This is my first year teaching my son (8yr old 3rd grader) I am creating my own curriculum and thought I might get some ideas. So far we are 2 months into it and already completed 2 novels with worksheets (silver fox and Indian in the cupboard) next novel will be the voyagers series then Rush revere series then CS Lewis series. We are reading a chapter a day in the Bible with discussion for further understanding (right now reading/drawing g our way through the plagues). Introducing cursive since it wasn’t taught in school and practice writing scripture daily for penmanship. We are doing 2easy peasy math pages a day then on to Singapore workbooks. We do weekly spelling words with a test each Friday. We will be doing character study each wk during our bible studies. I have various unit studies for animals we will be doing later in the year. Reading comprehension is single page articles or short stories with questions after. Next month we will start computer typing skills. I have a variety of lessons for history, geography and sciences but these lessons are not our main focus so they are spaced out in the middle and later in the year.
We aren’t following a typical school year schedule. We do 4 school days with test reading and bible studies on Friday (and whatever else that might need to be finished) we typically finish our school day by noon but if he struggles to keep focused we go till 3pm.
I am welcoming any constructive criticism since I am so new at this and don’t want to forget something.
That all sounds great so far! I didn’t see anything regarding language arts though. Do you have any grammar or the writing process in there? Instruction on nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, etc. writing such as opinion, how to instructions, writing a letter, a report, etc. we use BJU English 3, it teaches both grammar and the writing process. It alternates these for each unit, like unit 1 grammar, unit 2 writing, unit 3 grammar, and so on. I don’t use the teacher manual or additional test book since it gives the lesson right there in the workbook text, and It also has a unit review at the end of each chapter that I use as quizzes and a cumulative review after each unit also that I use for tests.
Oops I must have spaced the grammer portion when typing the post. Actually next wk we are starting punctuation. I’m not using a program I was going to choose a different punctuation a wk same with nouns verbs etc. I guess one downfall to this technique is it may take longer but I am able to decide if my son understands it well enough to advance to something new. I am on a very small budget so I’m trying to avoid purchasing curriculum.
So far I’ve found free worksheets on pinterest and teachers pay teachers. Plus we are on first name basis with the library now 
There is a great FREE online program you might want to check out. it is called Easy Peasy all in one homeschool. Since you are on a small budget it might be worth checking into. I used it for my son in preschool it was great and he really liked the activities… they have a sister site that goes all the way through high school… wish you luck your first year…