Our Homeschool Curriculum For 2013-14

Isn’t this one of our favorite topics ladies?  I know it is.  For me too.  I love to see what other people are using.  And then it just cracks me up when Todd Wilson and the various other  experienced homeschool dads say “The curriculum doesn’t really matter.  Pretty much anything will work.  Teach character.  Wisdom.  And work ethic.  Be good parents.  And things will be good.”  They are seeing the big picture and that is their job.  And yes, they are right.  But our job is to carry out the vision and so we get to have fun deciding what to use.

So I will lay out our plan for each child this year.  You might want to read my last post on HOW I will be homeschooling this year (and maybe from here on out if all goes well, which I expect:)  This post will be on WHAT we will use.  

EMMA

15 1/2 years old.

Math:  Life of Fred.  She has just started Advanced Algebra.  We are very excited about this new Math.  I looked at it several years ago, but Emma was the one who sort of pushed me into it this year.  And now all the kids are going to do it.  If you have any child that does not like Math or that wonders “When will I ever use this?”,  that is exactly the issue they address.  This math is completely unconventional and apparently high level.  Read about it!    Here is a link from Rainbow Resources.  They have a great review and I bought mine there.  Free shipping if your order is over $50.

Writing:  OYAN – One Year Adventure Novel.  This has DVD’s and work books and at the end of the year they will hopefully have written a novel.  There is also a wonderful summer week long camp that we went to a year ago with 200 other homeschool high school writers doing this curriculum.  Lots of fun!

Science:  Apologia Biology.  Her goal is to get through it in fall semester.  She’d like to do Chemistry in the spring.  We will see how fast she can get through Biology.  Apologia is one of my favorite book publishers.

Sitting with Dad discussing the week’s baby names in the newspaper.  One of their favorite activities.

Bible, History, Literature:  Sonlight Core 200 Church History.  She picked this for her History and Literature.  She thought it looked fun and interesting.  I’m all about letting them have a say in what they are using for materials.  They have to do certain subjects, but we will decide the specifics together.

College Prep (College Plus):  This will be an experiment for us.  It is geared to homeschool high school students.  This company will help her and mentor us through the process of Clepping out of around 12 college credit hours.  She will take a several week Critical Thinking class which preps her for college board tests and any other tests for that matter.  She will do practice tests online to prep for each of the Clep tests, use other study techniques they provide online like flashcards, videos, etc, and we will counsel with these mentors every two weeks about getting her to her goals for the semester AND about her future.

Drivers Ed :-)  Eek!

Foreign Language:  Rosetta Stone Spanish.  She has had 2 years of Latin, so I’m betting that will help her.  We are about to start week 5 of school and have not started this Spanish.  Hmm. We’ll see.

PE:  To the YMCA with the family.  Stairmasters, bikes, treadmills.  And walking and bike riding on the trail.

Singing lessons once a week, Toastmasters once a month and a social homeschool coop once a month for about 4 hours.

MEG

12 years old.

Math:  Life of Fred.  Meg is very excited.  She read the first 3 book in 2 nights each.  The first 10 books are for elementary and are supposed to be done 1 per month.  I am just having her read from the beginning, answer the questions in her head and then she will start writing when we get to the book that seems appropriate.

Writing:  OYAN Cover Story.  This is a new product they have.  It also has DVD’s and workbooks.  At the end of the year your child will have written everything necessary for a magazine.  Letters, short stories, reviews, etc.  It’s geared toward Middle School.  She is really looking forward to this too.  She will pick the type of magazine she is interested in and all of her writing will be geared toward that.  Her magazine will probably have to do with jewelry making.  So writing about what she is passionate about seems pretty key to me!

Science:  Apologia Zoology II.  Swimming Creatures plus Notebooking Journal.

Bible, History, Literature:  Sonlight Core F.  Eastern Hemisphere.  She picked this.  I got both of these Sonlight Cores on Ebay.  They will read the books and look through the explanations in the guide to make sure they understand  the details.

Grammar:  Easy Grammar.  A couple of pages a day.  And the same for Daily Grams.

Geography:  A world maps workbook I found at Mardels bookstore in Oklahoma City, Ok.  She will trace maps, study them and then rewrite.

Spelling:  Christian Liberty Press Grade 6

Latin & Greek:  English From The Roots Up.  She will write 5 sentences a day (3 days a week) using a key root word and then words that include that root.

PE:  Swim Team

Toastmasters once a month, Homeschool Coop once a month and we are considering violin lessons.

HENRY

10 years old.

Math:  Life of Fred.  He is starting at the beginning with Apples.  They recommend 4th graders or below start with Apples.

Science:  Apologia Chemistry and Physics.  He wanted to do something where you learn to blow things up (Love these boys!), so I also got a book called Backyard Ballistics.

Handwriting:  Various books we have lying around.  This is a favorite of mine:  George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior.  Plus they draw a picture with each assignment.

Grammar:  Easy Grammar and Daily Grams.

Reading, History, Literature:  Henry is completely and totally into the Greek and Persian Wars.  So googling around I found this website Classical-Homeschooling.org and they had an elementary age curriculum on the Greeks.  So I bought these books for him.  He and his dad also watch Teaching Company Videos many evenings.  These are college level, very interesting lectures and they are watching one they love right now about the Ancient World.  Get on their catalog mailing list.  The have sales often and you can find these on Ebay too.

Writing:  Im just not sure what, if anything, I will do with Henry at this point for writing.  I have considered IEW’ All Things Fun and Fascinating.  It is geared toward boys.  But we may very well do nothing.  He struggles to handwrite and he is already writing for his assignments.  So we may wait another year.  Plus he is a boy!

Art:  Timberdoodle has something about draw and write Greece and Rome.  I haven’t gotten it yet, but I might.

Spelling:  Christian Liberty Press Grade 3.  We tried Grade 4, but it was too much.  I read other people say they preferred using a grade behind on this curriculum.

Bible:  He reads a chapter a day in the New Testament and he practices his Awana memory work.

PE:  Being a boy!

LUKE

7 years old.

Reading:  Alpha Phonics.  Basic phonics and easy to do.  Lots of Level One reading books.

Math:  Math U See.  Once a child can do addition facts up to the 10’s, they can move into Life of Fred.  I do like this program.  We used it for all 3 middle children last year.  Nice tactile blocks.

Handwriting:  Various books.

Science:  Life :-)

History:  Absorbing it through the family, movies, conversations.  (It’s icing on the cake at this point. Not necessary in a formal way!)

Literature:  Lots of the Five In A Row books that we have had forever.  This is their link, but you can also find these books on Amazon, Ebay, etc.

PE:  Gymnastics once a week.

Bible:  Awanas

SALLY

3 Years Old

Obedience, counting beans, reading books :-)

Bible:  Awanas

GROUP WORK

Bible:  Apologia “Who Is God?”  I am loving this!  Also, with Matt at the dining table we are going through Kevin Swanson’s Proverbs Study Guide.  It’s wonderful too!!

Literature:  I bought several Lamplighter books at our convention in May.

I’ve been hearing for years how wonderful these books are and finally bought some.  I went up to the booth, told the lady the ages and genders of my children and asked her to pick out the best ones she could.  We just finished the first one called Jack the Conqueror and it is fantastic.  It is geared to the boys, but all the kids have loved it.  It’s a short book.  A quick read.  And the lessons are so key!  I told my husband that I want to reread it with him in the room because I can see us repeating things to the kids from that book for years.  Like the key phrase in this book is “Conquer difficulties.”  The difficulty right in front of you?  Conquer it.   And then go on to the next one.  It’s all done by a 10 year old little boy that they can really relate to.  So excited to read the next book!

So this is our plan for the year.  We are starting week 6 of the Joanne Calderwood philosophy that I told you about in my last post and it is going absolutely splendidly.  I am much calmer, the kids are taking ownership in their education.  And the atmosphere in our home is where I want it to be!

God bless you in your journey!!