Themes for the Next School Year

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I always forget how busy the month of April is.  It's quite intense for our family.  There are two birthdays (which we have yet to celebrate), and Easter (haven't even figured out what I'm putting in the kiddos' baskets yet, let alone ordering anything I need to).  Home repairs are in full swing, thanks to our tax return money. Then if life wasn't busy enough, there's the final preparation to hand in all of my school plans for next year to the district by May 1st.  I had so desperately wanted to get it all handed in April 1st, with my 3rd quarter report, but it didn't happen.   In fact, I'm not even half way finished yet.

My husband also went back to work at the end of last month, which has meant some pretty rough times for Princess and Sunshine.  Princess can hold it together through lunch time, but then can't take Daddy being gone any longer, and falls apart until he comes home.  This is always an adventure.  Thankfully Sunshine naps in the afternoon and knows to expect him home when she wakes up.

While my husband was unemployed, he was helping me with my unit study plans and activities, creating about half of the printables, and doing most of the research behind activities I knew nothing about.  This provided me time to go back and update all of my other unit studies and work on other aspects of the blog.  Now I'm doing everything myself again.  I think I may be missing him being at home as much as the girls do, if not more.

New weekly unit studies will be posted each week, unless we have sick kiddos and/or a sick Mommy.  If I feel impressed to write another post or have time to finish others in my draft box, they will come as well.  I want to focus on updating all of my past units with free printables accessible to all of my readers, which takes a lot of time.  If you haven't already done so, please like Every Star Is Different on facebook.  I will be posting all updated units there, when they are complete.  You'll also receive notifications if you choose to follow my blog.  I'm also working on a printables page, so my readers are able to access links to all my printables in one place.

Just yesterday and today, I was able to update our Earth Unit: Pollution,

and Earth Unit:  Endangered Species & Habitat posts, with printables available for every activity, including ones I created.  If you haven't checked them out, please do so and share with others!

As I've been trying to put together my syllabus for next year, I've run into a few snags.  I thought Sunshine would be ready to join us, but she's not.  I had planned subject studies designed to incorporate her.  It appears at least half of those unit studies will have to be saved for the next year.  In the meantime I've developed a new set of themes for the older kiddos.  Each month I have selected a theme, that is broken down into three or four parts.  Most months will also have one week dedicated to a continent study.  General Conference Activities will be posted twice a year, prior to conference.  I'm super excited about our plans, especially those that will allow us to really dig into specific subject areas and literature, without having to adapt them for preschoolers.  Sunshine will have her own set of tot school/preschool unit studies.

Here are our unit studies for Dinomite, Bulldozer, and Princess:

Month 1:  July
Theme: All American Summer
Week 1:  United States of America
Week 2:  Baseball
Week 3:  Carnival/Fair
Week 4:  Pioneer Day 

Month 2:  August
Theme:  Life At Sea Part II
Week 1: Shark Week
Week 2:  Beach Fun
Week 3:  Mermaids
Week 4:  South America Continent Study

Month 3:  September
Theme:  The Doctor's Office
Week 1:  Pediatrician & Pharmacy
Week 2:  Optometrist
Week 3:  Dentist/Orthodontist
Week 4:  General Conference Activities

Month 4:  October
Theme: Witches & Wizards
Week 1:  North America Continent Study
Week 2:  The Wizard of Oz
Week 3:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Week 4:  Halloween

Month 5:  November
Theme: I Am Thankful for My Family
Week 1:  My Family
Week 2:  My Heritage
Week 3:  Thanksgiving
Week 4:  Europe Continent Study

Month 6:  December
Theme:  Christmas
Week 1:  "Carol of the Bells"
Week 2:  "Hawaiian Christmas Song"
Week 3:  The Nutcracker
Week 4:  A Christmas Carol
Week 5:  Happy New Year

Month 7: January
Theme:  Winter
Week 1: The Arctic
Week 2:  Hockey
Week 3:  The Ice Age
Week 4:  Antarctica Continent Study

Month 8:  February
Theme: The Body
Week 1: Valentine's Day
Week 2:  Respiratory System
Week 3:  Digestive System
Week 4:  Australia Continent Study

Month 9:  March
Theme: Civilizations in History
Week 1:  Ancient Egypt
Week 2:  Ancient China
Week 3:  Imperial Russia
Week 4:  Asia Continent Study
Week 5:  General Conference Activities

Month 10:  April
Theme:  Spring Time
Week 1:  Easter Unit
Week 2:  In the Garden
Week 3:  Earth day Unit
Week 4:  Africa Continent Study

Month 11:  May
Theme:  Zoology
Week 1:  Paleozoic Era
Week 2:  Mesozoic Era
Week 3:  Cenozoic Era
Week 4:  Make Up Week

Month 12:  June
Theme:  Make Up, & Review
Week 1:  Make Up Week
Week 2:  Make Up Week
Week 3:  Make Up Week
Week 4:  Make Up Week