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:
I was checking out the Vocabulary Workshop site and in the 7th grade edition some of the sentences used caused me some concern. Here are two examples
“Whenever you find (wayward,controversial) children,” the speaker said, “you also find ineffective parents.”
Though her views about the role of women in society are far from (hostile,orthodox), even conservatives and traditionalists listen to them.
These were both from just one lesson. Of course, these types of statements can be discussed but I think this type of workbook is something that a child would go through independently and some of these may be missed by the parent. Just something to be aware of and careful when ordering secular curriculum.
Hi Melanie,
Thanks for the heads up. I knew there might be some things in there being that it’s secular. I haven’t found a good Christian based vocabulary curriculum yet, so we’re going to try this one this year. I had the same issues with Wordly Wise and this one looks similar, so I plan to try and stay on top of their lessons as we go.
Yes, after looking into the Vocab Workshop I looked for over an hour for a Christian based curriculum and there really isn’t any. I found Wordly Wise used for next to nothing so I’m trying that this year for my 7th grader. I did order the Vocab Workshop for my 4th grader and thought I’d give it a try. If anything it will motivate me to stay more involved rather than sending them away with a workbook by themselves. 🙂
I’m always impressed when I see your curriculum plans for the year. As well as the fact that you’re able to plan out the entire school year ahead of time, I’m doing good if I get the following month prepared ahead of time.
We’re going to be using your Road Trip USA for the two girls this year and I’m super excited to be doing it!! I think that it will make for a more in depth study for them along with our reading books we’ll be going through (one of them literally asked me if TN was in the US!!! I about dropped my jaw to the floor! And she’s 9)
Hi Chrystal,
Thanks so much, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the curriculum. I am always blessed to hear how God uses my blog to encourage other families! Hope you have a great year :o) And don’t worry, they don’t know these things until we teach them, this year she’ll learn where TN is ;o) LOL!
Have you by any chance done a lego education review or written about what you’ve ordered and how you use it? it looks like it would be a $300 investment so would love to get as many thoughts from you on it as possible.
Thanks!
Hi Megan,
Yes, here are my LEGO Education posts, we use it in a co-op group:
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/category/lego
I will say it’s probably going to take us a couple of years to get through since we do one lesson per week. But the skills learned in the curriculum are AWESOME!! I absolutely love it!
Hi Erica,
Do you use All About Spelling in place of your ABeka’s spelling curriculum for your 3rd grader? Do you like it? We have been using ABeka’s spelling with the rest of the curriculum for the past 3 years and like it ok, but would like something a little more “fun”:) My 8- year- old doesn’t really struggle with spelling at all, so we don’t need to spend a lot of time on it. But, I’ve heard good things about AAS. and would possibly like to try it if it wouldn’t add too much more work for me. Is it easy to use?
I’m also wondering what you like about BJU’s writing as opposed to ABeka’s for 3rd grade.
One last thing, how do you find time to plan curriculum and lesson plans out for the year when your children are so young?? Mine are 8,5,3, and 12 months and I can’t seem to get organized!
Thanks!
Hi Libby,
Yes, I use AAS for 3rd grade and up spelling. I do not really like the Abeka Spelling curriculum, it’s mostly a memorize this list and then test on Friday type curriculum. And I’ve found my kids do great at memorizing a list each week, but then forget it all the next week when they have to learn a new list. With AAS they learn the phonics of how most of our words are put together which allows them to be able to piece together words for themselves.
I move onto BJU English at 3rd grade because Abeka tends to get really repetitive after that point. I do not use BJU prior to that because I do not like how they teach phonics and it’s all over their K-2 English/phonics lessons.
As far as planning goes, I take out a couple of days where my husband or mom can help watch the kids, and sit and plan like a maniac ;o) I have a whole section in my homeschooling 101 book on creating lesson plans and getting organized that might help! http://tinyurl.com/a38obj4
Hi Erica,
I’ve home schooled in the past and will be doing it again starting in the fall. I noticed you use AAS and Spelling you See. Is there a need to use both or would you recommend one over the other? We use MUS and my kids do very well with it. I’ve never used either AAS or Spelling you See. My kids are 9, 7, and 6.
What made you decide to use The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading instead of All about Reading for your youngest?
Hi Lanae,
We’re actually getting Phonics Road for review but I’ve heard great things about it. And I do plan to use All About Spelling L1 for her next year. Historically speaking we’ve used Abeka reading and I’ll be incorporating those lessons as well.
Thank you for sharing your choices. It is really encouraging even to those of us ‘mature’ homeschoolers. I’ll be doing my final planning next week for the year. With 9 students K-12, it takes time to plan out the year, but we are able to accomplish more than on the fly all the time. We’ll be graduating our 3rd student this next year and having things planned now with allow me time to work on transcripts and graduation stuff.
I looked at the typing program you are using. Do you know what the difference is between the Typing Instructor Platinum and Typing Instructor For Kids Platinum? I read the descriptions for each and they sound similar, other than that the kids version has 10 lessons and the other 20.
Hi Nancy,
I believe the platinum version has lessons for older students, and the kids version has mostly the little games and such for them to play.
Erica,
Thank you so much for this Colorado unit study!!! We are moving there next year and so this will be the perfect way for us to get acquainted with our new homestate. 🙂 The kids will be so thrilled!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful talents so generously!
Blessings,
Jenni
I use the Abeka Reading, and I really want to use your literature units this year too. How do you manage using both? Do you use them at the same time? Separately? Thanks in advance!!
Hi Kristi,
We use my literature units for our “FUN” reading time. So when they’re just learning to read like grades K-2 or so, I have them do the Abeka reading lesson, and then they also read 1 chapter from a fun book of their choice (from my lit units). Once I’m confident with their reading skills, I let them just do the Literature Units, however I will assign Abeka Level readers at any time I feel like adding in more reading for them. The literature units don’t take that long to read, and considering they should be reading about 45 min/day it’s not a big deal to add them in.
I also use the Abeka Read & Think Skill Sheets to test their comprehension and get them used to timed reading tests for their annual testing.
Thanks so much!!
Hi Erica,
I also have selected BJU English/Grammar for my 2nd grader. This will be our first year using this curriculum. I’ve notice you listed a seperate writing curriculum? With your experience with BJU, how is the writing component? Will I need to supplement?
Thanks
Karen
Hi Karen,
I started IEW for my older kids last year and we’re continuing with it this year. Mainly b/c I don’t love the BJU writing portions. We do a couple of them but skip most. They’re more like “Here’s what it should look like, now go write.” But don’t include a lot of help otherwise.
That works okay for Strawberry Shortcake but Turbo needs more help brain storming and coming up with what to write so the IEW seems to do a better job of teaching the writing process in my opinion.