Our 2014-2015 Curriculum Choices

I reviewed the curriculum we used last year. So this new curriculum list has been searched out, cried through, then prayed and laughed over... I feel like we are starting off "new" again with Anna going into 5th grade. She's at new stage and so I've wanted to be prepared and ready to challenge her at this new level.

What we are doing together...

We are still working through Old Story New for Bible study. I'm thinking of just sticking with it:) We LOVE it and enjoy our time together! Also the curriculum we will be using for history contained lengthy Bible study passages to read. So we'll be definitely digging into those passages.

Memory Work is done together during our "together time". We began learning the verses that make up the Roman Road. We are also working through the Ancients Vertias Press Timeline Cards.


We are doing something very different this year for History!! I've been encouraged to try out Tapestry of Grace and so a friend has given me Year1, Unit 1 to try out. We have loved SOTW (and actually SOTW is still used in the Tapestry of Grace curriculum so we're not totally abandoning those books) but with Anna at a new learning level I was lost on how to still be "together" but still challenge Anna. In comes Tapestry of Grace which contains 4 different learning levels all on the same topic using resources with lots of hands-on activities mixed in. I can already see that it will be a help (after I stopped letting it overwhelm me)! And it's not just history, it's will also help us with Geography, Vocabulary, eventually Writing and all sorts of middle and high school indepth topics.

We're going to try it! And probably like it...

After loving Apologia last year, we have taken a detour so we can cover all our biology topics... Apologia would have been 4 or 5 different books which would have been too $ and fast. So we are going to use Christian Kids Explore Biology as our "spine" for Science. There will be LOTS of extra resources added because the "teaching" part of the textbook is very simplistic. But it's going to make a great spine and has some great vocabulary and memory work suggestions;) It's just soo different from Apologia :/

Since we liked IEW's All Things Fun and Fascinating last year, we are using IEW's Ancient-Based Writing Lesson. I just finished tying the writing lessons to the weekly topics from TOG. I love how they are going to blend together. And really reinforce what we began to learn in writing last year!

We are also going into new territory with Logic! Yikes!! (I might be learning some here, too!) Together we will be using Mind Benders Book 3 and progressing from there:) I'm excited about being stretched a little, too!

I am going to pull back out Drawing with Children for art. We started it a few years ago but I had too much going on for us to really get into it. For art history we will examine art  from the Ancient time periods as we study history:)

Using some materials I had from last year, we will examine one composer a month, listening to their works and learning about their lives. Anna also takes piano lessons and Chris is wanting his momma to teach him the violin:)

The kids took some beginning tennis lessons over the summer, so we're planning to keep playing tennis together as a family:) Come September all 4 kids want to play soccer. I was soo blessed last year to have them on the same team, I've already started to pray for the details;)

Our county home school group meets every Friday for all sorts of activities like field trips, holiday parties, service/ministry opportunities, PE, and 4-H!  We have definitely missed getting together with the whole group over the summer!!

What we do individually (but sometimes together)...

Anna (5th)
Math - Saxon 7/6
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Easy Grammar 5 with Daily Grams
Reading - TOG Upper Grammar literature selections
Writing - letters and IEW Ancients
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Music - piano


Chris (3rd)
Math - Saxon 5/4
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - FLL 4
Reading - TOG Lower Grammar Literature
Writing -  letters and IEW Ancients
Spanish - Rosetta Stone 
Music - wants to learn the violin

Lydia (2/3rd)
Math - Saxon 5/4
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - FLL 4
Reading - TOG LG (some UG) Literature
Spanish - Rosetta Stone 
Writing -  letters and IEW Ancients


Nate (preK)
Letter Factory
Five in a Row (row a book for 2 weeks)
Pre-reading activities and AlphaPhonics
Pre-K workbooks covering colors, numbers, etc
Reliability with chores
Completing tasks
Following directions
Polite Manners

We are linking up to Curriculum Week  2014 at iHomeschoolNetwork:)