She's Going To Be Very Busy, Indeed!

I've spent most of my free moments over the past month or so working on lesson plans for the upcoming school year. I like to have sort of a bare bones idea of where we are going for the entire year then I go back through and work out the details for about 6 weeks at a time.

The bulk of my planning goes toward history. Thankfully, our curriculum, Tapestry of Grace, makes it fairly easy!

This year will begin with the Trail of Tears and go through roughly 1898. The Civil War will be huge chunk of this year's study. We are hoping to visit lots of Civil War sites since there are many within driving distance.

Gracen will be extremely busy doing some pretty heavy reading this year.

Some of the titles included:

Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears by Cornelia Cornelissen

Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen

The California Gold Rush (An Interactive History Adventure) by Elizabeth Raum

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Kidnapped by River Rats by William and Catherine Booth

Little House On The Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Gracen does like to read but suffers from the problem that plagues both her parents. She starts books and then another book catches her attention so she doesn't finish a book in a timely manner. To try to combat that, I gave her a sheet of paper with rectangles marked off (about 8 of them). She drew pictures of some of her favorite book characters in each of the rectangles. After she was finished, I wrote "Book Buck" on each of them.

Every time she finishes a book (or a weekly reading assignment), I will give her a book buck to put in an envelope. When she collects 5 of them, she will get to choose something from a special basket. The basket will have dollar tree items, certificates to do or make something special, more computer, DS, or TV time, etc.

Let the reading begin!!