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!
Need HELP GETTING STARTED????? Get your copy of Homeschooling 101: A guide to getting started!
Need PLANNERS? Check out my fun homeschool lesson planners!
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 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 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
No, I didn’t get a TM either. Just graded it on my own. It’s fairly easy for an adult to do, just inconvenient.
Thank you. I was thinking that the TM had other things like lesson plans.
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!
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.
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 🙂 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
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.
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?
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,
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!
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 🙂
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.
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.
Question – and I’m sure it’s been answered before, I just haven’t found it. 🙂
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. 🙂 Thanks!!!
Hi Melody, I don’t currently offer a 1st grade curriculum, but you can see what we do for first grade in our curriculum posts. I have a first grader this year 🙂 http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2015/07/our-curriculum-2015-2016.html
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
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.