Mansel's 2008-2009 School Year Plans

Mansel will be doing the following. If this looks vaguely familiar -- it's because so much of our school overlaps. My friend Cathy said this about MFW... it's like all of the students are on the same bus. The bus is taking a tour. My 1st grader, Milo, my 3rd grader, Mansel, and my 7th grader, Tori are all headed along the same route. They all hear the same information. Milo is the youngest, he will get the least amount out of, but we keep teaching to the next level, because Mansel will get even more out of it. But don't stop there because Tori will be challenged too and retain the most. But not to worry -- because in 4 years we do the same Bible/History cycle all over again, and they will be challenged even more in those years. The bonus? My non-schoolers who are supposed to be playing with rocks and sticks... they are learning too.

So -- Mansel will be starting 3rd grade in Sunday School.

He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This includes:

Bible/History

• Rome, the life of Jesus, early church history, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation from a Christian perspective.
• Bible readings and memory verses.
• Hands-on projects: Make a Roman writing tablet and enjoy a Roman feast, construct a Roman arch, sample foods from the Middle Ages, play Medieval games and more.
• Learn to play chess and construct a cardboard castle.
• Map work, history notebook, and timeline.
• Library book. Daily reading out of the book basket! NOTE: I put all sorts of reading levels in this book basket. From picture books up to adult level reading. I LOVE fining Mansel reading the adult level books. I'm sure a lot of times he's just looking at the pictures, but he has gained an amazing wealth of information from this book basket time. This is one of my favorite features of My Father's World.

Science

• Human body - participate in simple experiments and demonstrations as well as make simple models of body systems.
• Astronomy - explore the universe from a Christian perspective. Includes hands-on activities.
• Weekly nature walk and nature journal.

Read Aloud

• Selected books that are integrated with the study of history to inspire and develop godly character. We will use The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, Dangerous Journey, and Door in the Wall.

Art and Music

• Enjoy hands-on projects from history.
• Art lessons include drawing as well as Roman, Early Church, and Middle Ages art from a godly perspective, using God and The History of Art .
• Music appreciation lessons focus on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.

Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.

He will be starting Singapore Math this year. We were using Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum for math. It has served us well. But I want to stream line our curriculum as much as possible to line up with My Father's World. I want the ease in ordering and the ease of following the lesson plans as much as possible. So he will begin Singapore Math with textbook 1B. That's where the placement test put him. After he finishes that book he'll begin 2A.

He will be doing book C of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.

He will continue to do piano lessons on Monday, which includes 20 minutes of piano practice each day. That will be up from him normal 15 minutes.

He will continue on with the Primary Language Lessons, hopefully finishing that book this year.

Last but not least - he will continue to do spelling using the Spelling Power system that we started this spring. We do this together - one on one.

He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled. I think we'll wait until they enter 7th grade before we start that. Knoxville has the students in middle school starting in 6th grade, but I think we'll still wait until 7th grade for each of scheduling for MOM! They begin more independent learning at this age, so they can be rewarded in this way. More independent learning required of them, so they get more independent recreation as a bonus.

He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.