Our Plans {2014-2015 Term 2}

It's hard to believe we are a third of the way through the school year! This post will have what we are continuing from term 1 and what new books we are using for term 2. A * will indicate any new selections for term 2 or books we switched to after school started and weren't included in the term 1 post.

Tyler~10 years old~5th grade:

History/Geography: 

Visits to North America  (map work)

The Cat of Bubastes (historical fiction)
Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (ancient history)
The Story of the World 1 (Ancient History) 
Augustus Caesar's World  (will be added in about halfway through the term)*
Stories of America Volume 2 (American History)*

Math:
We switched to Saxon 5/4 earlier in the school year and have been very happy with this switch.
Life of Fred (math review for Tyler)
Times Attack  (for additional fact practice)

Science:
Tyler has two more weeks of weather study and then he will be starting Focus of Chemistry*.
Health 5 from Seton

Religion:
Life of our Lord For Children
St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism *

Language Arts:
IEW Fix It Book 1 (applied grammar)
All About Spelling 4 
Keyboarding Skills 
Copywork
Writing (working on written narrations and other writing projects)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe * (for literature) 



Caleb~13 years~8th grade

History/Geography:
Caleb requested to stop ancient history studies and switch to modern history. So, we are going to use plans for studying the 20th century from Mater Amabilis (World and American History)
American Gun: A History of the US in Ten Guns (American History)
Hittite Warrior (Ancient History-he's enjoying this book and wanted to finish it; we will replace it with a book off the MA list once done)
Visits to North America (map work)
Current Events using our Diocese's weekly paper
Geography Games (map drill)

Math:
Saxon 8/7 
Times Attack (for additional fact practice)

Science:
CHC Life Science by Michael J. Spear *(which is a complete change from our original plans)

Religion:
The Virtue Tree Program  (which is from CHC and I found it in their old Middle School Guide-but the current lesson plans are in the seventh grade lesson plans)
St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism No. 2 *
The How-To Book of the Mass *

Language Arts:
IEW Fix It Book 2 (applied grammar)
All About Spelling *
The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (literature)
Writing With Skill Level 1 *
Written Narration once a week from history

We also have 45 minutes first thing for Morning Basket and 30 minutes at the end of the school day that I like to call Afternoon Basket. This is the work we do together. 

For Morning Basket I plan to spend 15 minutes on each topic and get down three each day. We were running a few minutes late this week and just read a little less in the read aloud.

For Afternoon Basket I just pick a topic that I want to do that afternoon and do one or a few of the suggestions under it.

Morning Basket links:
Swallowdale (read aloud)
A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls (history)
Grammar Town *(grammar)
St. John Paul II: Be Not Afraid *(religion-saints)
The Father Brown Reader II *(read aloud)
Faith & Life 5 (religion-catechism)
The Fallacy Detective (logic)
The U.S. Constitution and You *(civics)

Afternoon basket links:
Chalk Pastel
Ed Emberley
Art Through Faith
The Ultimate Homeschool PE Book *
Memorizing poetry using How to Teach Your Kids Shakespeare and The Harp and Laurel Wreath
A Midsummer's Night Dream  (Shakespeare)
Lewis Carroll
Handicrafts Made Simple-Hand Sewing *