Our curriculum choices 2012-2013

It’s that time of year again!

This will be our 15th year of home education, but I still enjoy looking through the catalogs to see what’s offered to homeschool parents.  You would think that after all this time and home educating our eldest from birth to graduation (Dec 2010), I would have it all figured out. Nope! There’s always room for improvement. There is also always time to revamp and re-do our choices.

Some items are a mainstay in our home education. We began our home education journey with Rod and Staff curriculum completely. I wanted to be sure I gave Rebecca a well-rounded and full education, so we ordered everything Rod and Staff offered for 1st grade (they do not have a kindergarten curriculum per se, but do have a wonderful set of workbooks to prepare your 4-5 year old for formal education). Once Thomas joined our home education program, I quickly saw that all the workbook sheets were too much for him. He’s my only son, with three sisters, but he still dislikes writing. I well remember one day when he was in 1st grade, his asking me if he “had to write his whole name too?” It was simply too much writing for him, so we made some changes.

We spent three wonderful years with Laura Ingalls and her family using the Prairie Primer. Rebecca, Thomas, and I were all sad to say good-bye to the Ingalls family. The unit study approach was our new favorite! I remember telling my Honey one evening while we were talking about our day that, “This is what homeschooling should always be like.” We all really learned a lot following all of the “bunny trails” with the Primer.

We went back to our book approach when we completed the Prairie Primer as we were in the middle of a huge move from SW Florida to Tennessee. Mama needed something a bit less labor-intensive as there were so many other things pulling me in different directions. We tried Switched on Schoolhouse and were very disappointed in the quality of education and information from it. Some really like that approach, it just wasn’t for us. Rebecca commented to me one day during a History lesson that she had learned more from reading her American Girl books than the short 3 days’ worth of lessons in SOS History. Needless to say, we quickly got rid of SOS!

For the 2012-2013 school year, I will have Natalie in 9th grade and Mary in 5th grade. For the most part, I have decided what we will be using. However, I have not planned out our full year yet, so I may make some last minute changes.

A portion of our schoolbooks for the upcoming year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the courses where we have made definite choices:

 Natalie’s 9th grade choices:

Math U See Algebra I

Apologia Physical Science

Beautiful Feet Guide Ancient History Through Literature (English and History)

Exploring Tennessee (Notgrass) (Natalie is doing this study along with Mary as we did not complete this earlier in her school career)

Easy Grammar Ultimate

Rod and Staff Bible 9

 

Mary’s 5th grade choices:

Math U See Delta

Apologia Exploring Creation Through Anatomy & Physiology (using lapbook journal as well)

Rod and Staff Reading- A Time to Plant

Rod and Staff  5th Grade Spelling

Easy Grammar Plus (second half of book)

Exploring Tennessee (Notgrass)

Rod and Staff 5th Grade English

 

All six of us are planning to use Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish, including Daddy who has wanted to learn Spanish for some time so he can communicate with the cleaning lady at work who speaks Spanish and little English. (They have been teaching each other a word per week of their respective languages!)

Our curriculum choices are still a bit of a work in progress. Quite honestly, August has snuck up on me and I’m not completely prepared yet. We did not complete the last school year until the end of June, so we are still enjoying our {busy} summer break!

Of course, one of the best parts of back to school time is school supply shopping! I love school supplies about as much as I do office supplies. There’s nothing like new pens, pencils, notebooks, crayons, etc. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about you? Have you finalized your plans? What grades are you teaching this school year?