Wednesday, January 10, 2007

This Month's Educational Goals

I am homeschooling Anselm in earnest now. It occured to me that he is going to be 5 in a couple of months so I need to get on the ball. Below are the months ducational goals. I will post the results in early February.

Astronomy (Texts: Find the Constellations & The Night Sky Book):
1- Memorize the names, and identify the (N. hemisphere) constellations containing the fifteen 1st-magnitude stars, and the names of the 1st-magnitude stars.
2- Solidify knowledge of the lunar phases.
3- Define : light year, AU, star, planet, moon, zodiac, constellation, telescope
4 - Learn how to use a star chart.
5- Draw connection between the 8 lunar phases and the 8-tones in relation to Gen. 1.
Pedagogical method: Tracing constellations, viewing constellations, visit to observatory, flash cards

Theology (Text: Bible)
1- Learn the difference between a prophet and a priest
2- Learn the difference between a judge and a king
3-Learn that obedience is better than sacrifice
4-Learn that human governments work for God
5-Learn that priests and kings both can misbehave and be replaced by God.
Pedagogical method: Read aloud to Anselm the entire story of his patron, the Holy Prophet Samuel. Discuss.

Literature (Text: Magician's Nephew)
1- Enjoy the story
2- Develop ability to identify allegory
Pedagogical method: Read aloud to Anselm and discuss along the way. (It took him about 3 seconds for him to figure out that Aslan was God. Nothing in the book, so far, would identify him as the Son.)

Reading (Text: Not determined)
1 - Learn the vowel sounds
2 - Learn the phonems of his own name and match them to the letters of his name
Pedagogical method: Not determined

Math (Text: Not determined)
1 - Solidify knowledge of "tens"
2 - Learn difference between various units of measure
3- Introduce concepts of basic arithamtic operations
4- Introduce concept of 1 and fractions (will tie this into cooking, probably. Measuring cups will provide illustration.)
Pedagoical method: Not determined

Politics (Text: Not determined)
1 - Learn Aristotle's 6 forms of government and the differences between them
2- Introduce the concept of division of powers
3- Introduce the concept of federalism
Pedagogical method: Discussion and wall chart

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Anselm's a lucky ducky. If I was in the neighborhood, could I sit in?

Anonymous said...

Looks good Matt. How do you think we can include some arts/crafts?

Mimi said...

You don't mind a second student (ie - me) sitting in, do you?

Great lesson plan.

Matt said...

All: I'm glad you all aprove of the lesson plan.

Philippa: Thank you. I can't wait to get the CD. We have so much light in our area that it is ver difficult to see the stars. Last night I could only see 2 of the stars in The Dog.

ICXC Painter & Mimi: If you are in the neigborhood! But I grade pretty hard and requuire a lot of class participation.

Cyndi: Learning how to trace is the arts and crafts part. I a more worried about music at this point.

Anonymous said...

Well, let's look at the Suzuki Recorder class taught at the school down the street more seriously. They have a class for parents/child that meets at 4:45 -- maybe I can leave early those days? Have you checked out the San Mateo boys choir? Have you tried to teach Anselm anything on the recorder?

Seraph said...

Okay, I admit it, I'm slow on the uptake. What exactly is the relation between Genesis one and the 8 musical tones and 8 phases of the moon?