Homeschool Curriculum

Well, this is the time of year everyone around here kicks into high gear planning for next year. Just when the end of the year homeschool teacher burnout hits; I start to get excited about homeschooling again. Our big homeschool convention was last weekend, and the local booksale is just next week. This will actually be one of the most expensive homeschool years I have had because I did not homeschool my oldest in 4th grade, so I have a full 2 years of curriculum to purchase.

So, now is the time to decide what we are doing for the 2010-2011 school year. I will have a 7th grader - hard to believe, a 4th grader, and a 2nd grader. Some of our classes will be done at the co-op, so I won't have to worry about them. All three will be in Apologia science programs there so that is one area we won't do at home, including extra things like PE, theater, Spanish, Art. I am still in the process of looking for some things, especially math.

For 7th grade:

Algebra I - still looking for a good totally computer or DVD based program. I am leaning toward Teaching Textbooks, but I found 2 others that I want to learn more about.

Literature -My own reading list and tests. Ally found a recent list of the top 100 books kids should read and realized she hadn't read 29 of them! Minus the 5-6 I won't LET her read she plans to knock off the rest of those this year. For detailed study we will do 3 Shakespeare plays, The Diary of Anne Frank, various poems, and a few others. I found a 9th grade lit text and she was very interested in it, so we'll use that a bit too. She is basically doing 9th grade work in all levels, even Math, since that is generally where Algebra is done.

Grammar, vocabulary, spelling-My own created pages from when I taught high school. She is finally getting old enough that she can use some of the piles of stuff I have from my public school days.

History-Texas History and a neat book I picked up on the mysteries of history. I go through and look at the Sonlight website and see their history reading list, and we find a lot of those at the library. Our library has some great Texas history fiction and we are going to do a lot of that. She is taking an interesting co-op class called the History of the Church, too.

Art- continuing How Great Thou Art by Barry Stebbing

4th grade:

Science - Anatomy at the co-op

Writing - at the co-op + we will revive our writing times with all of us writing with Story Starters by Karen Andreola - I totally love that book and I love that we can all do it together -even me!

History - Presidents class at the co-op. Also Texas History -putting together on my own. I will use the Abeka My State book as a basis for a state scrapbook. + A Bob Jones to fill in some gaps.

Spelling - Gracie loves Bob Jones Spelling. It has a fun, creative approach with pictures to illustrate and Bible verses to look up. We talked about it and this was her preference.

Language -Abeka, although I am planning on skipping around a lot and having more fun with language.

Math - Abeka. I bought it at the curriculum fair and immediately regretted it. I think this kid needs something like teaching textbooks. Although, looking over the online placement tests, Abeka is so advanced I think she would need Grade 5 or 6. I love Abeka, it is so thorough, but it can be rather overwhelming. So, I guess I am still investigating 4th grade math too.

2nd grade:

Science - Zoology, Writing, Art, PE, Spanish, all at the co-op

History-Texas History along with Gracie and Ally

Language and Phonics and Cursive-Abeka

Reading - I've done my own thing with 2nd grade reading with the girls. We start off with a few simple readers, then go into some chapter books that we can really discuss together. By the end of the year they take off and work their way through my reading list. With Daniel we will shoot for Spring reading My Side of the Mountain and working through this really cool outdoor adventure pocket guide to My Side of the Mountain I found.

Math - Abeka

So, that's my list! That was me just writing a planning list - I forgot that you were here! It's just a ramblin' list that only a homeschool mom could appreciate! Thanks for listening!