Goals for the Next Year Part 2 - 6th Grade

Goals for Violet's 6th Grade

Math

Solidify math facts	Continue math drill with a combination of Flashmaster, flashcards, and other methods.
Improve problem solving skills	Complete Singapore level 6 and CWP series
Solidify basic computation skills and concepts of fractions, decimals, percents, and ratios	Complete Singapore level 6 and supplement as needed with other resources.
Solidify basic geometry skills with triangles, rectangles, and parallelograms and learn basics of circles	Complete Singapore level 6 and supplement as needed

Language Arts - Reading/Literature

Improve reading comprehension and narration	Continue assigning selections of literature daily with oral narration. Have her jot down a list of facts for more difficult selections. Write up model narrations, compare her narration against the model, and discuss differences.
Introduce basic literary analysis	Use teaching the classics methods to complete story charts and add basic discussion of some selections this year.

Language Arts - Writing

Improve paragraph writing skills.	Complete second part of CW Homer and writing lessons in Rod & Staff 6
Learn to write stories out of chronological order	Taught in CW Homer
Improve outlining and summarizing skills	Complete weekly outlining and summaries of history and science topics. Write book reports or plot summaries of literature selections.
Improve writing style.	Taught in CW Homer and apply to other writing across curriculum.

Language Arts - Grammar & Spelling

Finish up spelling skills	Complete SWO H.
Solidify 8 parts of speech and basic diagramming skills.	Complete Rod & Staff 6 and grammar exercises in Homer.
Introduce more advanced grammar concepts

History

Finish timeline.	Add HTTA figures weekly as related to reading.
Cover historical events through modern times	Read resources recommended in TruthQuest AOR 2 and 3.
Expand study of history beyond basic facts and stories.	Have weekly history discussion of either TruthQuest commentary or a selected history topic.

Science

Introduce the basics of chemistry and ecology	Complete God's Design for Chemistry and Ecology series.
Increase interest in science.	Complete as many hands on activities as possible. Have available supplementary library books on topics. Require 1 science related library book choice each week.

Latin & Greek

Continue to build Latin vocabulary and grammar concepts.	Complete Latin for Children level C.
Improve translation skills.	Work through level C history reader.
Learn Greek alphabet.	Complete Greek Alphabet Code Cracker.
Introduce basic Greek vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.	Complete Elementary Greek 1.

Logic

Improve ciritical thinking and reasoning skills.

Complete Critical Thinking Books 1 and 2 and the remaining portion of Building Thinking Skills Level 2.

Goals for Next Year Part 1 - 8th Grade

It's been a few years, since I have taken the time to formally sit down and write out our goals for the year.  Over that time, I've just kept a list in the back of my mind  for each of the kids and chosen curriculum that I believed would help us meet those goals.  Because we reuse curriculum from one child to the next, it's easy to say this child needs to do x,y,and z next year from the curriculum on our shelf and forget that within that each program there are portions that will need more focus or may require a bit of tweaking or supplementing to meet the needs of each particular child.  This is my attempt to step back and assess what we need to work on academically for the next year and how we will accomplish that with our current curriculum.

Goals for Jessie's 8th Grade

Math

Solid grounding in basic algebra

Complete Foerster's Algebra I and supplement with NEM 2 and/or Alcumus as needed for challenge or additional practice

Language Arts - Reading/Literature

Increase critical thinking of literature	Focus on a few works at a slower pace with more depth of discussion than last year.  Continue reading a second tract of books at a faster pace with a focus on 1 or 2 literary elements.
Review basic literary analysis and increase depth of discussion	Watch Teaching the Classics videos this summer. Work farther down the Socratic list of questions to increase depth.
Introduce worldview analysis and apply to literary selections	Work through Teaching the Classics worldview supplement and then apply questions to literature selections.  Place books in context by using research and writing skills learned previously in CW Diogenes Maxim.

Language Arts - Writing

Continue to build outlining and notetaking skills	Have weekly outlining selections for history.  Continue notetaking in BJU with physical science text.  Practice taking oral notes using a combination of Sunday sermons, Latin Alive DVDs, and possibly Traditional Logic DVDs.
Continue to refine summarizing skills	Write summaries for history of various lengths.  Write plot summaries for some literature selections.
Build essay developing skills	Work through Classical Writing Diognes Chreia.
Apply essay skills across curriculum.	Write some 5 paragraph essays related to history topics. Write literary essays covering specific Socratic questions from Teaching the Classics or discussing a theme for a specific work.

Language Arts - Vocabulary & Grammar

Increase exposure to roots and verbal analysis.	Complete exercises in The Word Within the Word Volume 1 and Building Thinking Skills 3 Verbal.
Solidify understanding of grammar concepts and diagramming and apply to more complex sentences with multiple phrases and/or clauses.	Complete exercises in R&S 8 as well as grammar exercises in CW Chreia.

History

Finish timeline through modern time.	Add HTTA figures weekly as encountered in reading.
Continue to asses the effect of worldview on history.	Discuss TruthQuest commentary.  Research the beliefs of select historical figures to determine the effect on their choices and actions.
Support opinions with facts, quotes, examples, etc.	Develop a few short thesis during the year in place of summaries and then support the thesis using the skills learn in CW.  Complete a few TruthQuest writing prompts.

Science

Exposure to topics related to physics and review of chemistry.	Complete BJU Physical Science.
Learn basic lab safety techniques.	Complete as many labs as feasible from BJU.
Learn to write basic lab reports.	Complete lab write ups for the majority of labs.

Latin & Greek

Increase mastery of languages.	Review Latin and Greek vocabulary and grammar over the summer.  Progress through Latin Alive 2 and Elementary Greek 3 start in the fall.
Continue to build vocabulary and grammartical knowledge.
Continue building translation skills and appreciation of language.

Logic

To improve critical thinking and reasoning skills.	Work through Traditional Logic 1 and at least part of 2.
To identify faulty assumptions.
To distinguish between valid and invalid arguments.

WW: Sleeping Bag Fun

What is that lump in your sleeping bag?

Peek-a-boo.  It's Henry in there too.

The Last Couple of Weeks

The last couple of weeks we've taken a break from school to focus on our church VBS.  I volunteered to teach Henry's class.  All the older kids pitched in to help me decorate the classroom the week before last.

 They cut out all of the smaller animals (butterflies, frogs, lizards, and small parrots) and leaves for our rainforest and put them up for me.  The girls also helped with our streamers/vines.  Benny seemed to think the best part of decorating was that I gave him permission to stand on the tables to put leaves and butterflies on the vines. ;)

We all had a blast with the decorating (and probably went a little overboard, but hey I don't often have access to those large bulletin boards rolls of paper and there are just so many possibilities). 

The three younger kids had a great week in their VBS classes this past week.  Jessie helped me preparing some small crafts, volunteered in the snack area one day, and spent two days in the other 4 year old room. 

Week 37: Transitioning to Summer

Jessie's 7th Grade

• Jessie has been steadily working on the review exercises in NEM between chapters 7 and 8 this week. She has about ten math lessons left to finish off to officially be done with math for the year.
• We still have another 5 weeks left in Omnibus. This week we finished Shakespeare's Richard III and continued working on Dante's The Divine Comedy:  Inferno. 
• Jessie also worked through several lessons in CW Intermediate Poetry covering alliteration, refrain, and hyperbole.  She has two lesson left to finish for the current year.

Violet's 5th Grade

• Violet began working on her end of the year review exercises in math. She completed both her textbook and workbook pages for the year and has only a couple of lessons remaining in her IP book.
• Creating better summaries and outlines is one of the areas I want her to work on over the summer.  She completed 5 more lessons in Writing With Skill 1 this week and is on week 3.  I chose to skip the thesaurus lesson for now.
• Her only other remaining assignment was to finish the mega crossword puzzle from her Latin activity book.  She finished on Friday!!

Benny's 2nd Grade

• Benny finished up the final section in Singapore this week and began the review exercises. He finished up the one's in his textbook leaving only the workbook and IP for next week. He also finished his final Miquon page on Friday!!
• For reading fluency, we've been been alternating reading pages in Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz.  I've also started enforcing his 30 minutes of reading alone and having him report to me what he finished in that time.
• He made it through the letter Zz in his cursive copywork, so we're calling it done for the summer.

HISTORY

This was our last week in history for the year.  We finished studying inventors with Samuel Slater and Eli Whitney and read about the Industrial Revolution.  The girls read the beginning chapters of Samuel Slater's Mill and the Industrial Revolution by Simonds, outlined the SOTW section on Whitney, and summarized the SOTW chapter covering factories and the Luddites.  Benny and I just read the SOTW chapters and did narrations.  I also printed off the remaining timeline figures for the year and had the girls catch up on their timelines.  That officially wraps history for this school year.  YEAH!!

HENRY'S CORNER

Henry and I continued with our regular reading, letter recognition, and number recognition activities this week.  He's spent more time watching television this week with the rest of us being between schedules, but I hope to change that for next week.  In the picture, he was really proud of the car seat he made out of playdough.