Planning next year's WB~* Step one

You can use the Parent Guide planner to record the time spent on that resource to keep track of the hours.The course code is listed and can be used to keep track of learning towards high school credits.When n high school my high school students will leave the living books and begin to use high school BJU & Abeka books only in order to earn the Carnegie Unit of study.They can still read the living books for better understanding but all assignments will be done with high school text books. How to use the reporting website and also the course code keys http://ati.iblp.org/ati/family/curriculum/reporting/

Step 1: Set up the Reporting Data Base

The first thing I did last week was set up my school year on the Homeschooling Reporting website that is free for ATI families.What a blessing that is ! http://www.homeschoolreporting.com/ I put in the computer all the legal aged students.In Pa you do not have to school children until they are 8 so I do not school my children officially meaning keeping records until then so I do not put them in the system.So what I do is log days for elementary & Jr.High Students which is 180 days Pa law.Since Dominic is a freshman in high school next year 9th grade will begin to log hours using the course codes as my key. Up until high school since I just log days I never really payed attention to the Course codes but now the codes are a very valuable tool that will begin to use next year as I keep more detailed records that may one day be asked from a college.No big deal we will do what we always do home school with our Wisdom Booklets but now keep a more detailed log.So when after I set up each student I decided to use semesters 4 Wisdom Booklets per semester.I set up each subject for high school Bible, Math,Science etc.listed under Course Standards I listed all the course codes that I would consider credit for that class.Example of the course codes Bible:1000 Bible1010 Bible Doctrines1020 Bible History1030 Bible Prophecy1040 Bible LawBible which to a college would be considered an elective so anytime they are working in the Wisdom Booklet and we come across a Bible course code I count the hours towards that subject or elective class.Since they are in an adult Bible study at church I can also count that too, or maybe a Bible class at the co-op etc.It all gets logged under the elective Bible. Now Dominic is doing Apologia Biology on top of the WB which is full of Biology so when we come across course code 6530 in the WB count the time spent under Biology.I will have a General Science course listed separately as an elective that everything else will be placed under for credit.What have decided to do for the transcript is list the classes completed by credit which I will keep track.When they complete the required # of Carnegie Units I will then give them credit along with the grade for the transcript. I then will record it after the semester is completed on the Reporting website.
Carnegie Unit: (general guide)
*1 full credit = 120-150 hours
*1/2 credit = 60 hours
*1/4 credit = 30-40 hours
homeschooling High School with the WB: school for example 1/2 unit if U.S Government is recommended for high school Social Science so in 9th grade my student may get 1/4 credit from the law resources and 1/4 credit in 10th grade working through the WB. which would get the 1/2 credit recommended of U.S.Government.

The important thing is having a focus and when planning the school the year so I begin by deciding what my focus is and set it up on the reporting website then using the WB course codes as a tool to keep track of the time spent.They can easily get 2-3 hours per subject each day between doing the WB as a family then the independent research etc.As you begin to keep track of the time you will see earning hghschool credits usng the WB is an easy goal to reach it is just a matter of keepng good records.
~*Praise the Lord ATI equips you with the needed tools to be successful.Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you!

Planning next year's WB~* Step 2

This year I am trying something new.I purchased the Full Year Notebook System by Julie Anderson http://full-year-notebooks.com/to organize my home school & WB.There is also a yahoo group also for support for this organization tool.Since I LOVE notebooks I really like this tool.


As I stated in step one I have decided to record by semesters so I pull out my Parent Guide planners of the WB I plan to complete the next school year.I plan to do WB 25-28 semester 1 & WB 29-32 for semester 2.I then grab a calendar and the Weekly Planner to begin planning the school year.I use the Weekly Planner only for my WB.

Above additional studies I will list Beginner,Intermediate,& Advance.I will circle in the Parent Guide the projects I plan to do then record it in the weekly planner.I may do one project for one day or I may do 3 days of projects.It just depends.If I come across something I need to purchase ahead of time like a frog then I can go to the WB before and mare in the needs order from to dissect.
I only schedule 4 days a week leaving Friday Blank.The reason is to keep Friday open for co-op days, an extra day to for emergency, field trip, or if we get behind from over scheduling to get caught up on things.Most normal weeks will still be 5 days of school unless the extra day is used for emergency or sick day etc.
I plan to begin the school year the end of August so the year will end the beginning of April.This gives me 8 weeks of extra time in case of unexpected needs of days off so I can have 180 days in by June 30 the PA deadline.
Remember the Weekly Planner is just a planner the dates are not important they can easily change and the projects etc.It is a tool not a master! If the student spent more time in an area I simply change things around they still spent the necessary time in school. It may be: reading,watching a movie,writing, etc. I use the weekly planner as a compass and the reporting website as a final log of we completed.Both can be changed to fit my needs.
In the past this is were I have stopped in planning projects,book to read, & verses to memorize but this year I am going a step further to Step 3 which I will work on next week Lord willing.
This week for Step 2 it was like doing an outline of a writing assignment. Next week I will add more details to the Weekly planner and even take a step further to begin my Full-Year Notebook :O)

WEC Spring 2010 week 4

Apologia Physical Science Class.

India class

Medieval Class.

Job painting a color wheel.

The kids completed week 4 at WEC.

Wisdom Booklet 22~* Major Concept / Commands of Christ

We studied the Major Concept today.God requires reconciliation before worship.
We spent the day studying the commands of Christ Series 1. Command 6
Be Reconciled......then come again and offer your gift.
I wish we would of purchased the commands of Christ from the Beginning.What an awesome way to study the Major Concept to get a deeper study!I talked to hubby and he agrees we need to purchase each student a set.Costly but not only will they only be able to have it for further study when doing the Major Concept but they will be able to take it with them when they graduate high school as a tool along with their Wisdom Booklets.I regret not purchasing the journal for the older students but I will purchase them when I order more Commands of Christ books.I plan on having them complete the entire journal before they graduate.

http://store.iblp.org/products/COCS/ Commands of Christ

http://store.iblp.org/products/COCJS/ Journal & study tools

WB 21~*Mastery Quiz & Life Classroom

Today we finished WB21 officially by doing the Mastery Quiz & Life Classroom.We then went through the lapbook and added a note to each topic to bring it all together.Angelina & Dominic did not have much room in the lapbook so we folded up the Mastery Quiz worksheet into 4 then glued an index card on the front with Mastery Quiz as the title.

Joe has some room so we just glued it on a side pocket.

Here is Daniel's lapbook I wanted to show how they are all a little different based on age & personal touches.I the think next time I will have Daniel do his verse as a copywork assignment.

I made World War 1 books out of the World War 1 notebooking pages we did.You can use mini-books in notebooks & notebook pages in lapbooks ;0)

He would copy a simple sentence and draw a picture.

Angelina's lapbook...

She has to write a paragraph and picture.

Joseph's lapbook...

The older students book.

I took the heart notebook pages we made and placed them in the lapbook.

Dominic's lapbook...

Life Classroom's mini-book

We took the diagram he made from the model and placed it in the lapbook.

Tomorrow we officially start WB22.

WB 21 Review

To the left is Daniel's lapbook cover

Right is Joe's labbook cover which he placed the WB verses on the outside while Daniel placed his on the extra room he had in hs lapbook.

The back of Angelina & Daniel's lapbook with pctures of the some of the fun hands on learning we did.I used clear packing tape to cover it and just print out the pictures on paper usng Microsoft Word.I will have the real pictures developed to scrapbook over the summer our school year.

Daniel enjoying his fnshed product.Lapbooks are a quick & fun way to review.

Today we reviewed what we learned and placed our mini-booklets in our lapbook since we are done with WB21.I printed out pictures of some of the hands on things we did to put on the back of the lapbook.I also copied and printed pictures to decorate the lapbook so the lapbook was completed today.They each are very different from the amount of information to each individuals way of decorating and organizing the mini-books.

Wisdom Booklet 21

Major Concept: Anger violates love

Verse: Mathew 5:21-22 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill...But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgement....

Character Focus: Tolerance=acceptance of others unique expressions of specific character qualities in varying degrees of maturity

Theme song: My Redeemer

WB 21 Medicine Resource~Heart

Today we continued our study of the heart. I planned to finish this study Friday but I decided over the weekend to finish it up today.We watched Red River of Life. For review I had the older students make a heart for the younger students to walk through.Joe likes to draw so he did while Dominic traced.This was a good review before we dissected the heart.

Since there is tons of snow outside we could not draw the heart on the sidewalk as the WB projects suggested so we used a large cardboard box.

The younger students walking through the heart.

Dominic suggested turning the box over to make a valve having them crawl through.They of coarse loved that.We had them crawl backwards and Dominic the valve would not let them backup or back flow.

So we let them continue to play with the box while the Dom & Joe dissected a sheep heart we purchased from Tobin's lab.

I pulled out our human model so the kids could see actually were the heart was located to get a better understanding. I really like this model . I purchased it from Timberdoodle.