I had high hopes.
We were going to get started on our curriculum today; however, I got side-tracked. Side-tracked by the Olympics, by sorting out clothes and cleaning the house to give stuff away for a garage sale, by visiting a friend I see only every two years, by putting together a calendar binder for our morning meeting time, by working on writing up some preschool curriculum, and by having insane insomnia. Ack!
I think we’ll just do a kick-off day on Thursday instead!
In the meantime, I thought I’d share what we’re doing for our homeschool curriculum this year. I always find it interesting to see what my friends are using for curriculum, and you can find more curriculum choices and ideas over at the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop at iHomeschoolNetwork!
Here is our homeschool curriculum *list* for 2012-2013.
Please note: This list is schedule to change without notice! 😉 As a homeschool mom, I reserve the right to change my mind, lose my mind, or renew my mind. Any of the above may lead to a change of curriculum. It happens….
Oldest Daughter (turned 8 last week!!)
History & Science:We will mainly be using My Father’s World Creation to the Greeks curriculum (I got it at a garage sale!!), but also supplementing with Mystery of History Volume 1.
My husband has agreed to teach the science lessons! Yay!!
Language Arts:
- Learning Language Arts Through Literature – Level 4 – We haven’t used this before, so I’m excited to give it a try!
- English from the Roots Up
Spelling:
- All About Spelling – Level 4 and possibly 5 (depending how quickly she gets through it)
Math:Foreign Language:I also want to add some type of typing program for her. I need to look online and see what free options are available.
Middle Daughter (age 5)
- My Father’s World 1st Grade package
- Singapore Math – Level 1
- All About Spelling – Level 1 and possibly 2
- Mathtacular
- She’ll also be joining her older sister for history and science
Youngest Daughter (age 4)
- I’m currently putting together a home preschool curriculum for her (and I’ll be sharing it week-by-week with you starting at the end of August — more info to come next week)! It will be a journey through Bible stories and themes from A-Z.
- She’ll also join her sisters for history and science and participate in any age-appropriate activities
- Learning Bags
- What Your Preschooler Needs to Know(nice collection of rhymes, songs, and read alouds)
All Three Girls:
Bible:
- Bible readings
- Bible Journals
- Grapevine Studies stick figuring Old Testament Basics (Catechism)
- Journey Through The Bible
- Celebrating Biblical Feasts
Art:
- How to Teach Art to Children
- Various other books we have on hand for art appreciation and art projects
Music:
- A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers
- Piano lessons
Poetry:Still deciding…any suggestions? I want to find a book with a nice compilation of poems and share one or two during our morning meeting time each week.
P.E.:
- Soccer in the fall and swimming once a week in the fall.
Love your Learning bags. I shared it with my sister who needs to keep little hands busy while working with older daughter. Thanks for sharing. Interested to see how you like LLATL. I looked into it as well. I decided not to use it this year so maybe next year. Hope you all have a wonderful, easy, and fun year!
Thanks so much, Dana!
I’m excited about LLATL! We’ve done Primary Language Lessons, and I liked it okay for beginners. I think my daughter is ready to try something new though…
Hello! I’m a new young mom and former English major.. I saw that you’re still trying to decide on poetry..when I read this, a book immediately came to mind:”Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages” by Harold Bloom. I purchased this book a few years ago at a secondhand book store and I think it would be great! It’s actually separated by seasons… There are great stories and poems and great for discussion/interpretation (my love is literary analysis lol) anyway,I hope this helps!
I’ll definitely check it out! I’ve seen a few different ones online, but I haven’t heard of that one!
thought I’d mention the Harp & Laurel Wreath for poetry as well, by Laura Berquist :0)
I hadn’t heard of that before! I’ll have to take a look. Thanks so much!
For a free typing we use “Type Fu” which is an app through Chrome browser… so far so good.
Thanks, Camille! Can’t wait to give it a try!
For some peom ideas, and a lot of other good stuff, I use scholastics downloadable pages and books. Its great for school teachers and daycare teachers(which is what I do). But I think homeschool teachers can beifit from it as well. They are all somewhat cheap and they even have some for free at times. The website is teacherexpress.scholastic.com if you havnt used it before. 🙂
Thanks!!
Well at least I will know what LLATL stands for when I see it on homeschoolclassifieds now. 😉
For us:
AAS 1 and 2
First Language Lessons
Sonlight Science
MOH 1
Horizons Math 1 (and whatever I decide to move to because this is not going to last us)
Harold Bloom is perhaps the greatest critic writing in the English language, so I’m sure his book is terrific. But it might be cool to study poets, like you’ve studied artists–one at a time. Start with six weeks of Emily Dickinson, for example. We memorize poetry together too, which I like. In the meantime, I’m going to buy the Bloom book! Good luck kicking the school year off!
thanks for sharing! love your blog! curious- did you do the K curriculum of my father’s world last year with your 5 yr old then?
I did! I’ve used it with my two oldest. I was planning to do it this year with my 4-year-old, but I decided to put a little more space in between the two youngest. Plus, I wanted a chance to “write” my own curriculum and see how it goes!
Looking forward to seeing your preschool curriculum 🙂 Good luck!
Thanks, Lou-Ann!
Can’t wait to see what you have planned for preschool!! 🙂
For typing, we use freetypinggame.net. It was a big help for us last year.
Thanks, Dianna!
Hello! I found your blog this morning and have loved perusing it! I’ve pinned LOTS. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas! I homeschool our 8 year old son and 4 year old daughter.
I’m considering Learning Language Arts through Literature for my son next year; he’ll be in 4th grade. He’s a very avid reader; we’ve used Lifepac this year and he complains that the stories are too elementary for him. Can you post an update on how it’s gone for you this year?
We have used Math U See Gamma this year and LOVED IT. Hope it has worked for you!
Blessings!
Thank you so much for the encouragement!
We have really enjoyed LLATL, and I feel it has helped my daughter with some basic language skills that she hadn’t really worked on. I also like the units that are included! You may want to look up a level or two or more if your son isn’t feeling challenged by his current work, but I do think they are excellent stories.
Math U See is working pretty well for my oldest. I’m still on the fence about it. I know the author has a method to it, but I sometimes feel like we are a little behind when my daughter doesn’t know some of the math other kids know. Eventually, it will all be taught…and she is learning stuff other kids aren’t learning yet, but I just don’t know! Something I’ll evaluate again as we get closer to convention time!