Oh my goodness, I canโ€™t believe another year has gone by, and itโ€™s time to start planning for the 2015-16 school year! Iโ€™ve had so many requests for our curriculum choices, so I thought I better put up a post with our choices for next year.

Group and Independent work

Iโ€™m listing the full curriculum per grade level below, and anything you see in orange is a group activity. This means that we do it together with all of kiddos combined. I like to choose a variety of both teacher led, independent, and group curriculum so that Iโ€™m not too overwhelmed with teaching 4 students at different levels all at the same time. Group activities are done together, and I just expect a little different level of work out of my children depending on their grade and skill level.

Announcingโ€ฆ

But first Iโ€™d like to announce the Teeny Totโ€™s new blog name! Since Iโ€™ve started blogging back in 2008, youโ€™ll see that the teeny tot has gotten just a wee big bigger. And since she really isnโ€™t a teeny tot anymore, Iโ€™d like to present to you her new and much more grown up aliasโ€ฆpresenting Miss Lady Bug!

And yes, I just cried a little.

teenytot_to_ladybug

It was fun finding photos of her for this post. I donโ€™t know if you can tell, but in the photo on the left sheโ€™s sitting in one of our workboxes. Her favorite activity used to be dumping out the contents of the boxes and sitting in them. That and climbing up them. Our workboxes took quite a beating that year. Ahhโ€ฆthose were the days!

But sheโ€™s all big and independent now. Doesnโ€™t need me as much, and can do just about everything on her own. But she still has the same great smile, and loves hugs and kisses. So I guess Iโ€™ll have to be okay with my baby growing up! If youโ€™d like to take a trip down memory lane you can grab a box of tissues and browse through my Teeny Tot School Posts.

But moving onโ€ฆhere is her curriculum for the year. Sheโ€™s in first grade this year, and wow. For some reason prek-kindergarten always seems like theyโ€™re still babies. But first grade. Man. Big kid in the house!

1stgrade_2015

Miss Lady Bug: 1st Grade

 

4thgrade_2015

Tinkerbell: 4th Grade

 

6thgrade_2015

Turbo: 6th Grade

 

7thgrade_2015

Strawberry Shortcake: 7th grade

 

groupcurriculum_2015

Extra-Curricular & Group Activities:

We do writing as a group with my 4th, 6th, and 7th graders together. Weโ€™ll be continuing on with Institute for Excellence in Writing Group A Continuation program for next year.

Weโ€™ll also be using the The Renaissance & Reformation time traveler unit, after we finish up with our Middle Ages one from last year.

And everyone is super excited to be going through myย  Expedition Earth Geography/Science Curriculum as well this year!

Here are a few other things we do on the side, and Iโ€™ll post our schedules by grade as well soon!

  • Options: This is a once a week co-op that we go to through our school district. Classes for my younger kiddos are mostly elective types like Spanish, science, art, music, & PE. Strawberry Shortcake has cool things like speech & debate, drama, computers, yearbook, literacy in film, home economics, and game theory.
  • Keepers of the Faith
  • Contenders of the Faith
  • Co-Op: DI Instant Challenges This is a once a month group of friends who get together, previously our LEGO group. Weโ€™re going to try making our own set of instant challenges for our co-op this year using the DI list as a guide.
  • Hockey & Swimming year round

Whew! Summer is blazing by, so I should probably go get some of this stuff planned eh?

 

Need HELP GETTING STARTED????? 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.

lotwcurriculumadย k4curriculumad

roadtripcurriculumadย EEcurriculumad

artistcurriculumadย composerscurriculumad

classiclitcurriculumadย Scientistcurriculumpromo

77 Comments

  1. I was wondering if you feel like the Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers are enough to stand alone? Do you add to them? I am considering using the American History cd’s, but would love to hear your thoughts.

    Jennifer Holmes
  2. i am going to use your Road Trip USA next year and my kids will be 1st and 5th grade…do you think adding a time traveler would be a good idea or is there enough history for my 5th grader? how do you like the vocabulary workshop?

    Ashley T
    1. Yes Road Trip USA has a ton of US history in it, so I think you’ll be overwhelmed if you try to add in another unit. Vocab workshop is “okay”. Not my favorite. I’m trying vocabulary online with my son this year just to try something new, and he really likes it. But it’s not free ๐Ÿ™

      erica
  3. I am looking for Bible studies to start with my 3rd, 5th, and 7th graders. I would like to do something individually with each of them, therefore I am not interested in getting teacher guides in which I have to comb through for lesson plans, etc. I confess that teacher guides annoy me and I avoid them at all costs. I’m more of a fly by the seat of my pants person. I’d like something simple, but rich that we can sit down and work through with a book on their individual level and the Bible. Any suggestions?

    Terra
  4. Hi Erica,
    Where have I been? I just found your site this week and ordered your explore earth program along with some literature ones too! I believe Abeka and BJU was weak in writing as well and have Loved IEW for writing. Do you like easy grammar? Do you feel easy grammar, Wordly wise & IEW would be fine. That I could skip BJU English 5? Wondering now how easy grammar compares to BJU English 5.

    Also for math. We love MUS and use that bc it’s so deep in each area but I like to use something that covers a wide spectrum as well. My daughter didn’t like Abeka and was frustrated. We tried BJU online DVD’s but she was skipping parts. Eh, hem. Eye roll! She hates math. So this year I was going to try Saxon 6/5. Any thoughts on the later Saxon? She wanted to do daily math with me one on one.

    My son loves math and is going into second grade. We do MUS but again I want something in addition to that that covers more. He rocked BJU math 1 but it was too easy for him last year. Should I do BJU math 2 or Saxon 2 or 3? Anyt recommendations here?

    Can your explore the earth be used for science?

    Have you ever tried story of the world? Wondering how you felt that vs. the Renaissance? I don’t want a history that kills us and is uber taxing on me since I’m teaching so much.

    Thanks for your guidance!!! XO from Atlanta, GA

    Christen
    1. Hi Christen,
      Yes, i think if you’re going to do Easy Grammar, Wordly Wise and IEW you’ll be just fine. We’re going to try IEW and Fix It Grammar this year and forgo BJU English so we’ll see how that works. I’m still deciding if I want to have them do an additional vocab but the FIX It includes a word a day, so I haven’t decided yet. Maybe I’ll put that question out to the COAH Community ๐Ÿ™‚

      We tried and strongly disliked ๐Ÿ˜‰ Saxon. So we went back to MUS. If I feel like we need extra work I’ll usually add in a story problem from Evan Moor Daily Word Problems or a free 5 minute math drill to refresh skills. But otherwise we’ve loved MUS. No comment on Saxon.

      And yes, my Expedition Earth includes science, I wouldn’t add in another science curriculum while doing EE.

      I had Story of the World a while back, but we never got into it. That said, I have a friend who loves it. So I think it just depends on what you prefer. We did like the Time Traveler units, they were fun. I will say the reading was brief and then just followed by projects, so sometimes I didn’t feel like it covered enough info. But they were fun. And my kids definitely remember more when they’re doing projects like that.

      erica
  5. Hi Erica,

    We are starting out our first year of homeschooling for my little girl who will be entering into the 1st grade. I was wanting to know which bible curriculum do you recommend. Which of the ones that you have used, did your children really respond to?

    Danielle Long
  6. Erica,
    I was wondering how you use Expedition Earth for science?
    I am understanding no other science book is used?
    I just printed out Animals of the World, would that work well with Expedition Earth?
    Thank you and God Bless

    Elizabeth
    1. Yes, EE is used for science! It covers several aspects of science including animal, earth, weather, & natural science. The animals of the world (if you are referring to my printable) is designed to go with the EE curriculum. The lesson plans will tell you when to do each one ๐Ÿ™‚

      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.