Hi everyone, itโ€™s that time of year again! And Iโ€™ve been getting tons of emails asking what weโ€™ll be using for our 2014-2015 school year!

So without further ado, here are our curriculum choices for the 2014-2015 school year.

 

Teeny Tot: Kindergarten

kindergarten_curriculum

 

Tinkerbell: 3rd Grade

3rdgrade_curriculum

 

Turbo: 5th Grade

5thgrade_curriculum

 

Strawberry Shortcake: 6th grade

6thgrade_curriculum

 

 

Extra-Curricular Activities:

 

NEW!!!

We are trying out a new history program this year, the Homeschooling in the Woods Time Travelerโ€™s units. They look like a lot of fun, and weโ€™re excited to give them a whirl! Right off the bat I will say that theyโ€™re kind of labor intensive to prepare. It took me a solid FULL day to print everything, organize it all, then another day to add it to my lesson plans for the year. But itโ€™s more hands on and exciting than Abeka and weโ€™re just ready for a change. Honestly Abeka is fine and weโ€™ll probably go back to it at some point, but I wanted to do some more fun things while my kids are still young and weโ€™re not worried about high school creditsโ€ฆwhich is just around the corner for usโ€ฆugh!

Weโ€™re also trying a new Bible program The Picture Smart Bible. My kids have loved Grapevine, but weโ€™ve done almost all of their units, and the Picture Smart Bible looks like itโ€™s an excellent choice for a little older kiddos as well. So weโ€™re really excited to try something new.

Strawberry Shortcake chose photography for her extra elective this year. My friend Ernie at Foto Finch has developed a photography curriculum for Jr. High to High School students, but I took a look at the lessons and think that sheโ€™ll do fine with the Composition & Photojournalism one. Iโ€™ll have a review coming up soon once we get more into the program. But I can tell you sheโ€™s excited to get to start photography. Maybe she can take over my blog someday ;o)

The last new to us curriculum weโ€™re trying out is the Vocabulary Workshop. I wasnโ€™t thrilled with Wordlywise, and so I moved to Evan-Moor Vocabulary Fundamentals which were fine for last year. But I had a friend who teaches English that suggested Vocabulary Workshop so weโ€™re going to try it out for a year. Just a noteโ€ฆit is a secular curriculum.

 

 

And thereโ€™s our 2014-2015 curriculum choices!

 

 

Need HELP GETTING STARTED?????ย  Get your copy of Homeschooling 101: A guide to getting started!

clip_image001

 

Need PLANNERS? Check out my fun homeschool lesson planners!

lessonplanners

 

 

Need MORE IDEAS? Check out the awesome curriculum available on my website!

Aside from the preschool and kindergarten curriculum all of my units are geared towards elementary aged students from aboutย  kinder-6th grade.

 

Letter of the Week:

lotwcurriculumad

K4 Kindergarten Curriculum:

k4curriculumad

Road Trip USA & Road Trip USA Animals!

roadtripcurriculumad

Expedition Earth World Geography & Animals of the World:

EEcurriculumad

Worldโ€™s Greatest Artists Vol. 1 & Vol. 2

artistcurriculumad

Worldโ€™s Greatest Composers Vol 1 (Vol. 2 NOW AVAIL!)

composerscurriculumad

Classic Literature Unit Studies (Vol. 2 & 3 NOW AVAIL!)

classiclitcurriculumad

Scientists & Inventors Unit Studies:

Scientistcurriculumpromo

136 Comments

  1. Hello Erica,
    How did you purchase the teacher manual for Vocabulary Workshop? I went on their site and it says that a Teacher Certificate is required. Is the teacher manual required? Thank You

    Helenah
  2. Hi Erica, I am brand new to homeschooling (and have read your book). Have you picked out your soon to be 7th graders English curriculum? BJU splits it up into Writing & Grammer and Literature. I plan to go with IEW for writing. But not sure what to do about Grammer. Thank you!

    Courtney
    1. Hi Courtney,
      I think I’m going to try and stick with BJU Press for her English, and we’ll stay with IEW for writing. I liked that one, and don’t feel the need to change it up. I haven’t decided if I’m going to use the BJU Literature for her or not yet though.

      erica
  3. Hi Erica~ Your website and blog have made the homeschool choice not so overwhelming!! I will be homeschooling my 3 girls this fall ( 8,6 & 5 with a newborn boy) and we are all so excited ๐Ÿ™‚ Can you tell me for your 3rd grader, did you order all of the books for Abeka 3 reading? And any thoughts on the vocab workshop? Thanks for the meal plan I printed out Mays and will give it a try. Have a great day
    Blessings~ Danielle

    Danielle
    1. Hi Danielle,
      I already had them because my older kiddos used it, so I just keep passing them down. I did order all of the readers that they suggest, but I found them on eBay, so I would check for used before buying new. You can usually find used ABeka pretty easily.

      And we’ll probably use Vocab Workshop again next year. I haven’t really found a vocab that I absolutely love, but it seemed to work well.

      erica
  4. Hey Erica,

    I am wondering how you liked Picture Smart Bible. I am looking for my soon be be Kindergartner and 1st grader. My boys learn so well from videos. Did you use the DVD?

    mandy
    1. Hi Mandy,
      It is okay, i like the graphics, but I didn’t feel like there was enough of actually reading the Bible in the lessons. It’s more of an overview where they tell you what happened, so if your students haven’t read the passages yet it can be a bit confusing. I found myself reading the chapters first, then we’d go back and do the coloring later. I’m not sure I’ll use it next year or not yet. I actually kind of prefer the Grapevine studies since they’re more of a read this, then draw the scene type study.

      erica
  5. Erica,

    1. I absolutely love your site! The homeschooling ideas are just amazing! 2. I am brand new to homeschooling and already feeling overwhelmed. My daughter is 2.5 and I’m looking into purchasing the Letter of the Week. I saw that you have different lesson plans per school year, but will that lesson plan remain the same? Also, what type of Bible do you use with your little one? I have my Bible, but I don’t think it would work as well with my little girl. Since she is not quite preschool age, do you recommend any specific books or curriculum to assist with reading? Sorry to bombard you with questions, I am just trying to be prepared. Once again, your site is fabulous!

    Teri
    1. Hi Teri,
      I know getting started can be overwhelming! I wrote a book called Homeschooling 101 that will help answer all of your questions on how to get started homeschooling, choosing curriculum, creating lesson plans, etc.
      http://tinyurl.com/a38obj4

      I create new lessons plans each year depending on what we’re doing. So I normally plan over the summer. Some of them I can re-use if I’m just handing down a curriculum from an older student to a younger one. Hope that makes sense ๐Ÿ™‚

      erica
  6. Hi.

    Newer to homeschooling and starting with my second grader with All About Spelling Level 1 is it normal to do 2 levels in one school year?

    Also can you explain more about the Lego Robotics I have looked not much around and wanted to buy my kids something maybe from the Lego education website but have no clues where to start it’s more overwhelming to me then picking out curriculum.

    Thank you.

    Breanne Clemmensen
    1. I normally split the lessons up in half, so we do about 1 level per year. But you can use it however it works best for you.

      The LEGO Robotics kits are really cool. You can use them at home, or we used them in a small group co-op with some friends. We did one lesson from the Activity Pack each meeting. The kits are designed to be used with 2 people per kit.

      erica
  7. Question – and I’m sure it’s been answered before, I just haven’t found it. ๐Ÿ™‚

    What comes after your awesome K4 curric?
    If we get all the way through it this year, should I look into 1st grade?
    I’ve been looking over your curriculum choices and it looks like you have such a variety in your little one’s school year, I wasn’t sure where the K4 left off and where something else would pick up.

    I might just be over thinking this & obsessing a bit. ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks!!!

    Melody
  8. The Pictures that you have of your curriculum is that all each child uses that year? I feel like my kids have like double that and its so frustrating. I use Abeka academy online. Im thinking of mixing up some subjects like you do

    nikki butler
    1. Not everything is pictured, you’ll want to read through the post for what each one does for their grade level, then at the bottom you’ll see some subjects we do as a group and extra-curricular activities that aren’t included in their pictures.

      erica

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.