This Years Curriculum For Us

Well, I thought I'd give everyone a run down of what I plan on using this year with my kiddies. Are you ready? Here we go!

Bible: Scripture Adventures in the Old Testament
We're using the KJV version, but they also offer the NIV version. This looks very promising and is more of a unit study approach. It offers both worksheets to complete and hands on activities. You can visit their site from the above link and download a table of contents and sample pages if you would like :)

History: A Journey Through "The 17th Century" and "The 18th Century"
These are made by "A Journey Through Learning", and are fabulous unit studies! You can really make them as long or short as you want. They also include little activities to complete through out the text. The first one we are going to move pretty fast through, considering it is mainly a review. The second we're going to take our time with and just see.  You can use the CurrClick link if you'd like to look at them :-)

Science: Various
I plan on using various unit studies and lapbooks for this. I am following the guide from "Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp". I'm also going to be using "Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock" to go along with our nature studies. Some of the unit studies I will be using are by "Hip2Homeschool". I think she puts out some of the best unit studies I've seen :) You can click the above CurrClick link and find her there!

Writing: Writing Strands Level 3
I'll be using this for both kiddies. My dd thrives in writing, and my ds not so much. I figured this would be a good fit for both. Where it would help my dd excel, it would also help my son. I'm looking forward to seeing how both do with this!

Reading: Various
I plan on using the Christian Liberty Nature Readers, various biographies, science readers, and regular story books.

Grammar:  Easy Grammar Level 1 (Workbook 56), and Easy Grammar: Grades 3 and 4 Teachers Edition
We like these.  They are simple and easy to understand.  Combined with the other books we're using, I think this makes for a great Language Arts curriculum.

Spelling:  Spelling Book: Words Most Needed Plus Phonics by Dr. Fry
This has spelling from K-6th grade.  It also includes phonics, syllabication, and some handwriting.  This is the first year I'm using this.  My dd's spelling isn't the best, so I'm hoping this helps her out.  Since it's multi year, I get the added bonus of using it with my ds. :-)

Typing:  Rapid Typing Tutor , Dance Mat Typing, others
We're going to be giving typing another go this year.  Come second semester we're going to be trying Sign Language.  Not sure how it will go, but I think it will be fun!

Geography:  Trail Guide to U.S. Geography
We'll probably be using this for a couple of years, not just this one.  It depends on how the kids like it.  One thing to note, with with book, you may need other resources.  If, for instance, you are unfamiliar with how to teach geography, the book suggests The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide.  You may also want to purchase the corisponding student notebook (not required, but definitely a plus to have!).  Some other recommended resources for this one is Children's Illustrated Atlas of the United States, and The World Almanac and Book of Facts (or another almanac).

We're also going to be using some great flash cards I purchased from CurrClick.

Art:  God & the History of Art,Vol 1
This book is absolutely fabulous!  I actually have both volumes and will use them.  I got the set that comes with the paint cards and post cards.  This book starts out simple, teaching the techniques such as line, shading, color, etc.  Then it goes onto more complicated lessons.  It also includes artist studies along the way.  One book will last 4 years!  What more could you want :-)  I know we can't wait to put it to use!

Ok, I think that pretty much covers the curriculum, now lets talk about schedule!  The ever dreaded schedule...LOL  All I can really say about this is, you're just going to have to find what works for you.  I'll go ahead and list what we do, but remember, BE FLEXIBLE!  That's one of the perks of HOMEschooling :-)

All times are "give and take".  Sometimes we go much faster, sometimes (especially in Math) we go extremely slow.

Mon

Bible: 30 min

Gram: 20 min

Spell: 45 min

**we do definitions

Writ: 30 min

Art: 1 hour

History: 30-1+ hour

**depends on if we

have a craft

Geography: 30 mins

Reading 20 mins

Math: 1+ hour

**depends

Tues

Bible: 30 min

Gram: 20 min

Spell: 45 min

Writ: 30 min

PE: 2 hrs

Sci: 30-1+ hr

Geo: 30 min

Math: 1+ hour

Wed

Bible: 30 min

Gram: 20 min

Spell: 45 min

Writ: 30 min

Composer

Hist: 30-1+ hr

Read 20 min

Math: 1+ hour

Thurs                      

Bible: 30 min          

Gram: 20 min        

Spell: 45 min          

Writ: 30 min           

Art: 1 hour              

Sci: 30-1+ hr          

Geo: 30 min                    

Math: 1+ hour    

Fri

Bible: 30 min

Gram: 20 min

Spell: 30 min

Writ: 30 min

Free

Hist: 30-1+hr

Math: 1+ hour

Read 20 min

That is all just mainly guess work until we actually start school.  I'm certain it will change, it always does!

I'm using the curriculum planner from Dynamic2Moms.  I already gave a review of them below, but I guess I just love them that much!  LOL  I'm including some pictures of my planner that I've put together from them.  One thing I would definitely recommend is buying the tabbed sheet protectors.  You'll see the version I bought, and I love them.  I got all of it from Wal-Mart! ;-)

 Ok, that's it for now.  Chow!

Book Binding

I am a huge fan of eBooks! I'm also a huge fan of binding my own books and planners. There are tons of different ways you can bind your own books. When I first started, I used a 3 hole punch, fasteners, and masking tape. Then I graduated to using gorilla glue and masking tape. Now I use a GBC ProClick P50 32-Hole Paper Punch, ProClick spines, and 3:1 pitch plastic coil spines from Best Buy Binding (the cheapest place I have found so far). The size of the book depends on which spine I bind it with. The ProClick spines only hold up to 110 sheets with their biggest size (5/8), so if I'm binding a big book, I use the coil. I got 22mm which holds over 200 sheets; this takes care of pretty much all of my needs.

The steps to using the paper punch and spines are pretty simple. Sometimes I laminate the covers with my laminator, and then punch those, just depends on what I'm working on though. No matter, the steps are still going to be the same. First, you hole punch all of the book. This can take awhile depending on book size. You can only punch around 6 pages with this hole puncher. After you're finished with that, you just pick the spine you want to use. The ProClick spines just "zip up" so to speak, then you're done. If you're using the plastic coil, you would just wind it into the holes until you have gone through each. Then, take your clippers and clip off the extra coil. For this, you want to make sure you don't take off too much. Here is a good video to watch so you can make sure you do it right. The do use coil crimpers. I did not see the need for them. I just clip the coil and then bend it with a pair of pliers. Then viola! Done! You can see the picture of my planner that I just bound today. Tootles!

Homeschool Day Book

I found the perfect little record keeping program! It's called "Homeschool Day Book", and it has to be one of the easiest record keeping programs I have found, trust me, I've tried a lot. It is very simple to set up. I used their automated set up and just typed in my children's names, then I typed in my own set of classes (there was an option to use what is pre-installed, but I use different ones), and that was pretty much it. It keeps track of attendance, hours/minutes spent on a subject, and what you do for each subject. You can also print out reports to place in your portfolio's or whenever the need arises! It also offers the option to change the theme of the program between flat system, flat blue, gloss blue, gloss sliver, gloss dark, and gloss dark (purple).

All in all, this is a very easy to use, light program. It doesn't offer a ton of options that could be easily intimidating to some. It's nice, simple, and to the point. I see this being most beneficial to people who don't want or need a lot of bells and whistles. It offers a great approach of unschoolers! I also think this would be an extremely beneficial program for unschoolers in Missouri, since we have to track our hours instead of days.

They are offering a free trial of the complete program too! This way you can download it, and give it a whirl before you commit to buy! How great is that! :)

SO Busy here lately!

I've been deep in the "re-organization" world here lately! I decided I didn't like some of the ways we were doing things, so I took some time off to re-thing and re-organize. My goodness how long that took to go through everything! LOL I did find some wonderful resources along the way though :) I would love to let everyone out there know about Dynamic2Moms . This site has some absolutely wonderful things on it. It has a complete curriculum planner, lapbooks, as well as links to other pages of interest. This has to be one of my favorite sites! Their curriculum planner is absolutely wonderful, but they also let me tweak part of it to fit my needs here in Missouri a bit better, then listed it on their page too :) They also let me share a couple other pages I created on there. They are a fabulous bunch of girls!

Another site that I found and fell in love with is St Aiden's Homeschool . She has a ton of great freebies on her site. And when I say a ton, I really mean it! I have also bought some of her unit studies that I absolutely adore. This is really a good site to visit if you have the time!