It is that time of year when I get to reveal to you our curriculum plans for the 2014-2015 school year!
My books just arrived yesterday, so I’m still working on putting everything together. The plan was to wait until next week, but the kiddos insisted we start as soon as possible, so as you read this we are beginning our school year.
It’s hard to believe, but this year I’ll have a 7th grader and a K4-er! We’ll be using a mix of the tried-and-true along with a few newbies.
All and all, I’m really looking forward to this year! So without further ado, here is our curriculum for the 2014-2015 school year.
7th grader
Bible – We will be continuing working on the 4 year through the Bible plan we have been using. We will also continue our survey of church history with the History Lives series.
Math - We will be using a Prentice Hall Algebra I text this year, which means that I will have to be on the ball for high school credit. How is that even possible? I just taught her how to multiple, right? Sigh…it goes so fast. Even though I miss Singapore, I am confident this will work because we already used their pre-algebra course last year.
English - We will continue on the Writing with Skill (absolutely love this series!) for writing. We will keep chugging through levels of All About Spelling and Vocabulary for Classical Roots, both of which we enjoy. We are trying a new grammar program…again…sigh…please Peace Hill Press, we need a middle school grammar program! But I digress, this year we are giving Easy Grammar a shot and I’m hoping that the 3rd time we’ll get it right.
Literature - We have always chosen books that go along with our history studies and this year will be no different. The only change is that instead of telling her when to read what, she is getting the list at the beginning of the year so she can pick and choose. Here’s the list for the year:
- Adventures of Don Quixote
- Robinson Crusoe
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
- Favorite Poems of William Wordsworth
- East ‘o the Sun & West ‘o the Moon
- Gulliver’s Travels
- Pilgrim’s Progress
- Grimm’s Fairy Tales
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Calico Captive
- Johnny Tremain
- Kruetzer Sonata & Other Short Stories
- The Lacemaker and the Princess
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- My Last Duchess & Other Poems
- Amos Fortune Free Man
We will be using resources from the Well-trained Mind and Classical House of Learning Literature to flesh things out a bit.
Science – We will be using Chemistry for the Logic Stage this next year, which was a no-brainer since I wrote the program. We are also looking forward to participating in a local homeschool science fair this year!
History – We are going back to Story of the World by Bauer this year. It’s just easier on me with activities, questions, and tests already prepared. We will be adding in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and two of the Foster books to liven things up a bit.
Foreign Language – We will continue working through the First Spanish Book. It’s an older free text for teaching the language that we began last year. I love how the text teaches in more of an immersion style, but you as the teacher do need to know Spanish to teach it.
Electives - SQUILT music appreciation, Chalk Pastels Plans from Hodgepodge, Mind Benders, and Thinking Toolbox. Our daughter also dances several nights a week and we might be joining a local programming class.
K4 Plans
The little dude loved doing bits and pieces of school last year, so we are going to dive in and see how it goes.
Reading – We will be using the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading this year and I’m super excited about it. I didn’t know about this resource when I taught our daughter to read, but so far it looks like a solid, no frills approach to reading.
Math – We be using the Singapore Earlybird series, plus a ton of manipulatives that my wonderful mother-in-law gave to us!
Science – We will be using Exploring Science this year, which I am excited about because it is my first time using the program, since I wrote it four years ago.
The Rest - Not that there needs to be a “the rest” for a 4 year old, but we are going to try using Sonlight Core P4/5 this year.
Well that is what we have on the shelves for next year! How about you? Are you trying anything new this next year?
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