2021-22 Curriculum Post

All the homeschoolers in the house, make some noise!!!

St. Bruno the Great homeschool has four students this year: Byron, senior; Edie, sophomore; Fulton, 8th grade; and Teddy, 5th grade. We’re going to continue with our classically inspired, “hot mess” style curriculum for the umpteenth year in a row. Let’s jump into all the details shall we?????

Byron, 12th grade – Three classes at the community college this fall, and three classes at the community college in the spring. [wipes hands clean and walks away]

But seriously, having just seen how many of Addie’s community college classes transferred from her senior year of high school and her freshman year (all but one- she’s going in with 42 credits), has solidified my decision to have Byron finish out his high school career this way. Besides getting to outsource high level classes, we’re saving a ton on future college tuition.

Edie, 10th grade

• English
  • Writing – A combination of Time 4 Writing classes and writing assignments tied to literature. While I liked The Good and Beautiful (TGB) English program, there was too much extra stuff we didn’t need. Plus, I like for the kids to get feedback on their writing from other teachers. She’ll alternate semesters between doing an online writing course, and then reviewing those skills in assignments for me submitted via Google Classroom.
  • Grammar – She made good progress in grammar thanks to TGB program and I didn’t want her to lose that so I went with Daily Grammar Practice.
  • Literature – Books from the Middle Ages; one text a semester. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales and The Inferno. I use SparkNotes online to help with quizzes and literary analysis topics but Edie submits all the work to me in Google Classroom.
• History – The History of the Medieval World; weekly questions and regular essays, plus some map tracing and labeling. It’s a non-Catholic source, so we’ll see how their treatment of the Church goes, but I have other supplemental books I can introduce (as well as Church documents) as needed. (Also all done on Google Classroom.)
• Math – Teaching Textbooks Online
• Logic – I broke The Discovery of Deduction into a two year course so we’ll fnish that this year.
• Biology – Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology
• Music – I’d like her to get back into guitar. We’ll see.
• Art – Classes as she wants at a new art studio downtown.
• Foreign Language – She’s informally teaching herself Italian.

Fulton, 8th grade

• English
  • Writing – Narrating assignments from history and science using speech to type programs. Interesting facts he wants to remember will be used as copywork or dictation practice.
  • Reading Skills – My focus this year will be switching away from intensive reading pratice, and instead on helping Fulton learn the material that is important to him through programs that read text aloud. We will do some reading practice based on the methods outlined in The Dyslexic Advantage. I will do a full post on this book at another time, but its done wonders for helping me understand the dyslexic mind and how to adapt teaching methods along with my own mindset.
  • Literature – Historical fiction tied to history. We have a ton of titles so I’ll let him pick a few throughout the year.
• Math – Right Start Math – Something new this year. Still has workbook practice like Abeka along with some other activities I hope will help with understanding and retention.
• Religion – CONFIRMATION YEAR! We actually started confirmation prep last year and we’ll continue through this school year.

Teddy, 5th grade

• English
  • Writing – Writing With Skill, Level 1, as well as some work tied to his literature selections and science topics.
  • Literature – Historical fiction tied to history; his choice from our library.
• Math – Abeka 5
• Religion – CCD, Faith and Life 6
• Latin – Little Latin Readers, starting with Italia
• Logic – Mindbenders

Joint subjects

• Morning Meeting
  • Reciting Latin prayers
  • Shakespeare – Lots of plays!!!
  • Art Appreciation – We’ll study painters tied to the boys art lessons.
  • Music Appreciation – I found an interesting podcast we’ll listen to once a week.
  • Geography – Focus will be on states and capitals (review mostly), and then identifying countries on other continents.
  • Bible – Bible in a Year podcast
• Fulton & Teddy
  • History – Middle Ages – I’ll rely on The Story of Civilization Volume 2 and The Story of the World Volume 2 throughout the year. As mentioned, literature selections will primarily tie into history.
  • Grammar – Same program as Edie, just an easier level. We’ll break down one sentence over the course of the week together.
  • Science – Two or three units from The Good and Beautiful. We’re starting with Geology.
  • Art – Discovering Great Artists – This is a favorite book of mine. I’m excited to work through some of the projects with Fulton and Teddy.
  • Audio Book – The boys will get stretched daily and listen to an audio book. The focus will be on children’s adaptions of Middle Aged literature: Beowulf, King Arthur, etc.

I’ll be switching up my schedule a bit this year to accommodate Teddy’s surgery and running Accepting the Gift. I’ll save those details for another time. All my previous curriculum posts can be found HERE. All my other super interesting homeschooling posts, books, etc. are HERE.