Hi everyone, it’s that time of year again! And I’ve been getting tons of emails asking what we’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
- Daily Learning Notebook: I’m mixing pages from my elementary and preschool notebook this year so she can write her own calendar numbers.
- Art: World’s Greatest Artists 2 and See the Light Art DVDs
- Phonics/Reading: K4 Curriculum, Abeka K5 Letters & Sounds, Phonics Road Level 1 (A new product we’re reviewing!)
- Logical Thinking: Abeka K5 Think and Learn
- Math: Math U See Primer & Spielgaben
- Bible: Picture Smart Bible (Trying new this year), Grapevine Traceable Units
- P.E.: Family Time Fitness
- Other: We will be doing The Middle Ages by Homeschool in the Woods this year, and the Teeny Tot will be participating in the fun crafts and activities that go along with that, though she won’t be expected to do any of the other work.
Tinkerbell: 3rd Grade
- Daily Learning Notebook: She’ll be doing the Cursive Notebook this year.
- Art: World’s Greatest Artists 2 and See the Light Art DVDs
- Bible: Picture Smart Bible & Grapevine Studies
- Spelling: All About Spelling Levels 2 & 3
- Phonics: Abeka Language 3
- Reading: Abeka Reading 3 & Read & Think Skill Sheets 3
- Math: Math U See Gamma
- Handwriting: BJU Handwriting 3
- History: The Middle Ages – Time Traveler Unit & my Colorado State Study
- Literature: Classical Literature Units
- Science: Abeka Science 5 (We do this as a group) & one of my scientist units if we can fit it in!
- P.E.: Family Time Fitness
- Typing: Typing Instructor Platinum (CD Version)
- Vocabulary: Vocabulary Workshop (This is our first year trying this so our thoughts on it are TBD.)
- Robotics: LEGO Education We’re continuing with our co-op group and the Simple Mechanisms set this year.
Turbo: 5th Grade
- Daily Learning Notebook: He’ll be doing the Cursive Notebook this year.
- Art: World’s Greatest Artists 2 and See the Light Art DVDs
- Bible: Picture Smart Bible & Grapevine Studies
- English/Grammar: BJU English 5
- Handwriting: BJU Handwriting 5
- History: The Middle Ages – Time Traveler Unit & my Colorado State Study
- Literature: Classical Literature Units
- Math: Math U See Epsilon
- P.E.: Family Time Fitness
- Photography: The Foto Finch Composition & Photojournalism (Review coming soon!)
- Reading: Abeka Reading 5 & Read & Comprehend Skill Sheets 5
- Robotics: LEGO Education We’re continuing with our co-op group and the Simple Mechanisms set this year.
- Science: Abeka Science 5 & one of my scientist units if we can fit it in!
- Spelling: All About Spelling Level 4 & 5, & Spelling You See C
- Typing: Typing Instructor Platinum (CD Version)
- Vocabulary: Vocabulary Workshop (This is our first year trying this per a friend’s suggestion.)
- Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing
Strawberry Shortcake: 6th grade
- Art: World’s Greatest Artists 2 and See the Light Art DVDs
- Bible: Picture Smart Bible & Grapevine Studies
- English/Grammar: BJU English 6
- History: The Middle Ages – Time Traveler Unit & my Colorado State Study
- Literature: Classical Literature Units
- Math: Math U See Zeta
- P.E.: Family Time Fitness
- Photography: The Foto Finch Composition & Photojournalism (Review coming soon!)
- Reading: Abeka Reading 6 & Read & Comprehend Skill Sheets 5
- Robotics: LEGO Education We’re continuing with our co-op group and the Simple Mechanisms set this year.
- Science: Abeka Science 5 & one of my scientist units if we can fit it in!
- Spelling: All About Spelling Level 7 & Spelling You See D
- Typing: Typing Instructor Platinum (CD Version)
- Vocabulary: Vocabulary Workshop (This is our first year trying this per a friend’s suggestion.)
- Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing
Extra-Curricular Activities:
- Keepers of the Faith
- Contenders of the Faith
- LEGO Education We’re continuing with our co-op group and the Simple Mechanisms set this year.
NEW!!!
We are trying out a new history program this year, the Homeschooling in the Woods Time Traveler’s units. They look like a lot of fun, and we’re excited to give them a whirl! Right off the bat I will say that they’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 it’s more hands on and exciting than Abeka and we’re just ready for a change. Honestly Abeka is fine and we’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 we’re not worried about high school credits…which is just around the corner for us…ugh!
We’re also trying a new Bible program The Picture Smart Bible. My kids have loved Grapevine, but we’ve done almost all of their units, and the Picture Smart Bible looks like it’s an excellent choice for a little older kiddos as well. So we’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 she’ll do fine with the Composition & Photojournalism one. I’ll have a review coming up soon once we get more into the program. But I can tell you she’s excited to get to start photography. Maybe she can take over my blog someday ;o)
The last new to us curriculum we’re trying out is the Vocabulary Workshop. I wasn’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 we’re going to try it out for a year. Just a note…it is a secular curriculum.
And there’s our 2014-2015 curriculum choices!
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Aside from the preschool and kindergarten curriculum all of my units are geared towards elementary aged students from about kinder-6th grade.
Road Trip USA & Road Trip USA Animals!
Expedition Earth World Geography & Animals of the World:
World’s Greatest Artists Vol. 1 & Vol. 2
World’s Greatest Composers Vol 1 (Vol. 2 NOW AVAIL!)
Classic Literature Unit Studies (Vol. 2 & 3 NOW AVAIL!)
Scientists & Inventors Unit Studies:
We used homeschool in the woods american history units for the past two years. I absolutely love them and so did my children. There was a lot of prep work involved on my part but it was so worth it. I am constantly amazed at how much they remember and how they want to did deeper into every little thing. Because of that I wish we had had a bit more time to spread out our lessons. We did an average of 4 units a year and it got tiring keeping up if I was behind in planning. Hopefully your family will love them as much as mine. My children will be entering 7th,6th,5th, and 3rd grade. Even my youngest loved doing the projects, I just filled out the writing for her when she was younger.
Hi Erica,
I’m considering Abeka K5 for my little….Do you find that you need the teacher manuals to utilize the curriculum? Specifically the reading/phonics teacher’s manual?
Hi Michelle,
Yes, I use the Teacher’s Manual for the phonics lessons for kindergarten. Then they do the workbook after the lesson.
I am wondering how you cover 2 levels in all about spelling. Do you not take a week to work on each lessons words and sentences? Also wondering how History in the Wood compares with Tapestry of Grace.
Thanks
Hi Lisa,
I split each lesson into two sections, and there are about 26-29 lessons per level, so we can usually get through 1-2 levels per year. I haven’t used Tapestry of Grace but I have seen it. It’s a more all encompassing curriculum including most subjects with the exception of math, and possibly science? It’s also much more difficult and time consuming to plan out and organize according to friends I have who use it.
Hi Erica!
I am doing homeschool this year and it is our first time! I have a preschooler and 3rd grader. I came across your blog today and have been reading but I didn’t see anywhere if you homeschool through a charter school or are you registered as your own private school? What is better? For this year we are going through a charter school but I understand we have to follow their rules and curriculum. I wouldn’t be able to go the private route yet as it is very costly for all the curriculum. Also, going private does it affect further education such as college and universities since it is not accredited? Thank you!
Hi Vee,
We are enrolled in an options program right now, but in the past I’ve just sent in a notice of intent to homeschool and done it as my own independent homeschool. I don’t think it really matters how you file, or that one is better than another, unless your state has specific requirements. As far as getting into a university, they range from their requirements, so you’ll want to check with the specific ones you’re interested into see what they require as far as credit hours.
I am very new to homeschooling. You said you were currently in an options program. What is that?
You’ll have SO much fun with Homeschool in the Wood! We did Middle Ages last year and LOVED it!
I want to try something new for Bible this year and I think I’m going to go with the Grapevine Studies. I was wanting to know, do you think it’s necessary to purchase the teacher book along with the student book? Do you use this as a daily bible lesson or weekly? It looks like it could get costly if it’s done daily, but I wasn’t sure. Thanks!
Hi Shana,
Yes, you’ll want to purchase the teacher’s manual as well. It has all of the lessons and instructions while the student pages are just blank sheets they’ll color in. You won’t know what to have them do w/o the TM. You can schedule it however you like, daily, or a couple of times per week. It’s totally up to you.
Do you have any tips for printing out the history? I just received one of the american history time traveler cds and I’m not sure where to start printing. Is there an option to print everything? Thanks!
Hi Lindsay,
Yes I do, and I have a post on just that coming up in a few weeks. But in a nutshell I went through and printed all of the itinerary pages and reading text pages first for my Teacher’s Manual. Next I went through and marked the things we plan to do. Then I went through and printed just what we wanted to do. The itinerary tells you exactly what to print and on what paper so it wasn’t too bad. If you can wait my post and giveaway is coming up August 25.
Does tiny tot participate in your books the classic start series?
Hi Kilah,
Yes, we do some as a group so we read together, then they each do a lapbook on their own. Sometimes she does one, sometimes she doesn’t. I do not expect her to read on her own though obviously.
Hi Erica, I was noticing that you hadn’t listed the Daily Learning Notebooks this year are the kids not doing them anymore? I thought those were great.
Hi Heather,
Sorry, I forgot to mention it for the others, everyone will do one except Strawberry Shortcake 6th grade mainly b/c she has a really full load with everything else already.
I was wondering about your thoughts on Write Shop. I remember you posted on it a year or two ago. I’ve had levels A-D on my shelf for awhile and just purchased the one for middle schoolers for my 7th grader. I noticed you no longer use it. I’m very uncomfortable about teaching writing, especially grading it! I’ve got five children ranging in ages from 8 months to 12 years and need something simple yet effective!
Hi Misty,
I LOVE Writeshop! We just moved onto something a little more intense for the older kids. We didn’t finish it last year, so we’re still working on finishing it this year for Turbo and Strawberry Shortcake.