Plannning for Fall

It’s summer vacation :o) and I’m having fun planning for the coming year.
I asked each of my children what they want to learn about (astronomy, nutrition, disease, plants, herbal medicine). I looked at Steiner’s themes for my second grader (fables and saints). And I considered my general “scope and sequence,” which has us studying ancient history this year.
All I’m doing at this point is blocking out the units we will study for each month. I’ll plan in more detail when I actually get there. Here’s how it has come together:
SEPTEMBER
Most of our time will be spent with canning and dehydrating, so we call it our harvest unit. Also, while the weather is still nice, we’ll go to nearby state parks where we’ll draw in our new nature journals (a back-to-school gift). We’ll study astronomy, which will continue through the year as we learn about various ancient cultures and their views of the sky. It’s a good time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of men on the moon!
The last week of the month we’ll celebrate St. Michael’s day (the 29th). I’m thinking the dragon would be a good constellation to learn first….
OCTOBER
We’ll study Mesopotamia / Babylon. Scripture equates Babylon with worldliness, so we’ll spend some time with what it means to separate ourselves from the world.
D will be hearing stories about St. Francis of Assisi (his day is October 4th), who renounced worldliness to serve God.
NOVEMBER
L and N will be studying Egypt, so I’ll make up related stories for D to review his math operations and learn place value. I guess the math gnomes will visit the Nile River!
St. Martin’s day is November 11th.
DECEMBER
We’ll catch up on any loose ends, celebrate St. Lucia day, the winter solstice, and Christmas! We like to relax and enjoy this season.
JANUARY
We’ll study Greece. D will be learning fables from the Greek story teller Aesop. I’ll introduce Hippocrates, in preparation for our next unit. We’ll definitely tie in astronomy, because the Greeks knew a lot about the heavens.
FEBRUARY
We’ll learn about nutrition and disease. This should make for some interesting stories for teaching D about mathematical equations!
MARCH
L and N will learn about Rome. I will choose stories of 8 more “saints” to tell to Daniel, and he’ll make a reading book.
APRIL
N and L will have a unit on health and healing herbs. D will be hearing more fables, so I’ll choose some about plants.
MAY
We’ll all be helping with the vegetable garden, so we will study more botony. D will learn about Northwest animals, as well as plants.
JUNE
We may do a short unit on marine science. We often like to go visit our favorite tide pools for the low tide this time of year. I’ll see how we’re doing by next June!
Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to a really fun year (but enjoying every leisurely minute of summer too).