Spero Academy 2021-22 Curriculum Picks!

 Last year was kind of a blur, wasn't it? I think like everyone, we felt a little off-kilter with all the covid restrictions. For the first time in five years, my kids weren't able to go to the public school for orchestra classes or choir. Thankfully, their school orchestra conductor decided to set up a homeschool orchestra that they were able to participate in. So they didn't lose any momentum.  

Overall, we had a decent year last year. My health was really deteriorating towards the middle of the year and I struggled to finish the year strong as a result. My thyroid was just dying. By May, I made the decision to have it surgically removed. That happened in June, and they ended up finding cancer there, so I'm very thankful that we made that decision and I've had about six weeks to heal and prepare for the coming year! 

The nice thing about where I'm at in the homeschool and classical education journey is that I don't have to do a lot of guessing or thinking to move on each year. We've chosen our path, it's pretty well laid out for us, I've found the curricula that work for us (for the most part), and how to schedule our days in good rhythms.  Most of my kids are on board and work hard (with one exception). :) So this year was pretty easy to get prepared and roll-out.  

First, I want to kind of break down last year just a bit.  Here's
what our upper school kids did last year: 

-Math: VideoText Complete Algebra

-Science: Signs & Seasons Classical Astronomy

-Grammar: Latin Alive! 2

-Logic: Discovery of Deduction (formal logic)

-Rhetoric: Writing & Rhetoric Book 10 (with some skills sharpening from Writing with Skill)

-Music: Homeschool orchestra (cello/viola)

-Great Books: 

    History: Oxford University Press Medieval World books; Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation; A History of Science by Hakim; 

    Philosophy: The Pageant of Philosophy and The Philosophy Book

    Literature: Book of Pastoral Rule, Beowulf, A History of the Kings of Britain, Sir Gawain and the                 Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, The entire Divine Comedy, The Faerie Queene, Foxe's Book of Martyrs & the Golden Legend. 

So there are just a couple of things I would change about this year.  

First, I would like to start Hakim's series a little earlier than 9th grade with my younger kids. Hopefully in 7th grade. It's a great series, and I'd like to get all the way through it.  We made it through about half of the Newton book, so halfway through the series. 

Second, I just really struggled with Signs & Seasons. The lab manual was just unfortunately not very well put together. There was very little guidance or support and no way for at teacher to know whether the students were doing things the right way or getting the correct answers to the observations. No answer key! The book itself is really cool, but if we do astronomy in high school again, it will be with Experiencing Astronomy. It will be worth the cost of the online class. I just felt like this was a total bomb. My other alternate is to do Astronomy in middle school with the Masterbooks set. 

Third, I won't have my 9th graders in the future read the whole Divine Comedy. :) I loved it myself, but it was a little much for my kids. :) I may have them do a survey of it instead a la Tapestry of Grace, a few cantos from each book to get an idea of the story, writing style, importance scenes and the influence of the work. Maybe I'll get the Old Western Culture unit on it and just have them listen to Wes Callahan talk about it. But we won't read the whole thing again with high schoolers. 

Otherwise, I thought our choices last year were solid and went really well. I especially loved The Discovery of Deduction and Writing & Rhetoric Book 10. So deep and rich, and Discovery of Deduction has so much fun and interest built into it. Who doesn't want to have "watch Monty Python" as a homework assignment??? :) 

So, for next year, here's what's up on tap for us. 

Upper School: 

-Math: VideoText: Finishing Complete Algebra, moving onto Complete Geometry

-Science: DIVE Biology with online virtual labs (plus three labs we'll do hands on)

-Grammar: Latin Alive! book 3: the last year for Latin studies for the kids! 

-Logic: Axiom Executive Functioning class Fall/Intermediate Logic (Canon Press) Spring

-Rhetoric: The Lost Tools of Writing Level 1; Elements of Style; Advanced Academic Writing by Michael Clay Thompson

-Music: Wichita youth Symphony Repertory group and private lessons

-Great Books: 

    History: Dave Raymond's American History

    Literature: American Lit: The Scarlet Letter, Billy Budd, Sailor, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Old Man and the Sea, Willa Cather, The Chosen, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird

    Philosophy: The Pageant of Philosophy

Lower School:

-Math: Rod & Staff Level 6 for Levi; Making Math Meaningful 4 for Meryn (These are BIG Changes!)

-Science: Memoria Press Birds; Chemistry

-Grammar: Well-Ordered Language, Latin for Children, Rod and Staff Spelling, Cursive copywork, McGuffey readers

-Logic: Reasoning & Reading

-Rhetoric: Writing & Rhetoric books 5-6 for Levi, 3-4 for Meryn

Good Books: 

    History: America's Story (Masterbooks)

    Literature: living book list for each child of American historical fiction, 17-18th century

I think this will be a really great year. For my upper school kids, I'm really excited about Dave Raymond's history series.  It's focus on moral philosophy and why we study history is excellent, and his lectures ae really engaging. I love the source text reader with really well-chosen source documents. I may add a couple of biographies. The kids are reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin the first three weeks of school, and in the spring I may have them read Abraham Lincoln's letters and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as well. 

I'm also VERY excited to outsource science. Overall, DIVE has everything I need. In my ideal world, we would use Novare science all through middle and high school. The problem with Novare is that its strength is in its mastery and integration of skills. This is why it's ideal and is wonderful! But logistically, it's impossible for me. The quizzes and tests are all paragraph length answers and each question has about 10-20 points possible. It takes me FOREVER to grasp the material, compare their writing with the answer key's answer and determine how many points they've earned. I just can't do it. Novare also has very high expectations of labs to be done at home. I also just can't do that. Aside from putting the kids in an online course at $750 each (plus textbook, plus lab book plus lab kit, we'd be at over $2000 just for biology!), DIVE is the next best thing for me. It does have a very strong youth earth creation bias it puts out right at the start, but at least it doesn't hide it. I bought the Novare biology book for my kids to get a more balanced, nuanced perspective on origins of life and the debate surrounding the age of the earth. We feel like we can compensate for the inherent bias of DIVE and provide an interesting conversation for our kids.  But we'll see how it goes. :) 

For our Morning Time this year, we'll be learning the first 35 questions of the Westminster Catechism, reading Wooden Books Quadrivium, using the Harp and Laurel Wreath for poetry, and following the Ambleside Art study tracks. Oh, and a nice group of read aloud. First, we'll finish up Watership Down and then begin Gulliver's Travels. 

We officially start school this week. I've got the school room all cleaned up and ready to go, books on shelves, pencils sharpened, spreadsheets made, planner printed.