Yay! Can’t believe it’s time to start another one of these posts!!!
So this year I will have a preschooler, 2nd grader, 5th grader and 6th grader, plus 2 new babies! (Yes I ended up with TWINS who arrived in December!!). I am officially freaking out! lol but I am looking
forward to seeing what this year brings. God knows it was best to follow His plan for the year last year with so many subjects being online/DVD… I am trying to continue to simplify our homeschool so we have time for other things.
Here are my picks for this year and I think I am pretty confident this time although who knows right? If I make changes once again I will comment again later.
5th and 6th Grade
Reading: We now have Kindles so I will hopefully buy a few Kindle books and we will all be reading, discussing and journalling the same books in a notebook. We will probably use a lot of the books I choose for Diana Waring’s History as well as books of interest including some classics
Writing: Continue IEW and move on to Continuation B my 6th grader would like something that teaches creative writing. Any suggestions for something inexpensive?
Grammar: Fix-it Grammar Level 2
Spelling: All About Spelling
History: Diana Waring continue and move onto Romans and Reformers
Science: Jay Wiles Science in the Beginning
Math: Teaching Textbooks (5th Grader wants to go back to CLE, we will try TT first and if it’s not working I can always switch for her)
Health: Horizons Grade 6
Piano
Foreign Language: Mango Languages and/or duo lingo
2nd Grader
Grammar/Writing/Spelling etc- The Good and the Beautiful Level 2
Handwriting- The Good and the Beautiful
Reading- Finish AAR levels and reading the Good and the Beautiful books with me
Spelling: AAS
Math: Math U See
History: (see above-working as a family)
Science: (see above-working as a family)
Health: (she wants to do health so I am considering Horizons Grade 2)
Piano
Preschooler
About Three Preschool Workbooks, when we are done we will work slowly through CLE Kindergarten II. We are thinking about doing AAR Pre reading and/or Sonlight, plus piano.
That is the line up so far. I plan to do some character building also using Laying Down the Rails for Children and I plan to buy a YWAM missionary book set to use for read alouds this year. Excited about this year.
What has everyone else planned?! Can’t wait to hear!
I love posts like these! I’m mostly finished, but you never know. I will have an 8th grader and a 5th grader.
Bible
Continue the Bible reading plan we’ve used for awhile. We’ll be starting over with Genesis. I also use the Story Bible for Older Children I found in a free download.
English/Language Arts
8th: 115 lessons from the Daily Grammar website; Schoolhouse Teachers spelling (we’ll try it; I’ve tried several things and nothing has worked so far); Reading–hope to use Book of Virtues for Young People as an anthology of sorts, but I will take into consideration his interests in this area. Lit Read alouds–I usually plan this as we go along, but it will follow our history studies as much as possible.Poetry of Sandburg and Browning
5th: Schoolhouse Teachers Daily Grammar 3/4 and Schoolhouse Teachers Spelling; Reading–Amelia Bedelia chapter books; Ivy + Bean; Boxcar Children. Lit Read alouds–plan as I go along. Poetry of Frost and Dickinson
Math–will continue planning it myself for another year
8th–combine Schoolhouse Teachers prealgebra and a consumer math course
5th–focus on adding and subtracting 4- and 5-digit numbers, column addition of 3-digit numbers, multiplying 2- and 3-digits by 1-digit, division with 2- and 3-digit dividends and 1-digit divisors
Science
8th–ABEKA Earth and Space
5th-undecided; leaning towards Everyday Astronomy
History
8th-begin world history
5th-begin American Girl books with supplements
I love these types of posts! I just edited my post from a few weeks ago. I wasn’t set in stone then, but, I am now!
With my first grader:
Reading: All About Reading & Explode the Code & lots of read alouds
Writing: WWE OR 6 Trait Writing (Evan Moor)
Grammar: First Language Lessons & maybe add in Growing with Grammar
Spelling: Spelling You See
Handwriting: Italic Handwriting
Art: Abeka Art 1
Math: CLE 1 & 180 Days of Math
History/Geography: Daily Geography Evan Moor & Beautiful Feet Early American History Primary Study
Science: Noeo Biology 1 & some add ons I bought from Rainbow Resource
Music: Melissa and Doug Music Instrument box and Some music books & CDs.
Bible: Long Story Short & Old Story New + Bible Story Book. Some Bible Grapevine too.
My kindergartner will follow along with my first grader with history, geography, science, art, music, and handwriting, & bible. She will also use All About Reading & Explode the Code. For math she will be using Math Lessons for a Living Education & Skill Sharpeners K
8th Grade:
Composition: Writing with Skill
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 8
Grammar: Easy Grammar 8
Literature: Confessions of a Homeschooler Lightning Thief Guide & reading a whole lot of books!
Language: Living Languages Spanish & Duolingo
Health: Queen Homeschool Supply Made in His Own Image (did 1/2 this year, 1/2 next year)
Science: Noeo Chemistry 3
Math: Teaching Textbooks Pre Algebra
Music: Homeschool in the Woods Composers & World’s Greatest Jazz Artists
Home Ec.: Home Economics Household Skills: Becoming a Daughter of Purpose (did 1/2 this yr, 1/2 next)
Geography: Drawing Around the World: USA
History: Notgrass Uncle Sam and You W/ literature pack.
Bible: Long Story Short, Old Story New, an individual daily devotional book by Max Lucado, Some Bible Grapevine, and Some Good Morning Girls Bible studies.
Tip for Kindles: We use the Overdrive app with our kindle’s to download ebooks and audio books from our public library. It’s super easy and FREE! It saves us a ton of money and time! My kids love it when I surprise them with new books, especially audio books. We often use our Bluetooth speaker to listen to a book while we work together to fold laundry or some other chore (two birds, one stone! ), or I let the boys play with LEGOS, or draw, or something else that is quiet.
Also, congratulations on your twins! We have twins and I PROMISE it gets easier! You WILL sleep again!
Thank you!! It sure does sound good to hear we will sleep again! LOL! But seriously who knew you could love 2 babies at once so completely? sigh As for the Kindle app thank you for the info, I will look into that.
We are gearing up for Kindergarten next year. This is what I have so far, although I am continuing to research and explore other options. I am also planning to have 1-2 field trips per week to go along with unit studies.
Reading: All About Reading Level 1 & considering Build Your Library (I’m afraid it might be too much, but it sounds fun.)
Writing: Still researching… (Recommendations Welcome )
Math: Math U See & Kumon Time and Money Workbooks (that we haven’t gotten to this year)
Logic: BrainQuest Logic & Lots of Puzzles
Social Studies: DK Geography Workbook, Little Passports & Unit Studies (that go along with BYL)
Science: DK Science Workbook, Kiwi Crate & Unit Studies
Bible: Daily Devotional & Fruit of the Spirit Unit Studies
ASL: Signing Time
Art: Usborne Step By Step Drawing & Crafts for Unit Studies
I will have an 8th grader, 5th grader, and 4th grader for 2017-2018. I don’t have everything decided upon, yet, but I do have a few.
8th Grader Math - Harold Jacob’s Geometry Science - Apologia Biology Foreign language - BJU Spanish 2 Writing/Grammar/Vocabulary - Most likely will use One Year Adventure Novel (if we don’t use this we will probably continue Michael Clay Thompson for grammar/vocab and find something else for writing) Poetry - Michael Clay Thompson
Undecided about literature, history, and bible.
4th and 5th Graders Math - Beast Academy and Math Mammoth, unsure if we will use both like we do right now or go with just one of them Science - Apologia Flying Creatures and Lego Boost Robotics Writing - IEW Handwriting - Pentime Reading - classic literature novels Poetry - Michael Clay Thompson
Undecided about history, bible, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. We’re happy with what we currently use for these but I’m considering changing some things up.
We will also continue morning time altogether. Each child will continue private music lessons and co-op classes. Co-op classes are a mix of enrichment and academic. My younger two will participate in sports and 5ks, and my oldest will participate in ballet and 5ks.
I just edited my choices post! We are going to switch our science up from what we have been doing this year. My daughter has always loved science, but after using Apologia General Science she hates it! (I agree with her that the program is nothing like the elementary Apologia books, and while I agree that the work load should increase as kids get older I have to admit that I too find the text quite dry and boring and I’m a science loving nurse.) I had a hard time finding something for an 8th grader. After extensive research and input from my daughter we are going to try out Noeo Chemistry 3 next year. Really bummed that Apologia General Science killed her science joy, so hopefully we can get it back!
@momof3 I would love to hear how you like Noeo after you use it for a bit! I looked into this a few years ago and I remember then that it looked very engaging!
@Forchristandkids we did Noeo Biology 2 last year. We liked it but it is very open ended. And I am not good with open ended, I need a lot of direction So we switched this year to Answers In Genesis. So far it seems to be a better fit for us.
@Lindsay Thank you for this information! We are using Answers in Genesis this year too (astronomy). I’m struggling a bit though to be honest. I have a 2nd grader and a 4th grader, and it seems like it’s above my 4th grader’s head (my 2nd grader is just focusing on the youngest level readings so that has been okay so far). Are any of your children similar to my children’s ages? If so, how has your experience been? I expected to fall in love with this curriculum and so far, I’m struggling to make myself pull it off the shelf. And I hate that feeling! I also have their Plants study, so I have wondered if switching to that study would be a little more concrete for my oldest than the astronomy has been thus far. I’d love any feedback you could provide from your own experience!
@Forchristandkids My kids are in 1st grade, 4th and 6th. I agree some of it is a little too in depth but I just kind of skim over that. Also something I picked up from Noeo is YouTube videos. I always find YouTube videos that go with what we are reading, for some reason it really makes it sink in with my kids. We also try to do some of the more simple science projects in the book too
Can I thank you SO MUCH for putting this idea ===>Beautiful Feet Early American History Primary Study out there for me!! Would you know, I just checked and my library has EVERY book except 1 $5 book. Looks like I have a history plan now!!! This looks to be JUST what I was hoping to come across.
That’s great!!! My husband actually picked this out! I don’t know how, but I had never come across this before in all my hours of curriculum searching! HAHA! I’m excited about it and can’t wait to get the guide in the mail! I’m glad you found it now too!!!
Proverbs31 you might check out Here to Help Learning at heretohelplearning.com for writing options. We just discovered it at our homeschool convention and decided to switch to it right away. It features an engaging video that has Mrs. Mora in costume at various locations as well as teaching her “Here to Help Learning Kids” who enthusiastically participate on screen. There are interactive games, funny pictures to inspire writing warmups and assignments are given by Captain Knucklehead her adorable basset hound dressed as an airline pilot. My 9 year old who has been grumpy about school being boring has begged to do writing every day since we got it, including the weekend when we don’t do school. Mrs. Mora also gives friendly reminders as a flight attendant instructing students to ask parents for help in a respectful manner and encouraging them to pray and start again should they “feel like they are drowning”. It is designed to work well with multiple students and isn’t just a video, it has activities and discussions you pause the DVD to do.
There are 2 levels Paragraphs and Essays with 3 “flights” each. Each flight has 6 projects broken down into approximately 32 lessons each. They recommend scheduling 2 class periods a week for each lesson. Just like it sounds, Paragraphs is the easier level helping less experienced writers to master paragraph writing and Essays is the level for those who are already proficient at paragraphs. You can select whatever flight you want to do based on interest in the projects but it is recommended to do the lessons of that flight in order. It is designed for 1st-6th graders. It isn’t exclusively creative writing, there are narratives and descriptive pieces for example, but it includes things like poetry, fables, tall tales and writing your own picture book. One flight guides students in writing a 6 chapter book. There are crafts like designing your own character to write about and creating a writing portfolio.
The website has free video samples and a thorough FAQ section and you can even get a free 14 day trial. You can stream all the videos online for all levels and flights and access and print all of the teacher and student materials for $6.99 a month. You can also buy a kit for each flight containing the teacher’s manual, all lessons on DVD, and a colorful student workbook for $89.99 if not at a convention with a discount. Workbooks are also available for $19.99 if you need extra or don’t want to print all those pages for your online subscription. I intend to use the same materials for 4 kids eventually and sometimes have streaming issues so I purchased one flight of Paragraphs for my second grader and one of Essays for my fourth grader. Buying will save me money in the long run by reusing the non-consumables, but obviously costs more up front.
I’m not affiliated with them in anyway, just sharing a new resource I just discovered that we absolutely love. Writing had been a trouble spot for us that we just hadn’t found the right curriculum for, so this was an answer to prayer for us that I wish I would’ve discovered sooner!
@Brandy78 Love your choices! They are so similar to what I’m looking at for my 2nd and 5th graders next year. I saw your post and I was taken aback by how similar our lists were…with so many choices out there! Good luck!
My girls are loving The Good and the Beautiful right now, we are currently using Level 4 and I will soon start Level 1 with my Gr1/Gr2 child. I don’t have to fight them to get the work done, it’s getting done everyday without fail. It includes so many subjects it makes life easier for us. Depending on what Level you are looking at (I suggest doing the assessment to determine) if it is one of the free ones, I would suggest that you download it, print some of it, use it and if you don’t like it or want to add to it at that point you could always get Brave Writer. At least this way if you think The Good and The Beautiful is for you, you have saved money vs buying Brave Writer first.
Hi all!
I’m Louise and I am a curriculum addict, lol! I am homeschooling a precocious 4 yo daughter and 10 yo daughter and 11 yo son who struggle with dyslexia/ADD.
Here’s my current curriculum plan for 2017-2018—
4.5 yo DD:
Math- Singapore Primary Mathematics finish Essentials then start 1A US edition
Phonics- Logic of English Foundations A
Writing- Write Shop Primary A, copywork
10 yo DD:
Math- Singapore Primary Mathematics 2A
LA- Easy Grammar 3rd grade, Daily Grams
Spelling- Illuminations 1A (Natural Speller 3rd grade)
Writing- Write Shop Primary B, copywork
11 yo DS:
Math- Singapore Primary Mathematics 3A
LA- Easy Grammar 3rd grade, Daily Grams
Spelling- Illuminations 1B (Natural Speller 4th grade)
Writing- Write Shop Primary C, copywork
Literature/Read-alouds- Illuminations study guides, lots of awesome read-alouds and read-alones!
History- Bright Ideas Press All About History Vol. II with Illuminations study guide
Science- Christian Kids Explore Biology plus Exploring Nature with Children for our nature walks
Geography- Illuminations US Geography condensed 1 year schedule
Art- Creating a Masterpiece
Enrichment Studies Vol. 1- from Simply Charlotte Mason (devotional, character studies, art, music, poetry, literature, etc)
), or I let the boys play with LEGOS, or draw, or something else that is quiet.
(I agree with her that the program is nothing like the elementary Apologia books, and while I agree that the work load should increase as kids get older I have to admit that I too find the text quite dry and boring and I’m a science loving nurse.) I had a hard time finding something for an 8th grader. After extensive research and input from my daughter we are going to try out Noeo Chemistry 3 next year. Really bummed that Apologia General Science killed her science joy, so hopefully we can get it back!