Our Homeschool Curriculum 2009-2010

I mentioned a few days ago that some of our curriculum choices changed after I attended our homeschool convention this past weekend.

By 'our curriculum choices' I mean the phone conversation between my husband and I went something like, "You trust me in choosing the curriculum we'll be using with the kids, right?"

{crickets chirping}

"Oh. Yeah."

So, after hours of wandering around the vendor hall I made a few last minute switches. Keeping in mind that our school year will already have some interruptions with reviewing for the Homeschool Crew, I think that the changes will work out very well for the groove that we are getting into as a family.

Here's the planned lineup for our upcoming year. And 'planned' is such a loose word, really. More like 'in an ideal world we would complete and finish all on our list':

Bible ~ Discovering Jesus in Genesis by Susan Hunt. We've done more structured curriculum in the past, but this book offers 36 devotion-style book that focuses on covenant promises throughout the Bible.

Spelling ~ All About Spelling {no changes here}. Love the program and we are still working on it through the summer also.

Math - A Beka math based on the kids grade levels. I wavered between this and Saxon, but stuck with what was familiar to me at this point since the girls are doing well with it. We are going to add in some various math activities/manipulatives this year as well as some fun books I found called Daily Mental Math {again, based on the girls grade levels}. The Daily Mental Math books have a few small exercises for the girls to do just as 'sharpening' skills for their workboxes {purchased through Rainbow Resource}.

Language ~ This was the big switch for us this year! I sat in on a seminar by Jessie Wise and picked up the book First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. We're going to start on some of it this summer and work through it a bit and see where Laurianna is overall. The main book is primarily for grades 1-2 and there are additional books for grades 3-4. Something just 'clicked' with me when listening to Jessie Wise and thumbing through the books.

Writing ~ We'll be using the book The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer {daughter of Jessie Wise}. Again, the convention was the trigger for this switch over too.

Handwriting ~ I switched our books in this area too! I picked up all of the levels in A Reason for Handwriting. The workbooks are based on Scripture verses and have the kids practice words and letters from the verse of the week. {manuscript or cursive depending on their grade level}

Science ~ Overall, we will be using Apologia. Right now we're working our way through Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. During the school year, both girls independently work on science reading using A Beka science that goes along with their grade levels.

Geography ~ Our primary focus for the year will be continuing our studies of world cultures and geography. This next year we will keep up with Galloping the Globe and finish our tour with Africa, Australia, South America, and Canada.
History ~ Even though we will be focused on geography overall, the girls will again be reading independently through their grade level books from A Beka in this subject.

Art ~ This is one area that I really feel a need to improve my follow-through {ahem}. The girls are begging to do more here and really want to learn. After using ARTistic Pursuits last year, we're going to use that as our primary focus this year.

After listing it all out, it seems a little overwhelming in ways, but this summer my focus is working out a schedule to fit things in once a week (like art, Bible, etc...) and go from there. I'm also planning on using Sue Patrick's Workbox system {most likely with some tweaking for our family} to help with the thought of having 3 kiddos officially in 'school' this year. Some of the things I'll be doing with Zachary are a little different, but he'll be doing handwriting along with us, math, reading, language, spelling, and geography as it all applies to him. :)

So...off to work on my planner, my plans...or maybe I'll just kick back and rest for a little bit. I'm wiped just typing that all out!



Be sure to stop by and visit Kris @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see some of the other curriculum line-ups for this year! Darcy @ My 3 Boybarians is also hosting a "Not-Back-to-School" blog hop and the topic is curriculum.