Math- Math-U-See. We used Singapore math last year and we HATED it!! It was not a good fit for us. I felt like my kids definitely need more hands-on, visual math learning, and Math-U-See is both of those. I had found the manipulatives set at a homeschool curriculum sale and then purchased the rest of the kit on the Math-U-See website http://mathusee.com/. I need another manipulatives set (Shelley!!! I am going to make it over to get that- I promise!!) and I only bought one workbook bc I'm planning on having the kids just write out the problems in their own notebooks so we can pass the workbook on down to Thatcher when he needs it. Speaking of Thatcher, he will be doing preschool at home this year and I will be getting him familiar with the Math-U-See manipulatives and very very basic math ( counting, skip counting, number recognition)
English/Grammar- Rod and Staff. We absolutely LOVE this English and Grammar curriculum. Rod and Staff is extremely thorough and really hammers these grammar rules into your brain. The illustrations are very sweet and simple and its all black and white, so if your kids like the colorful artwork to go along with their work, this workbook does not have that. This is also a Christian based curriculum, so they bring everything back to God's word- love that! I don't see us doing anything different for our English and Grammar for a long time.
Reading- We don't have a set curriculum for reading. I go on the Sonlight site http://www.sonlight.com/ and print off their reading list for the grades I need and thats what we do for reading for the year. This year they are still studying American history for their history so I've also picked alot of books from that time period. They both really enjoy reading, so I just have them read the book and tell me about it. For Thatcher this year, we will be starting the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann. I'm guessing we probably won't make it too far through the book this year, but I will be reading lots and lots of books to him and Atticus, like we always do. For the books I'm going to be reading to them, we may start the Narnia series. We finished the Little House series last year and LOVED them!!
History- Abeka. We also love, love, love this curriculum. Its well laid out, interesting enough for the kids to read on their own, and Christian based. Jude and Elsie are both studying American History again this year. We also do a timeline with our history, so they will both be adding things to that. Most of the projects we do will go along with what we are doing in history (sometimes Science, will talk more about that further down).
Science- Apologia. This Science curriculum is not for the faint of heart. This is the best science curriculum on the market, I hear. The kids are doing the "Young Explorer's: The Human Body" this year. It is covers ALOT of material, and its ALOT of reading. Like I said earlier, my kids enjoy reading, so it isn't too bad for us. The other awesome thing is that this is what they do for their science at co-op, so I'm not actually teaching this subject. I just have to make sure they are getting their reading done at home. They do their experiments in class also!! We do try to link art and science together a lot just to give us some ideas of what to draw/paint/build/create.
Handwriting- Pentime Publishers. Im not horribly picky about handwriting curriculums at this point in the game. I found these at the Great Homeschool Convention and thought they looked like what I needed. Elsie will be transitioning from print to cursive, and Jude is exclusively cursive this year. Thatcher will be doing the Handwriting Without Tears this year- Jude and Elsie did this when they were first starting to write and its a great handwriting program.
Foreign Language- Latin's Not So Tough! This will be our first year of Latin, and Thad is teaching this to the kids. We bought ours from the Greek n' stuff site and I got the Level 1 workbook/quizzes/answer key and the level 1,2,3 pronunciation CD for about $40. Im not sure what else to say about it, bc I haven't looked at much of it since Thad is teaching it. I will say, that everything I looked up about teaching Latin, someone mentioned this program, so it must be pretty good and seems user friendly. We also found German Rosetta Stone at a curriculum sale and Thad wants to try and do that this year with the kids also, but we are going to see how Latin goes first.
Music- The kids are going to continue piano lessons this year and hopefully do community choir again this year. They also participate in plays at church and do drama through co-op.
Health- Abeka, but I doubt we will do it this year. They are doing the Human Body by Apologia this year for their Science and so I honestly don't feel like we need an extra health curriculum this year. Health can also include: cooking, which my kids like to do, talking about healthy food choices, and exercise. My kids play fall and spring soccer and they will also be doing a gym class in the spring quarter for co-op.
Art- Co-op. Elsie will be doing an art class at co-op this year. Jude will be doing his art at home.
Bible- Most of our Bible work is memory work. The kids have memory verses each week and they also memorize the books of the Bible and longer portions of Scripture. I am farming out Bible this year also for one day a week, my father in law is going to be doing Bible lessons with the kids. And we, of course, have our daily devotions and this year, they will be journaling each day about what they read and what they feel the Lord is speaking to them through their devotional time.
Memory work- This is a long list of things usually, but this year I found a lady who has put up free printables for what she does for memory work and I am totally doing those this year!! It is such a great list and covers so much good stuff!! Memory-Flashcards-Main.pdf and then her Bible memory flashcards memory-flashcards-BIBLE.pdf.
I hope this is helpful to any of you that are homeschooling your little ones, or are on the fence about it. We have done a lot of live and learn during this process and we love it more each year!! Let me know if you have any specific questions or need links to anything :) Also, I know a lot of people think that homeschooling is super expensive, but really, I probably spent about $300-$400 this year to teach three students and most everything that I've purchased can be passed down, so my little guys will be even cheaper to school- major plus if you have a gap between your kids' ages. I'll try to post soon about the schedule I'm hoping to have this year and other specifics about what we do here at home :) Have a wonderful day!
http://www.sonlight.com/
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