This year we plan to do school six weeks on, one week off, with some exceptions. We will not be starting music (except piano) and art until after soccer season is over. We are really excited about the new year, especially about learning Russian (both Jared & I speak Russian, although mine is a lot rustier than it was 12 years ago.) Here's the plan in a nutshell:
Kimball--Third Gradish
- Saxon Math 3 (with plans to accelerate and start SM4 in spring)
- Rosetta Stone Russian Level 1
- Dr. Aardsma's Spelling 3/4th grade
- 4th-5th grade Book List (I will publish a separate post on literature lists)
- Story of the World--Ancient World History
- Old Testament (using KJVersion plus Old Testament Stories)
- Science TBD (probably using The Handbook of Nature Study)
- Art--Art Book for Children and Usborne's The Children's Book of Art
- First Language Lessons (This is for a younger age--we will do this together with Henry and I'll see how much Kimball gets out of it. Honestly, I think that reading from good books will take care of most of this.)
- Cursive handwriting: Zane Bloser Online printouts
- Writing program: TBD
- The Social Skills Picture Book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism
- Extracurricular: piano, soccer, karate, cub scouts, RDI
Henry-First Gradish
- Saxon Math 1, starting 2 in the spring
- Rosetta Stone Russian-Level 1
- Spelling
- First & Second Grade Book List (I will publish a separate post)
- Story of the World--Ancient World History
- Old Testament (using KJVersion plus Old Testament Stories)
- Science TBD (probably using The Handbook of Nature Study)
- Art--Art Book for Children and Usborne's The Children's Book of Art
- First Language Lessons
- Printed handwriting: Zane Bloser Online printouts
- The Social Skills Picture Book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism
- Extracurricular: karate, soccer, piano, speech
Ian- Pre Kinder
- Saxon Math K
- Letter of the Week
- (After 26 weeks, The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading)
- Old Testament Stories
- Singing Time
- Art, History, Science, Russian, Music as much as he wants to participate
- Extracurricular: playing with friends, spring soccer class
Posts
10 comments:
It looks like you have a fun, busy year ahead. I hope it will be a great one!
Great list of curriculum. I love how you said "third gradish". It's great being able to customize their schooling to their individual levels in each subject isn't it?
How funny. I specifically came to your school blog to ask what curriculums you use. I have to choose something to start with and I am so overwhelmed! I feel like just ordering everything from k12 so I don't have to worry about it!
I have heard a lot of people like The Story of the World, but I read some unfavorable reviews such as it really didn't go in chronological order and it was difficult for the kids to tell fact from fable.
Advice welcome.
tamlynn,
each homeschool mom is a little different, but i have chosen to not use k12 because:
1. i want more flexibility in choosing my curriculum
2. i don't want the oversight and the pressure of deadlines (i am enough of a stress case already!:)
3. it is easier to teach multiple kids together (like music, science, art, history). with k12, you have to choose a curriculum for their specific grade level.
also, i cannot tell you enough how much we love story of the world. we just got it in the spring and i've taught about 14 of the lessons this spring and summer and my kids love it. as in they get as excited about a history lesson as they do about playing a board game together or baking cookies. we love it, we are all learning a lot, and i completely disagree with the criticisms that you have heard on the subject!:)
Thanks for your help. I am a little confused though. What I have read on the K12 website says the students can work at their own pace. This is for the consumer direct option that I would do, maybe it is different if you work with a k12 teacher?
Also, you can choose different grade levels for differenct subjects. My kids are only 18 months apart in age, so I already plan on teaching them on pretty much the same level in all subjects except for language arts since dd can read very well and ds is just learning.
So, for instance, I could buy a first grade science for both kids to use, a third grade language arts for dd, a first grade language arts for ds, and a second grade math for both.
BTW, we are actually enrolled in a charter school, so the state pays for all this stuff. They can't pay for religious curriculum, so if we did The Story of the World, I'd have to pay for it. ;P
I am in the LA area. I'm guessing you're not? Too bad! I know that each of us will do things a little (or a lot!) differently and I look forward to learning more and finding out what works best for us.
Looks like a great plan!! That's awesome that you're going to start Russian. I want to do a language, and dh would like them to learn one with a different alphabet, but I'm leaning more towards something we already have some familiarity with like German or Italian. So for now we're going with Latin! Then we'll see and I'll probably let them pick what language they'd like to learn.
And I'll second you on SOTW, it's an awesome curriculum. We absolutely loved history last year using volume 1. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat!
I checked out the Letter of the Week website and I am excited to start using some of the toddler curriculum with Jamison. Looks like you're doing a great job!
tamlynn,
sorry it has taken me a few days to get back to you--it's the first week of school and i'm trying not to feel completely swamped.
my only experience with k12 is with talking with k12 parents, who love it, but have mentioned the issues i brought up. i think that every family has different reasons for homeschooling and different things that matter most to them. for me, independence was very important--but that might change as my kids get older, as i have more of them school-age, etc.
we are not in l.a., although i grew up there. i really need to get involved with a group--i wish i could meet up with my blogging homeschool buddies and their families a couple of times each month.
I know what you mean. I know tons of people online that I wish were my neighbors. Hey, if you're ever in my area (Torrance!) let me know and we'll get together!
Looks like a great year! Oh! I wish we could come to your house to learn Russian--way cool. I'd love your opinion/ feed back about Rosetta Stone. I've looked into it a little.
We are also big Story of the World fans!! Super great history overview for the elementary/ exploring level and helps kids relate to times they are studying. They will learn more about the details later.
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