Our only student left! AJ's schedule

Our last child, DS AJ, is a junior and we are basically doing most of HEO year 10 . I have taught a course in American Lit a couple of times now, with my own kids and a few other hs students along for good discussion. That tends to steal from the typical HEO recommendations and rotations from both years 10 and 11. We have to adjust for that, but I have made adjustment to AmblesideOnline ever since we first began it back in the late 90's.

We are looking into purchasing "The Lost Tools of Writing" to help our last child with writing. I'll let you know how that turns out. We may yet keep things simple for him, or we may decide to dive right in to better, deeper methods on a simple level, which is what he needs right now.

History Spine for this year:
Our oldest two students, now long-graduated and married, used Paul Johnson's History of the American People. Our now college freshman read through the Clarence B. Carson set, A History of the United States, for his American History Spine. So, we are trying Churchill with our youngest. He is a junior, but we have rearranged his history for several reasons, one being the American Lit. class issue that I've already mentioned.

Literature:
We did American Lit last year. Hubby teaches American Lit, so I love to present that subject in chronological order, different from HEO, so that I can have Hubby's input and discussion in our classes, as well.

We saved Moby Dick for this year, didn't require it of him in American Lit last year. His big brother read it, but he was ready for it, AJ was not at the time. Hubby also wants him to read Great Gatsby, which is scheduled in Yr. 11 of HEO.


Our main Shakespeare play for the year is "As You Like It" but Hubby wants us to add one more to the rotation. Maybe it will be Hamlet, and we can use Peter Leithart's study book, _Brightest Heaven of Invention_.

DS will keep reading through _The History of English Lit for boys and girls_. This is one of his favorite books of all the AO/HEO recommendations.

Writing:
Zinsser "On Writing" or may get "Lost Tools of Writing" and go deep to see what he is capable of, since AJ grasped things later than our other students/children.


Citizenship:
DS will also be reading "Ourselves" by Charlotte Mason to cover citezenship, along with One Blood by Ken Ham and Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin

Geography:
Pinpoint places about which we read on a map
also may read Eothen (a travel journal)
We have maps which we bought in New England when we visited there. We will point things out from this year as we come across them, such as Winslow Homer's home(s), Nathaniel Hawhtorne's home, Louisa May Alcott's home(s), Emerson's Home, etc.


Government/economics:
The Law (1848) by Frederic Bastiat


Foreign Language:
DS has studied two years of Spanish, but I'd like to draw him into more conversation and stories. He is still a resistant, reluctant student with learning/processing issues, so I have to present enriching ideas for him to grasp hold and take off. That is difficult to stay the course with this one. I lose heart far too often.


Worldviews:
We'll watch the video series "How Should We Then Live" by Francis Schaeffer to help ease the reading burden on ds. I am also planning on reading _Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave_ along with him and disussing.

We may read Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde. Not sure if we should add two more books to his reading schedule. Will see how things go. All our other kids read these, plus _The Deadliest Monster_ by Jeff Baldwin, a sort of study guide, but an essay in and of itself for the aforementioned books. Our oldest two read this when they were in year 8 and year 10, respectively.


Essays:
I love the Emerson Essays. We have already read some in American Lit last year. I will have AJ read more, including the LONGER Nature essay. There are two Nature essays. I think HEO still scheduled the very short essay. The longer one is much, much better, IMHO, and in my teacher-Hubby's opinion. He has taught American Lit for 20 years. The American Scholar is phenomenal, and one which we read last year. Oldest kids read it, as well. So I'll have AJ read "Art" this year, since we didn't cover that one last year.

We are going to add a few books by Wendell Berry, as he seems to be a modern-day, Christian Thoreau in whom my husband and I are becoming very, very interested. Hubby is not your typical Christian, evangelical hs dad. He is not a replublican! (lol) and I am more of a tea party person, myself...though I still hesitate to identify with them, because the Tea Party encompasses a broad spectrum of folks and ideologies.


Math:
Consumer Math (we suspect dysgraphia with this student, so we don't expect any miracles toward Algebra I or II and beyond...that is also a real problem I have, so have swapped the teaching of Maths--with other families, Moms--for Spanish teaching {which I *love* and am good at, if I do say so myself, lol!} in years past with all our other, older three kids, all now graduated).

Budgeting and books by Larry Burkett, Ron (I think) Paris, others


Logic:
I hope to work on _How to Read a Book_ with AJ. He has not read any of this, yet, unlike our older kids, who read this much earlier in their schooling.


Health:
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made (probably the DVD instead of the book for this particular student)
The Gift of Pain by the same author

Science:
Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynmen
Bio on Albert Einstein, and DVD documentaries

Nature Study:
We've already read _Walden_ and been to Walden Pond, so we will read some John Muir
and work on nature photography, probably study Ansel Adams again. AJ was too young last time we studied him.

The following are not this year's AO/HEO recommendations completely, because we are studying these with a few others, as well as at home.

Poetry:
We've already been working on Billy Collins and just started William Wordsworth. To these, I will add Emily dickinson and John Greenleaf Whittier for the year


Artist/Picture Study:
An in-depth look at Winslow Homer
Norman Rockwell,
and Vincent Van Gogh


Drawing/Art:
Artistic Pursuits
The Arts by Hendrick Van Loon


Composer Study:
Chopin this term
The Russian composers next term

Music History:
300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture by Professor Carol


Hymn Signing:
Yes! and Tonic Solfa study, as well
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by John Greenleaf Whittier (just one of several)


Recitations and Copywork:
sections/speeches from Shakespeare
poems that we are studying this year
Bible verses in English and Spanish


Folk Songs this term:
Aiken Drum
Carick Fergus
De Colores


Plays:
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (we will watch it, instead of reading it)
a second Shakespeare (haven't decided which one yet)


Free Reading:
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (We have the added bonus of having visited Hawthorne's hometown, his home in Concord, and Seven Gables, so this may help!)
Little Men (AJ never read it earlier in AO b/c he didn't fully learn to read until he was older, now he reads quite well, but it is not his favorite thing to do)
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
P.G. Wodehouse stories (may simply watch some)
G. K. Chesterton
and MAYBE a Sir Walter Scott novel.


And of course, we will be working on basic life skills, such as changing tires, changing oil, building simple things, helping with home and car maintainence, cooking, etc. He keeps his room very tidy.



It has taken me long enough to share this, but I just gave the schedule another tweak this week, so it wasn't really ready to share, just yet!

I've also been quite busy prepping other classes, Spanish I and II, Artist/Picture Study, and poetry, just to name a few!


The older I get, the slower I seem to be at posting details, LOL.


How is your schoolyear going, my dear, quiet readers? Let me know!


Javamom

A Night Piece

Hunter's Moon October 2011

A Night Piece

by William Wordsworth

composed 1798, published 1815

--The sky is overcast

With a continuous cloud of texture close,

Heavy and wan, all whitened by the Moon,

Which through that veil is indistinctly seen,

A dull, contracted circle, yielding light

So feebly spread, that not a shadow falls,

Chequering the ground--from rock, plant, tree, or tower

At length a pleasant instantaneous gleam

Startles the pensive traveller while he treads

His lonesome path, with unobserving eye

Bent earthwards; he looks up--the clouds are split

Asunder,--and above his head he sees

The clear Moon, and the glory of the heavens.

There, in a black-blue vault she sails along,

Followed by multitudes of stars, that, small

And sharp, and bright, along the dark abyss

Drive as she drives: how fast they wheel away,

Yet vanish not!--the wind is in the tree,

But they are silent;--still they roll along

Immeasurably distant; and the vault,

Built round by those white clouds, enormous clouds,

Still deepens its unfathomable depth.

At length the Vision closes; and the mind,

Not undisturbed by the delight it feels,

Which slowly settles into peaceful calm,

Is left to muse upon the solemn scene.

Placed by Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination" printed in the "Lyrical Ballads"