School year plans

Have you not started school yet? Welcome to the club! It seems everyone has started back except us. We have been starting Labor Day for quite some time now. Maria will be starting her online classes this week, but otherwise I am still furiously trying to prepare for our new year! Here's what's up...

Maria will be in 11th grade! this year. She will be taking three online classes with Mother of Divine Grace; English, religion, and drama. We will be using Teaching Textbooks Geometry, Wile biology, Rosetta Stone Spanish, and a world history course using Christ the King Lord of History along with lots of literature. She will also earn a PE credit, not because she needs anymore of them, but because she exercises anyway. We will continue piano lessons, and she is joining a book club put together by a local homeschooling mom. She will also continue to be busy with Life Teen at our parish.

Jack will be in third grade and basically following the typical course of study with MODG. He is a year behind in math, so he will be using Abeka 2 math instead of Abeka 3. We are also using Handwriting Without Tears instead of the usual text. I have a couple of lapbooks planned for him, and he will join in with the younger kids as much as he wants to do so. He is also continuing piano lessons and Miracle League baseball, and he will be attending PSR classes at our church. He is still receiving four hours a week of occupational and speech therapies as well.

Tess will be in kindergarten! Yay! She is *so* excited about this. :) She will be using MODG kindergarten syllabus. We will also be doing an Alphabet Path together with Henry using mostly ideas from Little Saints. Tess will also attend PSR classes, and she is starting Irish dance classes tomorrow!

Henry is 3 and will do Little Saints with Tess and use our hands on preschool materials.

Mary Claire is almost 15 months old. She will eat crayons and empty boxes of baby wipes.

In addition to our Alphabet Path, I have bought Making Music Praying Twice and FamilyTimeFitness. My plan is to have a Circle Time several times a week with Jack, Tess, Henry, and Mary Claire and use these materials. Jack used to take physical therapy. He tested out of it, but he still has issues with coordination and low muscle tone. His PT suggested looking for some kind of structured PE for him. Baseball is great, but not regular enough. We enrolled in a homeschool PE class for a time, but it was only once a week, and the day/time that worked best for us was cancelled for low enrollment. I have looked for some sort of program that might be a good fit, but haven't found much. Then I stumbled onto the fitness program linked above, and it looks perfect. Because I can do it myself, we can do it several times a week on our own schedule, and everyone can participate. The activities are for a mixed age group, and look really fun! I also purchased their strength program for Maria to use for PE.

Ok, the gang is waking, so computer time is up here! Hoping to post frequently this year about all our fun. I'm looking forward to starting our new year. It is a blessing to me that no matter how fried I feel by the end of the previous year, I can still get excited for a new year. :)