Connor finished his 8th grade homeschool year and returned home on Memorial Day weekend 2009. He’s going back to public school for high school and happy (for now) to be back at home with his dad and brother.
********************** This is what I wrote in 2008*******************
Connor turned 14 in Sept, entering the 8th grade
This is his first (and only?) year of home schooling
After a lot of research and study, I decided to go with a plan based on the Classical Education described in The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.
History is broken down into 4 periods, with corresponding science and literature.
- Ancient World (beginning – 400 AD) and Biology
- Medieval/Early Renaissance (400-1600) and Astronomy / Earth Science
- Late Renaissance/Early Modern (1600-1850) and Chemistry
- Modern Times (1850-Present) and Physics
In a full education, the 4 periods would be covered 3 times from 1st grade through 12th grade. Since we’re starting with 8th grade I’m using some combination of the 2nd and 3rd time through.
After working up the schedule and realizing how much there is to cover I’ve adjusted a bit with some assistance from a schedule by Carole Joy Seid.
- Ancient World (beginning – Ancient Greece)
- Ancient Rome and Middle Ages/Crusades (-1460)
- Renaissance and Reformation (1461-1600)
- Colonies and Revolutions (1601-1913)
- Modern times and American Government (1913-present)
Here is the list of subjects/resources I plan on using. I have a very nice detailed plan that I expect to adjust like mad once we actually get started.
- Early Algebra from Life of Fred
- Apologia General Science because he just did Biology in 7th grade
- Easy Grammar Plus
- Critical Thinking books 1 & 2
- Vocabulary from Classical Roots A & B
- History and literature will be the Ancient World
- Our spine text is The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
- Literature will be Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Greek Drama, Mythology, and Philosophy with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle with courses from The Teaching Company.
- We’ll throw in some art along the way
- He’ll read through the Bible this year in conjunction with the history
- He plays handbells with us at church
- We’ll create a timeline notebook
Plus lots of free reading
