The Start of a Schedule

I've been working on Bethany and Trenton's school schedule for next year. They will be 3rd grade and kindergarten, respectively.
I started planning the Language Arts and History/Geography. I want to tie in these two curricula:
Galloping the Globe (I was silly to think that we'd get through the book last year; so much good stuff there!)
Five In a Row volumes 1 and 2, selected books

Here's what I have so far: Blue means Galloping the Globe, Green means Five in a Row, regular black means I have a literature guide or unit study for them.

September: France/Madeline, Italy/How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
October: Great Britain/The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Spain/The Story of Ferdinand
November: Canada/Very Last First Time, Mexico, Cranberry Thanksgiving, Molly's Pilgrim
December: open
January: Brazil, Venezuela, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
February: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Sweet Clara and The Freedom Quilt, Quilting unit study
March: South Africa, Kenya/Magic Treehouse: Lions at Lunchtime, Miss Rumphius, Sarah Plain and Tall
April: Morocco, Nigeria, Make Way for Ducklings, Keep the Light's Burning Abbie
May: Egypt/The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, Magic Treehouse: Mummies and Pyramids, Australia
June: New Zealand

I tried to connect the book and countries together as much as possible. The ones with slashes are the books/countries that I was able to connect. I like this stage of planning...then the hard part is carrying out the plans. I'm praying that I'll be consistent and diligent!

I've started copying the needed papers for Madeline/France and I will put that in a separate post. The other thing I'm planning is a "light start" in August. We have done this for the last couple years and it works well. In August, we will start with one subject the first week, then add another subject the next week. We will continue in this manner until the day after Labor Day when we will be in full swing. While we are getting into the groove of each subject, I also try to walk through the daily schedule we will be following for the year. This gives them time to adjust and me time to tweek...because it usually needs tweeked! :)

Hopefully I'll continue to fill in the blanks for both kids until I am ready for the new school year!