This is the pre-made reading plan we are using for Form 4 and 5 students at STAR Homeschool Community in Lynchburg for the 2024-2025 school year. We combine Forms 4 and 5 when we have 16 or fewer students. It has worked beautifully for us the last two years. You can use this at home with your teens, too! If you’d like to use this in a group setting, please make sure everyone has subscribed to The Gentle Learning Co. to comply with copyright law. Please do not print, screenshot, scan or photocopy this information and share it with others who have not subscribed. Thank you!
Our STAR classes are divided into three blocks. Block 2, which includes Bible, Apologetics, Hymns, Survival, Life Reading and Enrichment, is required. You may choose to use one block with your student, or you may wish to use the full schedule.
Two Schedules
Schedule 1
This schedule is paced in a similar way to other Charlotte Mason reading plans, like Ambleside Online. Students go through about twenty-five books at a time, at a pace of about one to two chapters per week. This is a nice schedule for consuming a large feast of ideas and tying them together in the mind. When we were first starting our school year at STAR this year, I shared Schedule 1 with families.
Schedule 2
This schedule is paced out more like a Sonlight reading plan or other traditional reading plans, where a book is consumed more quickly. More attention is devoted to a book, but in a shorter period of time. Our STAR class has decided to use Schedule 2 because:
It’s difficult to bring so many books to class.
We meet one time per week, and if we only read one chapter in a book on Thursday, and then meet the next Wednesday, sometimes it’s difficult to remember what we read.
If we had 45 minutes scheduled for a subject and three books to cover, that left only 15 minutes per book—and it was like that (15 minutes or less) for every single subject. I wanted to be able to spend time reading plays in class, etc., so Schedule 1 was not working for us.
I think Schedule 1 would be a good fit for a student who is going through it at home. Schedule 2 is best for a class.
I made this list of books needed by term for STAR families for Schedule 1, and the reading schedule can be found below. The same books are used in Schedule 2, but some are used in different terms.
About the Blocks
I divided the subjects into blocks so that students could enroll in part of the school day at STAR. I wanted everyone to learn some core subjects, so I put those in Block 2 (the middle of the school day, which includes our lunch time and nature walk time). Block 1 includes History and Literature. Block 2 includes our core subjects: Bible, hymns, apologetics, nature study, survival, and life & worldview. Block 3 includes Consumer Math, Logic, Physics and Latin.
This year, most of our students only stay for Blocks 1 and 2, and only a few students stay for Physics in Block 3, and then go home. Our girls are doing Consumer Math and Logic at home, but nobody at STAR has chosen to study Latin this year. I share this to let you know that you can change this schedule to fit your student and your lifestyle, too!
ALL TERMS & TERM 1 BLOCK 1
All Classes
For almost all classes, your student will need the following:
pens
pencils
lined paper
a binder/and or folders to keep things in
composition books or moleskine books for each subject
a Book of Centuries (If you can get this one, I recommend it, it is beautiful! A cheaper option, and a bit easier to carry to class is this one.)
a Commonplace Book, or, a nice looking journal that the student may wish to keep for many years
History & Geography
A Book of Centuries, as mentioned above
A variety of speeches and documents (to be printed)
World War I: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today, 1870 to 1935 by Richard J. Maybury
Literature Guide from 7 Sisters Homeschool: Born Again
Literature, Grammar & Composition