Planning 4th Grade

It is that time of year again, time to plan the next homeschool year! Whee! It is the best time of the year. When all the ideas and subjects and plans work perfectly.

Tonight I was finalizing the list of topics that Violet will choose from for science. That is her favorite subject, so I know this list will meet with positive results. I created a ranking system like this:

5 = Yes, yes, yes! I definitely want to do this.
4 = That sounds pretty neat.
3 = Maybe, if there is time.
2 = Probably not.
1 = Ew, ick!

Mr. Incredible was wondering what happens when she picks all 5's. Isn't it wonderful that that is a very real possibility! I love that she loves science so much. Here are her topics:

• Dinosaurs
• Weather
• Space
• Birds
• Mammals
• Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish
• Insects and Arachnids
• Chemistry
• Evolution
• The Oceans
• Madagascar
• African plains
• Plants and flowers
• Trees
• Ponds, Rivers, Creeks
• The Forest
• Ecology
• Rainforests
• The Body and Systems

She got a preview of the list and ecology and chemistry sounded like they will be ranked pretty high. She's tired today from spending the afternoon in the pool, so she'll do the actual ranking tomorrow. (To answer Paulanne's question: we can have pools here, but we never called the building department to see if we need a permit for it. We kind of think we were supposed to buy a permit.)

You'll notice that geology and physics are not on the list. We did a lot of those two last year and I'm tired of them. Plus the materials that I'd be able to find really wouldn't differ a lot from what she just did. Besides variety is the spice of science.

Regardless of the rank she's going to do a little bit of weather and space. We've never really covered either of those topics. If they rank a "1" then I'll make a deal with her that it can just be earning the Girl Scout badge on each topic and leave it at that for now.

My thought is that topics that rank a "5" will be about 2 weeks in length, 4s will be about 1 week. It will be flexible though depending on what I find and how the studies actually go.

I am really excited to see what she picks. I'll post the results when I get them.