Our 2013-2014 Curriculum List

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This summer is going way to fast!  Before we know it, we’ll be back in full swing. I thought it was time to get a plan together for next year.  We won’t be starting school officially until the end of August or the beginning of September. I have not decided yet when our first day will be. We work on some lessons all summer like math, grammar and spelling, taking lots of days off for friends and fun. When are you starting back up?  Do you go all year or take a nice long break?

5th Grader

Bible –  Awana, Lapbooks and units
Math –  Math U See Zeta and IMACS computer programming
English –  Jr. Analytical Grammar – Mechanics
Spelling – All About Spelling 4 and 5
Vocabulary – Word Builder -Foundations
Reading – Head for Home Intermediate gr. 5, Units and Lit Guides
Science – Lapbook and Unit Studies
History – Story of the World 1 – Ancients
Handwriting – Teaching Cursive
Art – Atelier Art Level 4
Spanish – Rosetta Stone Homeschool 1

 
 3rd Grader
Bible –  Awana, Lapbooks and units
Math –  Math U See Gamma then Deta and IMACS Elementary
English –  Easy Grammar and Daily Grams
Spelling – All About Spelling 3 and 4
Vocabulary – Word Builder -Foundations
Reading – Head for Home Intermediate gr.3, Units and Lit Guides
Science – Lapbook and Unit Studies
History – Story of the World 1 – Ancients
Handwriting – Teaching Cursive
Art – Atelier Art Level 4
Spanish – Rosetta Stone Homeschool 1

 

Homeschool Planning and Scheduling

Just wanted to share a great post over at The Homeschool Classroom by the founder and editor, Angie (also of Many Little Blessings).

The Homeschool Classrom
She shares TONS of great links and information about homeschool planning and scheduling.  I think everyone has had trouble with this area at one point or another?  She gives great ideas on how to plan and even fun ways to make Mondays a little more fun!

Have a great Thursday! 🙂

Patti


Not Back-to-School Hop 2010: Curriculum Week

We have actually taken a summer break this year.  It just sorta happened.  I had every intention of doing lessons all summer with just a couple small breaks.  Then we took a week vacation to visit family the July 4th holiday, and we have been on break ever since.  I have been doing a lot of organizing around the house and working on my school planning for the year.  We will start back up soon.  I have some science, and review I want to cover the last few weeks of summer.  We will start our 2010-2011 year officially the first week of September. Indie is age 7, will be starting 2nd-ish grade.  Beluga is age 6, and starting 1st-ish grade.

Check out everyone’s entries over at Not Back-to-School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter


This year we are still using Sue Patrick’s Workbox System. I plan to use workboxes with our curriculum,  but this year I have decided to try it a different way, a way that doesn’t take up so much of our precious shelf space.  We have a lot of book shelves but it always seems like we need more!  It seems I’m forever organizing and reorganizing the STUFF in the schoolroom.  I’ll post on our new system soon.

Grammar – First Language Lessons 1st and 2nd grade We have been enjoying working though the poetry, and memorization especially. We do everything FLL suggest. We will be starting the 2nd half of the book this year.
History – Story of the World Volume 2 – Middle Ages
Geography Trail Guide to U.S. Geography, last year we did Galloping the Globe and covered a lot of the world.  We also continue to cover many countries using Story of the World.  I think we might rotate every other year between world and U.S. geography.
Science – I’m using a few sources.  We are using R.E.A.L. Science, mixed with Considering God’s Creation and we use Enchanted Learning as a resource as well and the Giant Science Resource Book
Art – Artistic Pursuits Book 1, I’m also looking into piano lessons for them
Home EC – We are going to be doing a lot of cooking and baking this year. We have started a food notebook that I’ve complied from many sources, one of which is this cooking lapbook from Homeschool Share.  It’s pretty neat!  Bible – We will be using Bible Study Guide

INDIE DS –  2nd-ish Grade – age 7.5
Math – Math-U-See, Gamma (book 4)
Phonics – Explode the Code 4 – last year he completed books 3 and 3-1/2
Reading – different books based on interest, science and history books from library, etc. He read an entire book 37 plus book series this past year in just a few weeks.  We also listen to a lot of audio books in the van.  Currently we are on book 6 in the Chronicles of Narnia series. I highly suggest it!
Spelling – Spelling Workout B, and Sequential Spelling 1
P.E. – we mix it out throughout the year…. Golf, and possible gymnastics, probably soccer at the Y

BELUGA DD – 1st-ish grade – age 6 (end of Aug.)
Math – Math-U-See Primer (we went ever so slow with her last year)
Phonics – Explode the Code 2
Spelling – Spelling Workout Book A
Reading lots of books together (we all hit the library 1-2x per week)
Bob Books (library)
P.E. – Beluga also tries different stuff through the year.  Gymnastics, soccer at the Y

Time for Science

We have been doing science on and off all year but we have not gotten into a groove, so to say.  Animal classification is one thing I have been looking forward too all year but, never got around to planning it all out.  We are finally doing it this summer and so far, we are having fun with it.  We are using a mix of R.E.A.L. Science – Life, and Exploring God’s Creation.  Taking what we need from each.  We should have a nice animal notebook filled with fun stuff when we are done with this 15 week unit.  I’m hoping to do it in more like 7-8 weeks.

One of the first lessons is learning how to classify animals.  Here they are taking animals that look quite different and put them into pairs.  Sometimes the males and females of the same species look completely different.  The kids had to look at their feet, tales, eyes, spots, etc. to see similarities and pair them up.  We discovered this in real life while visiting grandparents a couple weeks ago.  While eating our meals on their back porch, we noticed a bird nest. Before we knew it, the baby birds hatched and mama birds was coming back and forth feeding her babies.  Then we noticed another bird type of bird caring for the babies (or so we thought).  After a long while, and after looking in birding books we discovered that we were watching Orchard Orioles. During breeding time, the male Orchard Oriole turns a deep rust color while the female reminds a bright yellow. THE BIRD PHOTO CREDIT: http://birdsbybaranoff.com/

Male Orchard Oriole while breeding

Female Orchard Oriole

You learn something new every day!  Or, you should!  😉

School Planning Week

My 3 Boybarians is having a not back-to-school blog hop. This week she’s covering Curriculum.

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We'll be using Galloping the Globe this year.

I’m midway though my planning week. We will start school this coming Monday. I recently discovered Sue Patrick’s Workbox System. I plan to use the workbox with our curriculum, Galloping the Globe. We’ll stick with what GTG suggests for Science – Considering God’s Creation, and Social Studies – Our Father’s World.

For Language Arts we’ll continue with Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading (my 6.5 y/o can read but it’s good review). We are also going though First Language Lessons. We have been enjoying working though the poetry, and memorization especially. We do everything FLL suggest. We mainly do FLL and OPRGTR after our breakfast and lunch while we are still sitting around the table….

For phonics we are using Explode the Code. Indie, starting 1st grade – 6.5 y/o will be starting book 3. My daughter will be doing Getting Ready for the Code – Book B. She is K-5 this year. She will be turning 5 at the end of this month.

IMG_0854.sizedIndie and Beluga will both continue with Math-U-See. Beluga will finish up Primer, and Indie will start Beta (book 3). We’ll work on Handwriting Without Tears once a week and at some point we’ll work on Story of the World Vol 1. Not sure how much we’ll get to. I think GTG covers some history and we’ll be using lots of literature, real books to supplement.

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This is the first year we’ll be declaring to the state as a homeschooler. Here in Florida, you only need to start this for 1st grade. I want to make sure I’m really organized this year. I’m a pretty organized person naturally but there is always something I can work on.

This is the second year I’ve used a binder for keeping track of my planning and activities. It worked pretty well for me last year. At times the binder got a bit bulky and heavy but, for the most part I kept it home, on my desk.

IMG_0878.sizedMy planner is a “pleather” 2 inch, 3 ring binder.

IMG_0860.sizedThis year I added tabs for any ideas/print outs I get for the following weeks so I can keep track of them. Last year, I found myself misplacing my ideas or sheets I printed out for the following week.

IMG_0862.sizedI also keep my household papers here. (I got my ideas for this binder mainly from Flylady). My chore lists, emergency information for the kids, medical info., hurricane preparedness list, etc are all in my binder.

IMG_0863.sizedMy notebook/binder has enough room for my calendar as well. I use a Mead spiral bound calendar from Wal-mart school section that also has 3 ring binder holes. It works great! I’d love to only use Google Calendar, and my iPhone for my calendar but I’m not there yet. I still love having a hard copy to fall back on.

IMG_0874.sizedThe calendar is where I log future activities so I don’t miss play dates, sports activities, classes, homeschool meetings, or other doings.

IMG_0864.sizedIn my binder I also keep a list of what my kids need to know per grade. Printed from here.

IMG_0866.sizedI have a section with pockets where I keep schedule sheets, soccer and dance schedules, library events, etc.

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The most important section of my notebook is my planner. This is where I log all of the homeschool activities we do each day. I didn’t find planner pages that really worked for me so I made my own two paged planner. I got my inspiration from Donna Young.org. She has so many great forms on her site. I like the spaces down the left side for each subject, and the days of the week are written across the top of both pages.

IMG_0869.sizedIt’s nice to have one place to keep activities that I want to do the following week. We are going to do this Enchanted Learning craft so I printed it out and stuck it into m binder so I actually get to it!

IMG_0872.sizedI also find that it’s nice to have a few clear, 3 ring sheet protectors in my binder. This way I can slip a class schedule, or sports roster into my binder quickly without having to hole punch them.

That’s about it for my planning. Time for me to get back to work! 😀

Getting excited about Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving Books

Thanksgiving Books

Our trip to the library yesterday produced some good stuff.  The kids were excited to pick up some books on Thanksgiving.  We even found a couple neat videos.  A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and another called, William Bradford – The First Thanksgiving.   Now that we are a week into November, it’s starting to feel like the holidays are upon us.  I think we are going to relax a little, and just learn more about Thanksgiving for a couple weeks. Before we know it, we’ll be packing into the car driving north to see family.  

We’ve been working on a fall lapbook.  I think we’ll expand on that more.  I also have more crafts, and baking planned. The kids get so excited to bake or when I tell them we have a project for the afternoon.  Last year, I wanted to do more with a Thanksgiving unit but we were back from grandma’s house and getting ready for Christmas before I could blink.  It’s amazing how fast time goes.