Coordinating it all

Back on January 4
I posted about things we do for school. It seems like a LOT when it is all written out like that. But it's not nearly as bad as it sounds.

Here is a screen shot of the assignment sheets I made for the girls.



I read the teacher's guide and list the main topic for each day. Then I coordinate the supplemental reading to go along with the daily main topic. Then if there is a Learning Adventure worksheet and/or a History Scribe page, Hold That Thought page, or lapbook element, I plug that it the 3rd column.

Some days there are several pages and other days there isn't any extra paperwork.

What I like about Learning Adventures is that we can add as much or as little reading as we want/need. Learning Adventures is a literature based unit study that is not "Title Driven" but is "Topic Driven." I can use any book available to me to cover each topic. This is very cost effective. We can use books from our own shelves, encyclopedias, and library books. I don't really have to buy any books if I don't want to. Learning Adventures is not as title and page number structured/strict as Sonlight and not as "loosey-goosey" as KONOS.

What was a super help this year was the daily detailed S&S sent from Learning Adventures. You only get this if you buy new, from the Holts. Don't ask me how I did it, but I was able to put each daily subject into the first column of the chart. Then I added the Learning Adventure worksheets to the third column, then I gathered all the books I had here at home, and would do a "search" of my S&S chart for the topics listed in the books. We rarely read the whole book front to back this way, so I added some public domain novels to our supplemental reading column ( the middle column).

I do the same sort of thing for the "Paperwork To Do" column ( the third column). We really like the History Scribe sheets. They work great with Learning Adventures. The Hold That Thought US Geography fit perfectly with this LA ( Learning Adventures) Volume. We also do lapbooking, so I coordinate the lapbooking elements to go along with the daily main topic. Some folks can jump around topics within the same time era, but I like to have more focused lessons.

I printed off the first unit assignment sheets for each daughter, I'm trying to get them to be more self directed. I printed a copy for myself, this is my lesson plan.

I was also questioned if I lapbook and notebook the same subjects. Mostly I do not. If we are notebooking History, we usually will not be lapbooking it too. BUT again there are exceptions. The Knowledge Box Colonial lapbook is quite large and not all the topics coordinate right away in the first Learning Adventures unit. They are spread out over the course of the whole year. So as of right now, we are Lapbooking History & Notebooking History. Also within the curriculum assignments students are to make a Native American Notebook and a State Study Notebook. We are lapbooking Insects for science, and will notebook Weather (Science Scribe) next. Clean as mud? I hope not. Questions welcomed.

Another screen shot of another day: