Planning for next year
The dreaded planning post. I’ve received the Rainbow Resources catalog and had brief meetings with Jordan and Alex about what they want to do and I’m getting organized.
Math:
Alex wants to learn “x math” so we’ve started working on Hands on Equations. He’ll continue to use Singapore as a “fallback” occasionally, but we’ve started “Life of Fred – Fractions” at a really slow pace and it is a hit.
Jordan wants to learn to multiply big numbers, so we are going to continue our slow progress on Math-U-See. We’ve been taking a break to work on different topics. She’s also enjoying HOE and LOF
They are both also doing Live Math Bowl to practice their math facts.
Social Studies:
We’re going to continue with Story of the World on audio with Volume 4 and then picking up extra books and movies as topics interest us.
Language Arts:
They are both going to continue reading for pleasure, with the occasional “challenge” book that we pick out together. Alex wants his writing to focus on non-fiction this year because he’s tired of thinking up stuff 
. So, he is going to start incorporating a Charlotte Mason approach to reading on science and history topics by writing a summary after reading. We did this a few years ago but I did the reading and they did a verbal summary but it seems like we’ve gotten away from it. We’ll see how that goes. Jordan is going to start Writing Strands.
Science
Alex has picked out several Chemistry experiment kits. He also wants to learn about electricity and has picked out some kits for that. I’m goign to write another post on my thoughts on pre-made kits. Oh, and he wants to learn about airplanes and has picked out yet another (somewhat pricey!) kit and has agreed to make it a unit study so I’m going to be putting some stuff together for that. Jordan has tentatively picked out some things and said she is interested in plants. She has been helping in the garden and she loves craft projects, so I plan on trying to incorporate a lot of that into our studies.
On Tuesdays next year they will be going to an all day “Homeschool Discovery Academy” that holds music, Spanish, PE, computer, art and Hands on Science classes. Although I don’t think they “need” this, they have some friends who will be going and I am needing a full day to commit to working at the office and Aubrey’s schedule has gotten busy enough that I can’t guarantee she’ll be available.
Oh, and then Alex is on the gymnastics homeschool team (somewhat of a recreational/fun team without the time or financial commitment a true gymnastics team) and Aubrey is preparing to join the HS trampoline team.
I’m thinking all of this will keep us busy.