Homeschool Curriculum Revealed

It's that time again! Time for me to share everything we are doing this year in our homeschool! Hope this helps you to get an understanding of why we picked what we use and how I intend to use it.

*Don't miss the video that walks you through in detail all of our homeschool curriculum for this year. You can watch the video HERE or at the bottom of this post.

Our 2016-2017 Curriculum Choices

This year we have quite the dynamic happening in our homeschool. I have an 8th grade, who is doing mostly high school work, a 7th grader, 2nd grader, kindergartener, and a preschooler. All five of my kids will be involved in our homeschool this year. The jury is still out if my little person will cooperate and actually enjoy being "in school" with everyone, though. Three-year-olds are unpredictable.

I'm so excited to show you all that we are using!!...

Everyone Together

This year we are going back to My Father's World's family cycle. We are on Year 5 which is 1850-Modern Times. We mostly do history, Bible, and read-alouds with them. I like having their teacher's manual available to help me keep on track for the year.

As usual, I picked a few read-aloud books to do with audiobooks. We try to do as much as we can together, however, with our widespread of ages it's getting a bit harder. So, audiobooks have been a great asset in our home.

Mornings:

I'm changing up our morning routine a bit this year and using a technique called Your Morning Basket. So, we'll be doing Bible, read-aloud, and memory work together at this time. I'd love to fit in some of our history reading here, too. We'll see how it goes.

(You can get a free printable for creating routines in my book, Sanity Savers for Moms. Click HERE for more details.)

Bible:

• Apologia's Who Is God?: We are using Apologia's four-part series on What We Believe. We started last year with their Who Is God? book and are still finishing it up. I already have book two, Who Am I? ready to go. We have been using these books as part of our evening devotions. There are great family discussions that have come up as we read through these books. They are some of my favorite books for teaching Christian worldview.
• My Father's World: In God We Trust, Trial and Triumph, and Tales of Persia, and Then Sings My Soul. The way MFW does things is that we'll be reading bits and pieces of these books all year as we go through our history reading. Then Sings My Soul is a really great book on hymns and their history. I'm looking forward to that one. Trial and Triumph is one of my favorite collections of missionary stories. The other two are new to me this year.
• Drive-Thru History's The Gospels series: We've loved Drive Thru History for years. Their videos are so fun and educational. I learn and laugh right along with the kids. This year we are doing their 18 part series called The Gospels as part of our evening devotions. We take a break from Who Is God? and watch a video some nights.

History, Read-Alouds, & Independent Reading:

As I mentioned we are using My Father's World this year. I really like doing history in chronological order. Here are some of the books we are doing this year:

History:

• Story of the World Volume 4: SOTW is part of MFW this year. We've used parts of it in the past. I love their activity book. It is a great resource for read-aloud books for a period of history. We also usually get the Jim Weiss audiobook CDs to listen to.
• Exploring American History, Children's Encyclopedia of American History,  Presidents of America (love this one!), Streams of Civilization 2, America's Providential History, Sounding Forth the Trumpet, The Last 500 Years, U.S. History Cookbook, and Prayers That Changed History (another favorite). We will also use a CD to memorize our states and capitals.

Read Alouds:

• For my older boys (and anyone who listens in): Sergeant York and the Great War, YWAM's Corrie ten Boom, Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler, The Hiding Place (audio CDs), and Hudson Taylor (using Audible).
• For my 2nd grader: American Pioneers and Patriots, Farmer Boy, On the Banks of Plum Creek, In Grandma's Attic, A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, Charlotte's Web, and Ivan and the Informer.

8th Grade

Writing: We love IEW in this house. You'll see we use it for a lot of subjects. Grant will be doing IEW's Elegant Essay in co-op this year.
 

Grammar & Penmanship: This year my son will be using IEW's Fix-It Grammar again. It's a grammar program focused on learning to edit. It also has an element of copy work, so he will focus on good penmanship.
 

Spelling: We just started IEW's Phonetic Zoo Level C two years ago. What I love is that he can do his spelling independently using headphones to listen to his spelling test.
 

Math: We love Math U See! Grant is starting Geometry this year. I'm excited to have him try their new digital program this year.
 

Science: I'm really excited to be teaching Grant's co-op science class this year. We are doing Apologia Biology. He works independently through this science book and notebook. He will do the experiments and dissecting in our co-op class.

7th Grade:

Writing: Blake is doing U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons at co-op. He almost took Elegant Essay with Grant but decided that this one sounded like more fun.

Grammar & Penmanship: We are taking a break from Growing with Grammar this year and doing IEW's Fix-It Grammar. I think he'll really enjoy it. He picked Robin Hood.

Spelling: My 7th grader will also be doing IEW's Phonetic Zoo again this year.
 

Math: My son will be finishing up his Math U See Zeta book from last year & starting the next book {Pre-Algebra} mid-year.
 

Science: Blake is taking on General Science this year. We'll be driving up to a friend's house to join a different co-op just for this class.

2nd Grade:

My sweet boy is going to be joining us a bit for our My Father's World family cycle a bit this year. I already mentioned the books we are going through for history and some read aloud. I'm also going to have him read a series I really love, Imagination Station, with me.

Language Arts: Aside from all the history and read-alouds we'll be doing, we'll be finishing up IEW’s Primary Arts of Language (PAL): Reading & Writing. There is a penmanship element in this program, so we will take a break from our A Reason for Handwriting in order not to burn him out.

Spelling: Wade will be continuing with All About Spelling.

Math: He's going to be finishing up his Math U See Beta book and probably move into his Gamma book.

Science: I'm really excited to do Apologia's Astronomy again this year. He'll be doing a class in co-op. However, all the reading at home will be with him and Ashlyn.

Kindergarten:

Typically, we start our kids at age 6 in kindergarten. We have a variety of reasons for doing this. However, we decided to start our daughter at age 5. We love that we waited to start our boys at age 6. We'll see how this year goes with Ashlyn. I've hesitated calling this her kindergarten year. Who knows, maybe we'll do a kindergarten "part 2" next year if we change our minds.

Language Arts: We are going to be doing lots of reading. Reading is the best thing for kindergarteners. With that in mind, we are using My Father's World Kindergarten for most of our work. We bought the readers that went along with the program.
*A few other books that I'll incorporate if she seems to be picking up on things easily:
--Sing, Spell, Read, & Write
--Get Ready for the Code Books A, B, & C {Maybe just A}
--Explode the Code {Don't assume to get to this one}
--Primary Phonics Workbook 1 {May not get to this one either}
--A Reason for Handwriting K:  LOVE this program for penmanship! She'll do a few pages here and there.

I really like the letter stories behind IEW’s Primary Arts of Language (PAL): Reading & Writing. So, I'll incorporate that into what we are doing, too. I'll jump into this program more next year.

Math: We'll be starting Math U See Alpha. I don't plan to do much with her. I just want to introduce her to basic math concepts and counting.

Science: Ashlyn will be doing some science this year along with Wade, except not at co-op. I think she's really going to love Astronomy.

Preschool:

I'm a firm believer in NO CURRICULUM for preschool! Learning at this age is all about fun! I "sneak" learning into her day. I do have fun workbooks for my little miss to "play" school with. I'll also be doing my friend Karen Fernandez's book ABC Trace & Say with her. Ashlyn actually likes "teaching" her from this book. It's really cute.

Here it is: The Video Behind the Blog Post!!

Here's the video for you to get a first-hand view of the material. I go into detail about how we use all of the above curriculum -- & why! It's really a MUST SEE!