Ever have a school year where you know it will either be a great success or a total flop? That was me this summer. I really wasn’t sure how this year was going to go. We usually start school the second week of July, but with the addition of little Kiwi we chose to wait a few weeks before going at it hard core.
Knowing that my time would be split between homeschooling two vibrant girls and taking care of a newborn, I took some time last Spring to analyze and prepare our curriculum for this school year. My main focus was contemplating ways to give the girls more independent learning than in the past. This meant changing a few of our past curriculum options to something new, and even creating our own geography curriculum, which I’ll share more about in a minute.
We still kept a few of our favorites including Rod and Staff for English, Mind Benders for Critical Thinking, and Middlebury Interactive Languages for Spanish. However, this year we are also exploring a few new options including Teaching Textbooks (which, so far, the girls LOVE), God’s Design for science, and Typing Instructor for technology.
It was the new stuff that made me a bit nervous as we started the new school year, but so far each has been received with great success. As mentioned in the past, when looking at our curriculum plan, please don’t think that our curriculum is exactly what a 3rd grader or a 1st grader should be doing right now. Every child is different. That is one of the joy’s of homeschooling–being able to adapt a curriculum to fit each child’s strengths and weaknesses.
The joy of homeschooling--being able to adapt a curriculum to fit each child.Click To Tweet
Peanut
Ages: 8
Grade: 3rd/4th
Language Arts
- English 4: Building with Diligence by Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc.
- All About Spelling 3
- Pentime 4
- Peanut will also read aloud every day from books relevant to our current science and history topic
Math
- Teaching Textbooks 5
- Mind Benders 4
- Math Facts Games
Teacup
Age: 6
Grade: 1st Grade/2nd Grade
Language Arts
- English 2: Preparing to Build by Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc.
- All About Spelling 1
- Pentime 2
- ABC Mouse
- Teacup will also read aloud every day from books relevant to our current science and history topic
Math
- Teaching Textbooks 3
- Mind Benders 2
- Math Facts Games
Together
Bible
- What’s in the Bible? DVD’s and Activities
- What’s the Bible All About for Young Explorers
- Memory verses from AWANA Clubs Sparks Book 2: WingRunner and AWANA Clubs T&T Grace in Action Book (in conjunction with our church’s AWANA program)
- Select Bible readings
World Geography
- This year I created our world geography curriculum through the combination of living books, YouTube videos, online games and resources. By the end of the school year we hope to have “traveled to” and learned about all 7 continents, 5 oceans, and at least 60 different countries. You can check it all out in our weekly world geography posts.
Science
