Wednesday, August 31, 2011

{The 2011 – 2012 Curriculum Post}

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

August 17, 2011 069 My Father’s World Countries and Cultures

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!

August 17, 2011 083 Sonlight American History plus some other History resources that we use.

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)

Worship Guitar

Spanish

Typing Instructor

Ready to Read Music

Every 6 weeks, we will do an artist study or composer study.  We will also have nature study about once a week.

August 17, 2011 071

Bryce’s subjects (8th grade)

In addition to the above, Bryce will also study:

Life of Fred – Pre-Algebra

Applications of Grammar

Spelling Power

Christian Kids Explore Chemistry (1st semester)

Christian Kids Explore Physics (2nd semester)

Writing Strands 4

Literature selections from Sonlight and This list

extracurricular ~ guitar, youth choir, swim team,  Boy Scouts

August 17, 2011 075

Grant’s subjects (6th grade)

In addition to the combined subjects above, Grant will study:

Horizons Math

Saxon Grammar

Spelling Power

Writing Strands 3

Literature Selections from Sonlight and This List

extracurricular ~ guitar, children’s choir, swim team, Boy Scouts

August 17, 2011 077

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

MCP Phonics

The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

Cursive Connections

Daily Grams (we have an older book)

All about Spelling

Literature Selections from Sonlight and This List

extracurricular ~ piano (possibly soon, we hope), swim team, children’s choir

August 17, 2011 088

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

Veritas Press Timeline Cards

FREE math facts sheets from Math-Drills

The Usbourne Internet-linked Science Encyclopedia

Creative Kids:Simple Cooking Fun

1000 Good Books List

 

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!

 

 

 

4 comments:

  1. your homeschool is happy and full!

    So many,many,many great books and learning going on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 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.
    Looks 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.:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Definitely a lot of books going on! We are loving it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The curriculum post is a rather time consuming post to write with all of the links. :)
    We 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. :)

    ReplyDelete

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