I wrote that title in my best booming announcer voice.
You can hear it, right? {smile}
Seriously though, I am finally writing this post that I’ve kind of been putting off writing. There are many reasons why but I won’t get into those.
A few things to share, though, before the {big announcement}! ::wink::
As I was choosing curriculum there were a few things that I was keeping in mind or trying to keep in mind.
Because, you see, I love books and I love curriculum shopping. I would definitely overdo it if I didn’t keep the big picture in mind.
Here are the things that I was looking for in our curriculum:
1. It needed to use living books or whole books. I tend to shy away from textbooks.
2. It needed to combine subjects that can be combined {history, geography, science, art…} to teach many grade levels.
3. This year, I really wanted an easy to plan curriculum. I needed something where most of the planning was done for me.
4. It needed to meet our family’s educational mindset which is a little bit Charlotte Mason, a little bit Classical, and a little bit traditional.
For many years I have been researching and looking at My Father’s World curriculum which, by the way, meets all of the criteria I have listed above. (Except it’s not so much traditional. I just like traditional approaches to some subjects.) This year, we finally decided that My Father’s World (MFW) was the way to go. So far, we love it!
The following are our curriculum choices for our 8th, 6th, and 3rd graders. I wrote about our Kindergarten curriculum here.
Combined Subjects
My Father’s World Countries and Cultures {geography, science, art, music, Bible}
English from the Roots Up {Latin and Greek roots}
Sonlight American History {started last year, we will finish this year}
Artistic Pursuits (older boys) and Drawing with Children (the girls – the older boys have all ready done this)
Every 6 weeks, we will do an artist study or composer study. We will also have nature study about once a week.
Bryce’s subjects (8th grade)
In addition to the above, Bryce will also study:
Christian Kids Explore Chemistry (1st semester)
Christian Kids Explore Physics (2nd semester)
Literature selections from Sonlight and This list
extracurricular ~ guitar, youth choir, swim team, Boy Scouts
Grant’s subjects (6th grade)
In addition to the combined subjects above, Grant will study:
Literature Selections from Sonlight and This List
extracurricular ~ guitar, children’s choir, swim team, Boy Scouts
Emma’s subjects (3rd grade)
In addition to the list of combined subjects above, Emma will study:
Singapore Math/Teaching Textbooks
Language Lessons for the Elementary Child
The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
Daily Grams (we have an older book)
Literature Selections from Sonlight and This List
extracurricular ~ piano (possibly soon, we hope), swim team, children’s choir
Resources that we use in our homeschool
These are some extras that we like to have around to supplement our studies:
The Story of the World History books
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
The Usbourne Internet-linked Encyclopedia of World History
FREE math facts sheets from Math-Drills
The Usbourne Internet-linked Science Encyclopedia
Creative Kids:Simple Cooking Fun
Well! If you read all of that, then I thank you very much! It was a lot to read.
That’s it folks! Our 2011 – 2012 curriculum choices post is now complete!
your homeschool is happy and full!
ReplyDeleteSo many,many,many great books and learning going on!
I am looking forward to using MFW C&C also when we get to that point. One thing I like about MFW is you can choose the math and language arts you want. I can't handle a complete package that includes math and language arts because there are things I like and dislike about various curriculum.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have a great year planned out. I look forward to reading more about it as you go.
By the way, I have put off posting what we are using this year too. I will eventually get to it.:)
Definitely a lot of books going on! We are loving it. :)
ReplyDeleteThe curriculum post is a rather time consuming post to write with all of the links. :)
ReplyDeleteWe really are enjoying MFW ECC so far. I know I've said that a lot but it's really true.
I'm the same about curriculum. It is hard for me to just get a whole package and go with it. I like to personalize our choices to meet the child's needs and even mine. If I dislike teaching the subject or curriculum, it will definitely affect the kiddos. I look forward to your post too. :)