminating a day from each week by adding hours to the other days the kids attend, charge the kids for bussing, or adopt an online public school system. This is our older son's last year of school so perhaps he can enroll with an online college or university for his advanced education. I sure would like to see free online education advance to the public schools for our younger son before I have to admit him in the 9th grade.

Now I'm going to go think of a few more things I can eliminate from our lives so we can purchase our gas. (rolling eyes)

Math & Science Help

Below are a few sites I've received in the mail that you may find useful.

Math-U-See
www.MathUSee.com

Bring Science Home with Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc.
www.apologia.com

Bio Corporation for Biology Products
www.biologyproducts.com

Curriculum Packages

I've received some corespondence mail about places you can check out to purchase curriculum packages from. Again, I thought I'd share this info with our readers. i hope you find this information helpful. Good luck!

http://www.lincolnchristianacademy.com/
Lincoln Christian Academy
minimal parental time needed, individualized, economical

http://www.face.net/
The Noah Plan Curriculum
Foundation for American Christian Education

http://www.clp.org/
Christian Light Education
K-12 complete program

http://www.christianlibertypress.com/
Christian Liberty Press
Affordable, consistently biblical

http://www.homeschoolingbooks.com/
Complete curriculum packages, large selection of books, Christian values throughout

http://www.basicchristianeducation.com/
Bible based curriculum, easy to use, record keeping service, reasonable rates

Schedules

For the first 3 weeks of school I scheduled our son for Writing & Reading Comprehension on the same days. That wasn't working out very well as he doesn't like doing either. So for our 4th week, he & I changed his schedule so that these subjects aren't on the same day which at the time he does approve of.

So the teaching tip is......If the first schedule isn't working out very well, then change it to work better for you and your child. This may even require a couple more changes as you go. The classes have to be completed so the easiest way to get your child to complete them is what you're striving for.

Improve, Excel, Fun

Below are sites that I've received information about in our regular mail. Today I'm including computer skills, animation (which is what our younger son that I homeschool would love to learn), & foreign languages.

www.MotherboardBooks.com
For kids 12 & up
Includes Computer Science Pure and Simple to help your youngster become comuter savvy.
Also Logo Adventures for a fun, creative experience in animations and drawing.

www.nr-productions.com
Ages 8 + Turn toys and household objects into animated videos with Windows computers. Affordable kit has everything you need to learn to write script, set building, lighting, sound and video editing.

www.talkingfingers.com
Phonics-to-Fluency Software for Hands-on Reading & Spelling. Read, write and type learning system online edition.

The remaining sites are Foreign Language sites.

www.queenhomeschool.com
Lessons for the little ones, very young, elementary, secondary & high school levels

www.power-glide.com
Enhanced with graphic & gaming technology; online lessons

www.learnables.com
Tested on thousands of students; combines pictures, sound & text to maximize learning.