by Paige Hudson at Elemental Blogging.
I haven’t shared much over the last year about our homeschool, since this is the Elemental Science blog. Even so, I thought that I would take some time today to share with you all the curriculum we’ve selected to use next year. This will be our 8th official year of homeschooling (<–really can’t believe that I just typed that). My daughter will be in 6th grade and my son will be working on learning his colors, shapes, letters and numbers (he’s 3, so I’m not sure how much we’ll actually do).
Let me first say that the things we have chosen to use for next year are the plans that work best for us and for our situation. There is no one size fits all curriculum and just because something is not on my list again this year, doesn’t mean that it’s not a great curriculum, it just means that it work well for us. With that out of the way, here’s a look at what we have planned for next year…
6th Grade Plans:
Language Arts: We are trying a new grammar program and returning to our old writing program this year. I’m hoping that this will fix some of the frustrations we had last year. We’ll be using…
- Spelling: Writing Road to Reading-we’ve been using this for several years now, it’s simple and effective, so I can’t complain.
- Vocabulary: Vocabulary for Classical Roots-we used this last year and enjoyed it, so it’s back for another year.
- Grammar: The Adventures of Genius Boy and Grammar Girl-I took a chance of this book because it looked like a fun way to teach grammar, so far it looks great, so I really hope that it works!
- Writing: Writing with Skill-this was a tough change, we enjoyed CW Homer, but I need something more open and go for next year and Dr. Bauer’s program fits the bill.
Literature: We’ve always chosen books that go along with our history studies and this year we’ll be doing some of the same, but we’ll also be adding a formal literature course through CurrClick’s online classes. Here’s our book list for the year…
- In Search of Honor by Donnalynn Hess (part of the Lit Class)
- Nory Ryan’s Song by Patricia Reilly Giff (part of the Lit Class)
- Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson (part of the Lit Class)
- Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost (part of the Lit Class)
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (part of the Lit Class)
- Shakespeare Stealer
- The Westing Game
- A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
- The King’s Fifth
- The Lyon’s Roar
- Carry on Mr. Bowditch
- Walk the World’s Rim
- Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Adam of the Road
- Catherine, Called Birdy
- Beduin’s Gazelle
- Otto of the Silver Hand
- Son of Charlemagne
- Canterbury Tales
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Beowulf: A New Telling
- Second Mrs. Giaconda
- Sword and the Circle: King Arthur & Knights
- Single Shard
- I, Juan de Pareja
The books on this list are both readers and read-alouds. I’m not sure that we’ll be able to complete them all, but we’ll see!
Math: We’ll be using Singapore Math once again this year. This is the last year we’ll have in the primary math series, which is exciting, but I am a bit nervous about what we’ll use next year!
Science: We’ll be using Earth Science & Astronomy for the Logic Stage next year. I’m looking forward to digging deeper into the planets, stars, rocks and weather!
History: We’ll be continuing to work through the “other” Story of the World series. This year we’ll be studying the middle ages using
- The Discovery of New Worlds by MB Synge
- The Awakening of Europe by MB Synge
- The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
We’ll also do some primary source studies and mini-research projects along the way.
Bible: We’ll continue with the 4 year through the Bible plan that I picked up along the way. We’ll also be adding in Victor’s Journey through the Bible to enrich our studies.
Foreign Language: I’m excited to be beginning Spanish for Children next year! We’ll be starting with level B, thanks to the suggestion of the very helpful folks at Classical Academic Press.
Electives: We are trying several new programs for our electives this year, but each was selected for their ease of use. Here’s what I have chosen…
- Music: SQUILT music appreciation-I’m really excited about this new program as the music selections are fabulous!
- Art: Chalk Pastels Plans-we’ve loved Nana’s tutorials for awhile, so I decided to focus on them for our art program next year.
- Logic: Fallacy Detective-I’ve read mixed reviews about this, so we’ll see how it goes.
Preschool Plans:
The only reason I’m considering doing anything with my son is because he asks for it daily. He wants to be a part of school with his big sis, which is no surprise because he pretty much wants to do everything she does 
. So I’ve planned a very simple introduction to colors, shapes, letters and numbers. We’ll be making a sticker book with a page for each of these and drawing book and activity ideas from the following resources:
- Preschool Activities in a Bag from CurrClick
- Animal ABC’s from Carisa at 1 + 1 + 1 = 1
- Scholastic”s AlphaTales box set
- Alphabet Art by Williamson
My plan is to to use very hands-on, fun activities to introduce these concepts. We’ll might even add in some ABC related science, but I’m waiting on that to see how he receptive he is to having “school” time.
Well that’s what we have on the docket for the 2013-2014 school year! How about you, are you using any of the same curricula we are?
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