School plans

The other day, my friend Michelle wrote about her 2011-2012 curriculum choices. I thought that was a great idea-- I know that as a homeschooling mom I always appreciate hearing about what other moms are using-- so I thought I would join in. (Lisa, you're next, right???)

For the past 2 years, I've used Heart of Dakota programs, and I have loved them. I hope to do a review on both of the programs we've used sometime soon, as I think they are a great fit for new homeschooling families or for families with fewer students in the younger elementary grades. This year I will have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grader here at home, so finding programs that allowed for easy combining of grades or programs that run without heavy involvement on my part were key in my search and necessitated a transition away from Heart of Dakota.

 

History/Literature: Beautiful Feet Early American History* for all 3 kids

I chose this because it is a time period I love for younger learners, recommended for K-3rd grade (perfect for us!), very flexible in its schedule (which will come in handy since the majority of our Fridays are already committed to the CFA Friday Program), and includes a whole host of books that I've been looking for a reason to purchase anyway (I love the D'Aulaire books!).

 

Science: Science in Colonial America, A Pioneer Sampler, and Keeping a Nature Journal for all 3 kids

These books are not standard science textbooks, which is exactly why I chose them! (To be fair, I strongly considered using one of the Apologia elementary grade science programs, but decided against it in favor of books that will better coincide with our history studies. I do hope to try out some of the Apologia programs in the next few years, though, because I've heard wonderful things about them.) I am excited to lay a foundation-- and hopefully inspire curiosity and interest-- through nature and home-centered explorations, hopefully making science in the early years more about discovery and less about reading.

 

Reading: Beautiful Feet Early American History Intermediate Literature Pack* for Gabriel & Bronwyn, A Home Start in Reading & an old set of A Beka readers for Jack

Gabriel & Bronwyn are both easily reading at a 5th-6th grade level so I knew we could supplement our core history/literature program with extra reading, and since Beautiful Feet has an intermediate book list covering the same time early American time period, it made sense to do so. I've already started accumulating books from the list used through amazon and ebay, and they look great.

 

Handwriting: Getty & Dubay Italic Handwriting Book D for Gabriel & Bronwyn, Getty & Dubay Italic Handwriting Series Book B for Jack

I started using this program on a whim when Gabriel was in 1st grade (it was kind of an eeny-meeny-miny-moe type of thing). I don't know if it's the program or just that my children inherited some of my OCD tendencies, but their handwriting is progressing well, so we're continuing with the series. It's painless and seems to work.

 

Grammar: English from the Roots Up* for Gabriel & Bronwyn

I think I'm more excited about this than anything else I'm purchasing! I have a feeling it will not only be useful for the kids, but for me, too! I love that it is great for students of all ages, is flexible in its scheduling, and will provide a great foundation.

 

Math: Teaching Textbooks 4 for Gabriel, Teaching Textbooks 3 for Bronwyn, The Complete Book of Math Grades 1-2 for Jack

Gabriel has used Singapore Math for the past two years and Bronwyn used it her first year. It's been a good fit for Gabriel, but it wasn't a great fit for Bronwyn (which was why she used The Complete Book of Math Grades 1-2 this past year), and while it worked well for Gabriel, I do feel that some of its less-than-standard American progressions/explanations have put him at a disadvantage when it comes to recognizing standard arithmetic equations, not to mention that it's required that I sit with him through almost every lesson because the textook doesn't do a great job of explaining the concepts. Teaching Textbooks has been highly recommended to me, especially by moms of several homeschooling children, so I'm excited to try it!

When it came to choosing a math program for Jackson, I felt like it was a no-brainer. The Complete Book of Math gave Bronwyn (my less than mathematically oriented child) such a solid foundation in such a straight-forward manner that I couldn't think of any reason to try something else with Jack!

 

* I anticipate using these programs for 2 years since they are designed to be flexible and I want to get as much out of them as possible. Depending on how things go, I may try to use the science books for 2 years, as well, so that we can best coordinate the things we study in science with our history lessons.