The Curriculum Post

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this is not a vacation. This is a study abroad for kids. It’s something I’ve dreamt about since a friend told me she took her kids to France in the summers to learn French. When I mentioned the idea to Samuel (there are so many schools available throughout France in the summer), he said— I don’t want to go to school all summer; I want to hang out! 

Gus loves his workbook so much.
He's getting a jump start on us.

That may sound like a spoiled child’s perception of studying a language, but he had a point. Why make my kids go to school all summer? Can’t we do something like that during the school year? I looked everywhere for a school year program. I googled “study abroad- school aged children;” “study abroad- children;” “homeschool in France.” Nothing. There may be a reason people don’t do this—  am I about to find out why??

The kids are primarily here to learn French language, history and culture. They are going to work as much as if they were back home in school, only the hours will be mercifully shorter because it is “homeschool.”

Anyway— for my friends who geek-out on curriculum, here’s what we plan to do for our program of study.

Our first two weeks are in a family immersion program offered by a small language school here in Sancerre. Classes are each day 9-12; they offer activities in the afternoons. There is homework, and all students are expected to speak only French at all times, even outside of school. 

The first week, we intend to focus only on the French immersion. After week one, we will need to begin our other homeschool subjects so we can cover everything we need to. 

I’ll be interested to see what my homeschool friends say about this. Everyone does it differently. Some people don’t use a hard-fast curriculum when they travel; they let the travels be the curriculum. I’m not sure I could live with that for three months, and for two months we’re not doing much traveling at all. For us, we’ll be doing three subjects: Math, French and History/Geography. Each boy has a Napoleon Dynamite-esque zipper binder for schoolwork. They have mostly history stuff: a fold-out timeline, copies of maps and the ever-popular “people tab.” I tried not to bring too much paper. Many of our books are on kindles and we’re using numerous web sites and on-line programs.

Math: As my kids will return to public school this fall, I wanted to keep them on track for math. The teachers were kind enough to give me their pacing guides for math. Samuel will do algebra using the on-line curriculum we used in homeschool, making sure we hit all of the topics covered in his school’s algebra class. For the littles, I have switched things up a bit so that they both do the same concepts at the same time, but at their own levels. We’re using a lessons from two on-line sources for them. I also have workbooks for the days we may not have access to our on-line curricula. Done and done!

French: we’ll start with the lessons that the boys receive from the school. I also have some easy to use handbooks at approximate grade level for each boy. We’ll use them in Antibes to reinforce grammar and learn new vocabulary. After about a month and a half in Antibes, the boys will go to a language school for one week. I am hoping this will reinforce what they’ve learned from me and give them another chance to practice with an instructor. Samuel’s program includes after school activities with other youth. I’lll be interested to see how that goes because they probably won’t be a lot of youth in April, but we’ll see. 

History/Geography:  I had to decide whether to cover a few topics in depth, or hit the high points over a long period of time. We have the unique opportunity to see some of the best preserved artifacts from Ancient Roman history, so I wanted to cover that. Samuel really wants to see the D-Day beaches, so I have to cover that. I really wanted to see Mont St. Michel, so medieval history would also be good to include; the Bayeux Tapestry tells of the Norman Conquest— and there you have it; my history/geography curriculum fell into place. It is a lot to cover (see list below).

For Cooper and Bennett, this will be their first time studying world history of any kind, so I’ll focus on maps and timelines and fill them in with good stories from Susan Wise Bauer’s awesome books- The Story of the World. I have two on kindle and decided to schlep the other two here with us. They are worth it. I’ve pulled from History Odyssey, the BBC History for Primary grades (on-line), a few great DK books for activities. We’ll also use Horrible Histories because my kids love them. I found some kindle versions and brought one with us (so hard to choose!).

I’ve rationalized this to say I’ll give them a big overview with my goal for them to just understand what and when in relation to other events. They’ll remember what they learn on our “field trips” more than anything I can really teach them anyway. I’ve tied lessons to places that we’ll visit, so hopefully it’ll sink in, even though we’re just brushing the surface of most topics. A history prof would shudder to see that I am covering the middle ages in two weeks, or both world wars in one week! 

Samuel will go a little deeper with essays and research projects. He’ll also help me teach Ancient Greece and Rome because we already studied them in homeschool and he knows more than I do on those subjects!

My goal is to wrap up history before Taylor joins us— who wants to study on a family vacation? That’s why the detailed list below only includes 9 weeks. We will continue with math practice in our workbooks, but no new concepts.

Samuel will continue to review Algebra to get ready for testing. The school system requires that Samuel take his SOLs (reading and algebra) before advancing to 8th grade; and he must take the French I final exam in order to qualify for French II. Poor guy will be re-enrolled in public school when we arrive home and go back to school May 22.

It was quite a bit of work to put all of this together before we left. I wanted to make sure I had the resources to pull it off. 

History Notebook, with one of TSOW books.

Here is the History/Geog in detail, tied to the places we’ll go:

Week 1: Ancient Greece

Weeks 2 and 3: Ancient Rome (preparing for field trip to Roman Antiquities in Nimes, Orange and Arles)

Week 4 and 5: Middle Ages (Germanic tribes who settled France and England, monasticism, feudal system and castles, Battle of Hastings, preparing for trip to Bayeux, Avingon papacy, field trip to Avignon)

Week 6 and 7: Reformation, Renaissance and Revolution (Renaissance art and architecture, preparing for trip to Florence, and studies of War of 1812 and the French Revolution, preparing for trip to Paris)

Week 8: Napoleonic Years, The Industrial Revolution and Victorian Britain (preparing for trips to Paris and London)

Week 9: The World at War (WWI and WWII, preparing for trip to D-Day beaches)