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:
Hello! First I want to say I love your blog! I get so many awesome ideas from you 🙂
I saw that you used to use WriteShop Jr. D with your son and are now using IEW. Why the change and do you like IEW a lot more?
I am trying to decide between the two right now and IEW just looks confusing and like it takes a lot of time per lesson. Thanks for your input!
Hi Anne,
I actually like both, we switched to IEW as our kiddos got older, it seemed to fit a bit better. I think the WriteShop is better for younger children, but now that they’re 5th, and 6th grade I wanted something a little more aggressive. I do like it for the older kids more, although I haven’t used WriteShop’s program for older kids, which they do have. I have a few friends who have used this and recommended it for older kids, so that’s why we went that route.
IEW can take some time per lesson, but I don’t think it’s any longer/shorter than WriteShop.
Hello. I have a question about curriculum for a first grader. I am having a hard time finding books and teacher materials and was wondering if you had any suggestions. It would be greatly appreciated.
I love your videos and website.
God Bless.
Hello,
We are in our first year of homeschooling and realizing that I just have too much to fit in! So, I am trying to make some changes for the future. I am wanting to do a group science teaching. We currently have BJU with 1st and 4th grade. I have read your posts and you say that you teach your science as a group lesson with Abeka. How do you do that if it is diferent per grade?
Thanks for your help!
Stashia
Hi Stashia,
The Abeka science is a nice level material so I think it works well with age groups that are close to each other. I don’t make my kindergartener do any written work with it, but she sits in while we read the lessons and helps with any experiments that we might be doing as well. For everyone else, they take the written quizzes and lessons and they seem to be doing well with it. Since we have a 3rd, 5th, and 6th grader I went with the 5th grade level so it was good for everyone.
As far as using BJU press I’m not sure if that will work the same. I haven’t used their science, so I’m not sure if the levels are that different or not.
Hi. I am very curious as to how IEW for your older two is going this year? Thanks 🙂
Hi Rhonda,
We’re using it with our 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders and its going really well. I like how he teaches and they are all doing great with their writing!
Hi Erica,
I am already thinking of curriculum for next year (I think I always am ha!) and I see that you use BJU English and IEW. Do you not think that BJU teaches enough in the writing area? We tried out IEW and didn’t like it, but we love write shop! I’ve been looking at BJU but it’s so hard to make a choice without seeing things hands on!
Thank in advance for your input! I admire the way you put your homeschool together!
Hi Anne,
It’s just personal preference. BJUPress does writing every other lesson, but I don’t love how it teaches. My son needs more help with writing and IEW has been much more thorough for all of us!
I’m new at this home schooling and I’m doing it on a budget I’m a single mother working a full time job. I’m working on my lesson plan for this up coming school. I went to the school board and got tons of books for free from 5th grade to 11th grade. My question is do you have to have a curriculum? (I’m still lost) is it just a list of what book your going to use for that subject HELP!!!
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. You don’t have to have an all in one curriculum, but it is helpful to have curriculum for things like math and English. You can piece together your own curriculum too from different resources as well it just depends on what works best for your family.
http://tinyurl.com/a38obj4
Hi Erica!
I just wanted to say that I am so glad that I stumbled upon your blog! I have been homeschooling for the past 7 years and each year I’m just never sure if I am doing the right thing. But finding your blog and all of your tips has helped to breath new life into our homeschool. I homeschool 2 kiddos right now and I will have a kindergartner starting next year plus a toddler. I was starting to feel as though it might not be possible. But after reading through all your suggestions and seeing your videos, instead of feeling burnt out in March, I feel invigorated. Okay….enough of my rambling. Just a couple of quick questions. I was wondering if I wanted to chose one out of the two Bible studies you use which one would you go with? Grapevine or Picture Smart Bible? I want to use it and teach it as a whole group study. I have a 6th grader and a 3rd grader this year. We have never taught any Bible studies with our homeschool (only Sunday School) so I wasn’t sure if I should start at the beginning of these programs or not. Second question…are you enjoying the new vocabulary series you are using this year? My 3rd grader just finished her 3rd grade series and I was thinking of trying something new for 4th and was wondering if you would use this one again. Also, does it come with tests? Thank you SO much for all your help. You truly have inspired me! Kristi
Hi Erica, I just have a quick question. I am also using All About Spelling and I see that you are using Spelling You See. Did you feel that your children needed more with their spelling? And two does this curriculum pretty much go with the steps in AAS?
Just curious, I feel my son needs a little more with the spelling and I have been shopping around. I bought one curriculum ” Spelling Workout “, which is a great curriculum by it’s self. I just doesn’t seem to flow with AAS.
Thanks so much,
Jill @ http://www.cometakeawalkwithme.com.
Hi Erica, I am thinking of purchasing the Picture Smart Bible to use with my 3 boys (3rd,5th and 6th grades) next school year. I went onto the website, and am unsure which package to get. What did you purchase for your family?
Hi. Thank you for your blog, I appreciate it. Having read the above comments I see that you use BJU English for grammar primarily, and IEW for writing. Have you used or considered using IEW’s Fix It? It looks like that is their grammar program. As I have appreciated your reviews of various curriculums in the past I am wondering if you have a review on IEW’s Fit It (or a comment about it.) Thank you.