October Homeschool Lesson Plans

Our schedule seems to be working very well so we will stick with it.

One thing I learned last month is that her assigned reading went WAY too quick. I had planned to spend the whole month on the book Princess. That would not only give her time to read the big long adult book but time to discuss it. Unfortunately (?) she read the entire book in two days.

*blink blink*

Hadn’t anticipated that at all. We had discussion around it then I was stuck with no book for the rest of the month. I ended up downloading Virginia Hamilton’s The House of Dies Dreer for her on her little iTouch and…she loved it and breezed through it relatively quickly. LESSON LEARNED. Anticipate going through about a book or two a week. Whew.

I sat down with Thomas and we planned out some themes around this month, of course, all having to do with Halloween. He suggested The House of Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne and we can all read it together each night. Then I suggested Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Those are her two “big heavy” reads. To intersperse with those I will select a few short stories from our HP Lovecraft collection as well as the following:

Goddess Girls – Athena The Brain (A short light fun one that keeps with the Greek and Roman theme she has to study).

Half Magic by Edward Eager – Another short fun one for her to enjoy.

For the two days I will be out of town in Tampa, I picked up the newest Geronimo Stilton The Fourth 

Adventure In The Kingdom of Fantasy The Dragon Prophecy and also in the Geronimo Stilton Series a Creepella Von Caklefur one called Return of the Vampire. I will wrap both these up and she will get to open one each day while I am gone.

Her poems this month will be:

The Three Witches from MacBeth by William Shakespeare

The Ghost of a Flower by Anonymous

Advice From Dracula by Kenn Nesbitt

Oh My Darling, Frankenstein by Kenn Nesbitt

Hey, Ma, There’s Something Under My Bed by Joan Horton

We will continue to read and discuss a variety of Greek and Roman topics. We will also continue our nightly Mythbusters episodes with Thomas for science.

Her science projects this month will be:

Growing a pumpkin – I have directions to take a small pumpkin and cut the top off. Instead of scooping out the insides, you fill it with some dirt and a little water then tend it and the seeds inside are supposed to sprout and grow a pumpkin vine.

Vanishing Ghost Peeps – I bought a package of the ghost Peeps and we will take some large plastic see through cups. She will put water in one, vinegar in another, apple juice in a third, soda in a fourth and home made slime in a fifth. Then she will place a ghost Peep in each one and monitor them all week to see which one (if any) dissolves first then we will discuss why.

Wint-O-Green Lifesaver Sparks – We will test the myth that if you chew Wint-O-Green Lifesavers in the dark you will see sparks.

Art Class / Craft Projects this month will be:

PUMPKIN CARVING OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J

We have some various little Halloween craft things to do this month from the craft store.

I picked up paper mache sugar skull masks and we will discuss the Day of the Dead and make our own masks. We’ll probably watch Scooby Doo Monster From Mexico just for fun that night.

We will continue with our Sunday night special dinners and our Think Math and Word Jar. She is really enjoying her picture prompts and her creative writing is seriously blowing me away, especially her vocabulary. The picture I used below for this blog is one of the picture prompts she will get this month in keeping with the "spooky" theme. I will be in full swing doing two classes myself this month so most our evenings will be spent studying together and working on assignments and reading. 

Stay tuned for November when we start our Pagan Christmas study unit!