2018-2019 Curriculum Choices!

Curriculum
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Does anyone have their curriculum choices made for next year?! I’ve been thinking and searching and watching reviews for weeks now!

I’m making a complete curriculum change for my younger kids. I think after quite a few years of homeschooling I’m getting worn out! I always hit a slump after Christmas break, but I still feel like I’m just really stuck in this slump still! (I have a count down until summer break that I wrote out in my lesson plan book!) I have so many books for each subject, especially for language arts. I have a tendency to overdo it and my plan is to simplify big time next year.

For both my 1st and 2nd grader I’m using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts.

I’m using The Good and The Beautiful History 1.

For science we are also using The Good and the Beautiful unit studies, Kingdoms, Arthropods, and Space.

We’re using - you guessed it! - The Good and the Beautiful handwriting.

Evan Moor Beginning Geography.
Art With a Purpose 2
Easy Peasy Ancient Music and Wee Sing
Abek a Health and Safety 2

For Bible I searched high and low for something I liked and finally I decided that we’ll simply… Read the Bible! :slight_smile: I bought The Adventure Bible Early Readers edition and I’ll pair our readings with a Bible coloring book and a set of Buck Denver DVDs that I have.

For math my second grader will use Teaching Textbooks 3 and my 1st grader will use CLE 1. I also have Mathtacular for both to use for fun since they enjoy math.

I also have a variety of books and daily activities for our morning basket, that hopefully with a lighter schedule we will have time for!

I really hope that The Good and the Beautiful will be a good fit for us.

My 9th grader will use:
Teaching Textbooks Algebra
Masterbooks Survey of Earth and Sky
Northstar Geography with the HOD geography & world religions reading books
Spanish switched on schoolhouse
Computer keyboarding
Theology (with a variety of books I chose)
Easy Grammar 9
Vocabu-lit level i
Essentials in Writing 9
Learning Language Arts Through Literature Gold-American.
Figure Skating for P.E.

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I’m not as far along as I usually am. I have the subjects, but some of the curricula is still undecided.

Bible (both dc)–continue our reading plan.

Ds9th
English–Copywork; Daily Grammar website; Grammar with Plain and not so Plain; Schoolhouse Spelling; Reading and Literature lists TBD as we go along
Algebra 1–either Schoolhouse Teachers or Teaching Textbooks
Physical Science–probably CK12 Physical Science. Am waiting for Schoolhouse Teachers to release their course before deciding
History–Videos and readings for world history
Electives–TBD. Either Spanish, Art, Nutrition, or Computer.
Spanish–Schoolhouse Teachers
Art–Chalk Pastels lessons from Hodgepodge (1x/wk) and/or CM Art Study (2x/wk)
Nutrition–readings from Schoolhouse Teachers Health 101 and CK12; learning to cook
Computer–learn Keyboarding, Word, and Excel

Dd6th
Language Arts–copywork; Grammar from Plain and not so Plain; Schoolhouse Spelling; Emily Dickinson; reading and literature TBD as we go along
Math–no formal curriculum. Will cover addition and subtraction of large numbers; multiplication and division beyond the tables; fractions.
Science–probably Mr. Q Life Science
History–American Girl books with additional reading

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In case you didn’t know-Teaching Textbooks now offers an online version of their program that is SO much cheaper than buying the disk sets!! I think it’s around 49 dollars for 10 months access!!! (I think it’s cheaper for some like 39, 49, or 59 I can’t remember). I emailed with them and they said that the ability to print off the workbook will also be added before this next school year! I’m super excited about this option which makes it so much more affordable.

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? = We haven’t decided for sure on this.

Math

  • Right Start Math

Language Arts

  • Progressive Phonics
  • All About Spelling
  • Print Path Raise the Roof (for converting from 3 lined to 2 lined printing)
  • Possibly something for cursive (probably just some cheep $Store workbooks)
  • Fix it Grammar (?)

History

  • SOTW

Science

  • Not sure yet.

Spanish

  • Not Sure yet
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Hi. I’m pretty happy with our choices that we used for this year and plan to do basically the same classes for next year (1st and 3rd grade).

3rd Grade
Language Arts: All About Reading (Level 4)
Spelling: All About Spelling (Level 3)
Grammar: Growing With Grammar (Level 3)
Writing: Learning Without Tears (Building Writers Level D) and also Handwriting Without Tears (Cursive Writing Handbook)
Math: Math U See (Gamma)
Keyboarding: Keyboarding Without Tears (Grade 3)
Geography: Works books (DK Geography Grade 3 or Evan-Moor Daily Geography Grade 3)

1st Grade
Language Arts: All About Reading (Level 1)
Grammar: Growing With Grammar (Level 1)
Writing: Learning Without Tears (Building Writers Level B) and also Handwriting Without Tears (My Printing Book)
Math: Math U See (Beta)
Keyboarding: Keyboarding Without Tears (Grade 1)
Geography: Works books (DK Geography Grade 1 or Evan-Moor Daily Geography Grade 1)

Shared Classes (with additional expectation & work level output for my older kiddo)
Literature & Comprehension: Memoria Press Literature and Poetry Collection (Level 2)
History: The Story of The World (Book 2)
Science: Biology For The Grammar Stage
ARTistic Pursuits (Book 2 K-3)
Music: Hoffman Academy (Piano Lessons)
Kiwi Crates or Little Passports

We also have various sport activities going on throughout the year.

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I have mapped out and ordered most of our curriculum, so that I can get it organized before summer break. We have 7 weeks left of school, and I take 2 months off with my kids to prevent burn-out. Next year, I will have a 3rd grader and a 5th grader.

Bible: Virtue Training Bible & Simply Charlotte Mason’s Matthew - Acts study
Math: Abeka Arithmetic
Science: Sonlight Science D
History: Simply Charlotte Mason Ancient Rome
Geography: Simply Charlotte Mason Europe
English (Grammar/Vocab): Fix It Grammar - The Nose Tree
Writing: IEW Level A Writing Intensive
Spelling: Spelling You See
Handwriting: Cursive practice for my 3rd grader
Typing: Onling typing program for my 5th grader
Reading: I use real books for their individual ages with fun comprehension guides and lapbooks.
We are trying Simply Charlotte Mason’s Enrichment Studies this year for our extras like art, music, poetry and foreign language.

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I think we are mostly pretty set here there are a couple things that we still need to decide on but I will explain that later.

So this year making plans just wasn’t going according to plan lol I think I have become confident enough in our school that I don’t feel like I need to be completely guided through every topic. I love to have the children reading a lot and I like to do read alouds. Sonlight we have tried but I didn’t always love all the book choices for the age of my child at the time. Heart of Dakota is awesome but again the age of the child that was doing it, I needed her to be more independent and this required more time than I could give at the time and even though she would be perfect for it now, we are in a situation where it costs too much $$$ along with everything else and everyone else I need to figure out curriculum for. My Fathers World looks awesome too but yeah that wasn’t going to work $$ wise either.
I am a believer of the Heart of Wisdom method but needed just a little help along the way.

I finally had a week where I joined a free homeschool conference and I heard the term worldschooling for the second time in my life. As I listened I became excited and inspired, my children watched along with me and we have figured it out!

This year we will be worldschooling, that means we are going to start in our own back yard and visit local museums etc… we happen to live in a tourist town so this is perfect, we will hopefully do hop on and hop off trolleys etc… and then notebook about some things we have seen and learned, we will learn more about which foods are popular here and the history behind it. We will read books about our country and draw maps, we will watch videos and movies. We will move onto other countries also and get brochures, make imaginary trips, where would we want to visit? What hotel would we want to stay in? Play games like ticket to ride, and Mr Noggins based on the country we are studying. I have the PDF for Master books Countries and Cultures and I want to use that as a spine. I also plan to buy Material World and Hungry Planet. I saw Beautiful Feet has a geography curriculum for learning about cultures through picture books, we might pick that up. So many options.

Now as much as this may cover History, Social Studies, Geography, Reading and Writing I still need SOME official curriculum. So here are the choices…

Grade 6 and 7
LA: The Good and the Beautiful Language (we have loved every level we have used so far and we are finally sticking something out. We don’t love the diagramming, thinking of skipping this section of writing)
Math: Teaching Textbooks
Science: Apologia General Science with the notebook (I want them to do the experiments almost completely alone so they can learn to follow instructions but I will be in the background watching for safety etc…)
History: We will be worldschooling but we also LOVE Diana Waring’s History and will continue. We have worked through it quite slowly but I don’t mind, they are remembering what they are learning and we love the family projects like putting on plays and playing games together.
For my 7th Grader we are looking into adding a few electives in here also and getting some early credits as well making sure we catch up on any subjects that need work so we will have strong high school years. :slight_smile:

Grade 3
LA: TGATB
Math: TT and I think we might try Math Lessons for a Living Education this year
History: See above
Science: TGATB
Health: Not sure yet…

Kindergarten
Kindergarten II (CLE) we have already started this so it’s just about finishing it up
LA: TGATB Kindergarten (the old one that was free) if ready we will start level 1 of AAR. I will also be reading aloud daily. We had Sonlight Pre K and I have been going through those books 1 story or more every evening. I also have the whole set of Mr.Men books and Winnie the Pooh poetry we are reading through, so a lot of read alouds here
Math: Either TGATB when it comes out or Math Lessons for a Living Education Level 1
Science: With 3rd Grader and lots of reading

We will also be doing Skill Trek for life skills and I was looking into Cover Story for my 6th/7th graders. I think this covers i. So excited!

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Do you use AAR with TGATB? My kids are days away from finishing level 1 of AAR, and both my kids tested into TGATB level 1. I already own level 2 of AAR, but if I don’t have to do both I don’t want to! :wink: do you think TGATB is good for learning to read on It’s own?

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Yes personally I am using both, however I do not use them both every day. I would alternate days doing TGATB Monday, Wednesday, Friday and AAR Tuesday and Thursday. With TGATB it’s easy to get several lessons done a day so long as they understand the concepts and we finished Level 1 in a few months and have started Level 2. I think AAR gave the foundation needed to get through TGATB faster. TGATB introduces new phonics etc… but doesn’t necessarily spend a lot of time on it so the phonics skills in TGATB are more like review for us. I do however love the extra reading books TGATB introduces as I have an avid reader and it introduces real books rather than just the phonics readers.

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That makes complete sense. Thank you for sharing how you use these together! I noticed that TGATB has around 90 or so lessons in level 1 and some are quite short so I can see how those could be used together without being overwhelming and still be completed in a school year. Thank you!

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I have most of ours picked out and some bought already.

DD 5th
Bible- Bible Study Guide for All Ages (not set in stone)
Grammar - Easy Grammar 6 w/ Daily Grams (using in a co-op class for 4th-6th)
Spelling - Soaring with Spelling 5
Math - Math Lessons for a Living Education 5
Writing - Write Shop Junior D
History - America’s Story 1 or Homeschool in the Woods
Science - Sassafras Zoology/Anatomy or RSO Chemistry (very torn)
Geography - Road Trip USA (need a new printer first)

DD 3rd
Bible - Bible Study Guide for All Ages
Grammar - Growing with Grammar 3
Spelling - Soaring with Spelling 3
Math - Math Lessons for a Living Education 3/4
Writing - Write Shop Junior D
History - America’s Story 1 or Homeschool in the Woods
Science - Sassafras Zoology/Anatomy or RSO Chemistry (very torn)
Geography - Road Trip USA (need a new printer first)

Any thoughts on Homeschool in the Woods? I think it may be too time/craft intensive for us alongside Road Trip USA. I work from home part time and really need simple.

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@stef84 H omeschool in the woods is definitely full of hands on learning, and it can be very time consuming if you feel you must do everything. I like to use it as a supplement, because it enriches the learning experience, but we don’t do every activity. If you are very organized and have all of the materials printed AND get all of the items you need ahead of time (just as you would do with science and experiments) it probably would be doable.

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Changed from my original post:

Bible (both dc)–continue our reading plan.

Ds9th
English–Copywork; Daily Grammar website; Schoolhouse Spelling; Reading and Literature lists TBD as we go along
Algebra 1–either Schoolhouse Teachers or Teaching Textbooks
Physical Science–probably CK12 Physical Science. Am waiting for Schoolhouse Teachers to release their course before deciding
History–Videos and readings for world history
Electives–Nutrition and Career Exploration are definite. Art, Spanish, or Computer are still undetermined.
Nutrition–readings from Schoolhouse Teachers Health 101; learning to cook
Career Exploration–a combination of Schoolhouse Teachers and Oklahoma Homeschool/Cindy Downes
Spanish (if done)–Schoolhouse Teachers
Art (if done)–Chalk Pastels lessons from Hodgepodge (1x/wk) and/or an art appreciation course from Schoolhouse Teachers (2x/wk)
Computer (if done)–learn Keyboarding, Word, and Excel (GCFlearnfree.org)

Dd6th
Language Arts–copywork; Spelling from Plain and not so Plain; Emily Dickinson; reading and literature TBD as we go along; Grammar–create a course using Simply Spelling, Ruth Heller’s World of Language series, Schoolhouse Rock Grammar, and a few miscellaneous titles on grammar concepts (Brian Cleary, Michael Dahl, etc.)
Math–no formal curriculum. Will cover addition and subtraction of large numbers; multiplication and division beyond the tables; fractions.
Science–probably the first half of Schoolhouse Teachers Geology; second semester TBD
History–American Girl books with additional reading

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That’s great! Thanks for letting us know about the online version of teaching textbooks @momof3 … I’ve been wanting to look at them for my upcoming 6th grader. :blush:

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I’ve been thinking about trying write shop for something different as well. How do you like it, @stef84?

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This year my daughter is doing P3.This year we are doing Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven(main core)/MFW Voyage of Discovery,All About Reading Level 1,All About Spelling Level 1,Life of Fred Eden Series,Life of Fred Elementary Series.It sounds like a lot but I pick and choose what to do with her based on her skills.She’s doing great so far.

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So our plans have changed somewhat. My dad passed away in April and we had to travel to the UK twice, once because my dad was ill and he passed unexpectedly 2 weeks later, so we went back a month later to attend the funeral. Because of this school has been a bit up in the air and I decided we need a bit more stability this year as we process what has happened, so as much as world schooling sounded awesome this year I feel like we need to have a more structured year so that when we have bad days we can just pick up where we left off.
So here is the updated list with changes as follows:

Grade 6 and 7
LA: TGATB
Math: Still deciding as our computer broke down on us this year and so math became a problem I am looking for workbook style math instead so computer issues won’t affect us and use TT as a supplement if anyone has any suggestions for children who are struggling with math please let me know. (Something inexpensive too)
Science: Apologia General Science
History: Generations Grade 7 History: History’s Heroes
Literature: Generations Grade 7 Lit: Great Christian Adventures (I will read the books aloud to the family and my grade 6/7 children will write the answers to the questions I assign, the rest we will discuss aloud together)
Bible: Journey Though the Bible Book 1 (CLP)
Worldview: What Does the Bible Say About That?
Character: Read aloud: The Lost Art of True Beauty
Health: Apologia’s New Health Curriculum
Social Studies: 52 Weekly Stories (Canada)

Grade 3
LA: TGATB
Math: MLFLE
History: Diana Waring
Science: Read aloud books and note booking I have Apologia’s Flying Creatures but we will probably do this next year.
Handwriting: TGATB level 4
Social Studies: 52 Weekly Stories (Canada)

Kindergarten
Kindergarten II: We are almost done
LA: TGATB Kindergarten and AAR 1
Math: I love the look of TGATB it seems a little pricey though especially as I am in Canada so we will see once it’s released in a couple weeks otherwise it will be MLFLE 1
Science: With 3rd grader

Skill Trek for all.
I think as far as world schooling we will focus on Canada during morning time (basket) I will cycle through curriculum that I have but haven’t had time to do yet with Geography and Natives. If we are able to finish these we will move onto Africa. But I am really not pushing it, not this year at least.
So just a few changes but I feel like this is the best choice for us in this season.

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When I started gathering my son’s curriculum for next year I knew I wanted TT. Then I saw 3.0 had been released and I was over the moon. Makes things much easier that way…and if they add the workbook that can be printed off then that’s even better! :slight_smile:

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TT does have a workbook that can be used on its own. It’s the same wordage used in the videos and the same problems.

Or I’d suggest Math Mammoth or the Key To series for focusing on certain things they need to cover.

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9th grade son- Apologia Biology (at a co-op)
TT Algebra
Notgrass- American History
American Literature/writing
Latin (Memorial Press at co-op)
Speech (IEW at co-op)
Grammar…not sure? :thinking: Fit it grammar?? IEW
Art (co-op), PE Homeschool class, tennis and piano lessons

7th grade daughter- science Apologia (at co-op)
TT pre algebra
American History pre civil war-modern times (Masters books)
Writing IEW B continuation (co-op)
Literature- not sure? Pick as we go or bookshark :thinking:???
Speech (IEW at co-op)
Grammar not sure? IEW Fix it grammar or something else???.:thinking:
Homeschool PE class, dance lessons, Piano lessons

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