Academic list of to do's

Every quarter I evaluate where we are at and where I want to go. I am not talking about driving directions, but rather what I feel is important for each of my kids to learn.

In the large world of academics there really are many different and wonderful things to learn. I don't believe it is possible to teach my children everything there is to learn, nor to I feel it does them justice to try to cover a subject in 15 minutes. I believe strongly in child led interests but being a realistic mom who has a son graduating this year, I also know there are standardized tests that expect my kids to know SOME of what has been hailed as "Need to know" information.

With this in mind I try my best to include not only fun and interesting topics, along with hands on trips and activities but also a few of those "need to know" topics.

For those of you with younger children my daughters' ages, let me encourage you strive towards perfection in all you teach and have fun! One of the biggest blessings to me is that I get to learn a whole bunch of "stuff" all over again! You never know when this might come in handy. Perhaps on some TV game show?

Here is my master list for Science. I have one list for Abby, one for Hali and one I feel that BOTH of them could learn in tandem. This is in addition to our Core Switched on School House, which we do all 5 subjects in. You can find out more information about SOS Here.

Science for Hali:
Intro to Chemistry:
Physical properties
Chemical properties

Science for Abby:
Spiders & Insects
Animal life cycles
Fur, feathers, scales
Camouflaged animals
Parts of a plant (Yes, again because we are growing more in the spring)
Life cycle of a plant
Life cycle of food
Eating plants: Leaf, root, stem
Body parts
Sun, Earth, Moon (We did an unit study at the beginning of the year on the solar system)
Energy

Tandom lessons to be taught:
abiotic & biotic organisms
Material & non material resources
Renewable & Non renewable resources
Reduce, reuse & recycle
Humans and habitat extenction

Biomes:
Grassland (tropical & temperate)
Deciduous forests
Coniferous forest
Tropical Rain forest *** We will be doing an in depth unit study and lapbook for this topic.
Tundras (arctic & alpine)
Desert
Aquatic (freshwater & Marine)
Estliaries

Inherited traits of Humans
Inherited traits of plants

Species: (We have done multiple units on these, however this is an overview)
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fish
Birds
Mammals
Insects

Vertebrate
Warm blooded
Endoskeleton
Exoskeleton

The Universe: ** We have done this unit in the past, this one in a bit more in depth**
Astronomers
Galaxies
Stars
Comets
Asteroids
Meteroids
Planets
Solar System

So this list wraps up what I want to do with the girls this next Semester. I am praying I can make it through all of the material in a way that isn't pushing and that they absorb all there is to learn at this level.

Pray for me!