One of the best (and most intimidating) parts of home schooling for the homeschooling parents is choosing curriculum! There is just soooo much out there! And each family and kid is soo unique! What are our goals? What will fit us? How can I do this for the best price;)
So I am sharing these choices as what I really have hoped and prayed will fit us this year! Thankfully, while my kids are very different, we can do (and re-use) a lot of the same materials and just tweak them a bit to fit each kids' strengths and aid their weaknesses! And I've learned through the years that sometimes a curriculum works for us and sometimes it doesn't.... just finish it, drop and replace or let it go:)
What we are doing together...
Over the summer as I prayed for our new school year and began looking through curriculum (and saw my oldest grow taller), I really began to ask what I needed to do to really give my kids a strong spiritual foundation. For years we have included devotion, Bible reading and memorization, character development, and lots of great application. So this year we will continue doing those things... like we will be reading Psalms looking for what it teaches about God, continuing to use Our 24 Family Ways as a guide to point us to better character, creating prayer cards to be more diligent in prayer and adding in Apology Who is God? as our weekly Bible Study. I am excited!
Memory Work is done together during our "together time". We began learning the verses from Apology Who is God. We are also working through the Medieval Vertias Press Timeline Cards, science facts, and memorizing portions of various Shakespeare plays using How to Teach Your Child Shakespeare.
We are using our favorite friend SOTW for history:) This year we are diving into the Medieval world with Story of the World, Volume 2. The challenge for us is making it work with 3 different levels. It's honestly our spine and then we add in encyclopedias, resource books, and projects at the kids' levels. Another challenge for me is finding corresponding literature at the kids' levels and what they enjoy; I use a couple of different lists to help, like The Well Trained Mind, Tapestry of Grace and Ambleside Online reading lists.
For now our guide for science is Anna's science book How the Earth Works. I have divided it into 18 weeks of reading and study. Chris and Lydia will follow along with similar topics in the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and supplemental library books. Anna's book includes hands-on experiments with almost every page, so we'll pick one (or two a week). We'll follow a similar 18 week schedule/assignments with How the Universe Works and Apologia's Astronomy book after Christmas!
I am also hoping to do "nature study" once a week using Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock and the free resources for the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Alone the older kids are going to do Daily Grams as independent work throughout the week. Together I am excited to be supplementing it with Fix-IT Grammar by IEW! We are using vol.2 Robin Hood and after our first week I feel this is a really great fit for us. Not only are we learning grammar, but applying it to passages that need to be corrected.... which unfortunately, is the way many yearly exams test grammar skills. I love fun it is to do together and so far they are asking to do their short assignment each day!
Writing is always a challenge for us. The kids write narrations, summaries and (now) outlines as they read science, history and literature. So they are writing constantly.... it's just not in a formal manner and while I will look over their work, I often don't correct every error in their daily work. It's a record of their reading and ability to process what they've read and learned. So we needed something to push them to be better writers without being another writing assignment. I decided to follow The Well Trained Mind in using Writing Strands 3... it looks a little simplistic, especially since they've been used to IEW topical assignments. I do hope to get IEW Medieval Writings to supplement.... we probably won't do all the writing projects from there, but pick and choose what fits us best.
An opportunity came our way at the beginning of the summer, a homeschooling family with our group offered to teach some horse basics and learning to ride lessons. We were thrilled since the girls had been asking and asking. They diligently study their horse units so they can have those sections quizzed and checked off by our leader. They are working towards going on a trail ride sometime in the fall ( or whenever they are ready).
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! The kids have made friends in the group and I truly love the support, encouragement and fellowship I get to have with the other homeschooling families.
What we do individually (but sometimes together)...
Anna (6th)
Math - Saxon 8/7 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power and Word Roots
Grammar - Daily Grams 6
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Chris (4th)
Math - Saxon 6/5 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Daily Grams 4/5
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Logic - Think-It-Through Tiles.... eventually Building Thinking Skills and Reading Detective
Music - piano lessons
Lydia (3rd/4th)
Math - Saxon 6/5 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Daily Grams 4
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Logic - Think-It-Through Tiles.... eventually Building Thinking Skills and Reading Detective
Photography Basics and enter local contests
Nate (K)
Reading - Letter Factory Set of DVDs, OPGTR and AlphaPhonics
Math - Saxon 1
Logic - eventually....Think-It-Through Tiles (totally thrift-ed these... a great find!!!)
Reliability with chores
Completing tasks
Following directions
Polite Manners
Tying Shoes
So I am sharing these choices as what I really have hoped and prayed will fit us this year! Thankfully, while my kids are very different, we can do (and re-use) a lot of the same materials and just tweak them a bit to fit each kids' strengths and aid their weaknesses! And I've learned through the years that sometimes a curriculum works for us and sometimes it doesn't.... just finish it, drop and replace or let it go:)
What we are doing together...
Over the summer as I prayed for our new school year and began looking through curriculum (and saw my oldest grow taller), I really began to ask what I needed to do to really give my kids a strong spiritual foundation. For years we have included devotion, Bible reading and memorization, character development, and lots of great application. So this year we will continue doing those things... like we will be reading Psalms looking for what it teaches about God, continuing to use Our 24 Family Ways as a guide to point us to better character, creating prayer cards to be more diligent in prayer and adding in Apology Who is God? as our weekly Bible Study. I am excited!
 |
| Looking through the dividers to see the world in different ways (colors) like our lesson described. |
Memory Work is done together during our "together time". We began learning the verses from Apology Who is God. We are also working through the Medieval Vertias Press Timeline Cards, science facts, and memorizing portions of various Shakespeare plays using How to Teach Your Child Shakespeare.
We are using our favorite friend SOTW for history:) This year we are diving into the Medieval world with Story of the World, Volume 2. The challenge for us is making it work with 3 different levels. It's honestly our spine and then we add in encyclopedias, resource books, and projects at the kids' levels. Another challenge for me is finding corresponding literature at the kids' levels and what they enjoy; I use a couple of different lists to help, like The Well Trained Mind, Tapestry of Grace and Ambleside Online reading lists.
For now our guide for science is Anna's science book How the Earth Works. I have divided it into 18 weeks of reading and study. Chris and Lydia will follow along with similar topics in the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and supplemental library books. Anna's book includes hands-on experiments with almost every page, so we'll pick one (or two a week). We'll follow a similar 18 week schedule/assignments with How the Universe Works and Apologia's Astronomy book after Christmas!
I am also hoping to do "nature study" once a week using Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock and the free resources for the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Alone the older kids are going to do Daily Grams as independent work throughout the week. Together I am excited to be supplementing it with Fix-IT Grammar by IEW! We are using vol.2 Robin Hood and after our first week I feel this is a really great fit for us. Not only are we learning grammar, but applying it to passages that need to be corrected.... which unfortunately, is the way many yearly exams test grammar skills. I love fun it is to do together and so far they are asking to do their short assignment each day!
Writing is always a challenge for us. The kids write narrations, summaries and (now) outlines as they read science, history and literature. So they are writing constantly.... it's just not in a formal manner and while I will look over their work, I often don't correct every error in their daily work. It's a record of their reading and ability to process what they've read and learned. So we needed something to push them to be better writers without being another writing assignment. I decided to follow The Well Trained Mind in using Writing Strands 3... it looks a little simplistic, especially since they've been used to IEW topical assignments. I do hope to get IEW Medieval Writings to supplement.... we probably won't do all the writing projects from there, but pick and choose what fits us best.
An opportunity came our way at the beginning of the summer, a homeschooling family with our group offered to teach some horse basics and learning to ride lessons. We were thrilled since the girls had been asking and asking. They diligently study their horse units so they can have those sections quizzed and checked off by our leader. They are working towards going on a trail ride sometime in the fall ( or whenever they are ready).
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! The kids have made friends in the group and I truly love the support, encouragement and fellowship I get to have with the other homeschooling families.
What we do individually (but sometimes together)...
 |
| Some silliness while on a nature hike |
Anna (6th)
Math - Saxon 8/7 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power and Word Roots
Grammar - Daily Grams 6
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Logic - Reading Detective
Music - piano lessonsChris (4th)
Math - Saxon 6/5 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Daily Grams 4/5
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Logic - Think-It-Through Tiles.... eventually Building Thinking Skills and Reading Detective
Music - piano lessons
Lydia (3rd/4th)
Math - Saxon 6/5 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Daily Grams 4
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Logic - Think-It-Through Tiles.... eventually Building Thinking Skills and Reading Detective
Photography Basics and enter local contests
Nate (K)
Reading - Letter Factory Set of DVDs, OPGTR and AlphaPhonics
Math - Saxon 1
Logic - eventually....Think-It-Through Tiles (totally thrift-ed these... a great find!!!)
Reliability with chores
Completing tasks
Following directions
Polite Manners
Tying Shoes
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