OUR HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES 2014-15: REVISED

The best thing about homeschooling is having the ability to change our minds…and our homeschool curriculum choices. I have said over and over that homeschooling provides the most amazing of opportunities, one of which is the freedom to choose curriculum that best suits our kids.  If something isn’t working…we can change it! We don’t have to have it approved by a board or anything, we just change it.  It’s awesome.  And something that should be fully taken advantage of.

After receiving some of our curriculum in the mail, I knew it wouldn’t be a good match for my kids, so I switched it.  Our curriculum list looks quite a bit different then my first curriculum post, so I wanted to update you.  I used my original post here and made the updates beside my original choices.

Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices…revised

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A R T: We’ll be studying 1-2 different famous artists per month.  I’ll be using various books and websites, but these will be my main go-to’s:

• Discovering Great Artists
• The Children’s Book of Art
• Getting to Know the Great Artists series 
• Name that Style
• Master Kitz
• Deep Space Sparkle blog

N A T U R E   S T U D Y: We love Shining Dawn book’s nature study guides.  I haven’t decided exactly which one’s we’ll be using, but I love the idea of this Autumn Bundle.

M A T H:  Teaching Textbooks PreAlgebra  Saxon 7/6  I have looked over a ton of math curriculums and Saxon always wins for us.  Noah is just not overly excited about Teaching Textbooks.  The Saxon is working well for us so far.

S P E L L I N G: Spelling Workout

H A N D W R I T I N G: Horizons Penmanship  Evan Moore’s Daily Cursive Practice

G R A M M A R: Daily Grams

W R I T I N G: Write Source (with ToG)  Writing with Skill: Level 1  I found this when we were a week into school and it was love at first sight.  The lessons are quick and painless and Noah has learned a ton already.  I’ll try to do a full review sometime this semester.

J O U R N A L: Draw + Write Through History

 

 

M A T H: Saxon 3

S P E L L I N G: Spelling Workout

H A N D W R I T I N G: Handwriting Without Tears (This has  been a fabulous handwriting book!)

G R A M M A R: Easy Grammar

J O U R N A L: Draw, Write…Now

M A T H: Horizons 1  Saxon 2  Sophia is really bright when it comes to math concepts and I felt like Horizons wasn’t systematic enough for her little brain.  We’re really liking this so far this year.

H A N D W R I T I N G:  Handwriting Without Tears

P H O N I C S: Explode the Code and Hooked on Phonics Grade One

J O U R N A L: Draw, Write…Now

Because you know we need help too!

Loving Living Math by Cindy West: I found this book right before school started and I cannot tell you how much this book has changed our math.  We have loved doing more living math in our homeschool.  It’s been so awesome!

Big Book of Homeschooling Ideas: This book is a great reference to all sorts of questions I have all the time.  Yes, I had a little part in writing this book, but it’s written by 54 other great homeschool mamas of different experience and backgrounds.  We all need a little well-rounded advice from time to time…or a lot of the time.

Charlotte Mason Homeschooling: This is a great book for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers or if you want to know more about Charlotte Mason homeschooling.  Very straight-forward information, easy to page through and very informational.

A Charlotte Mason Education: I love this book and I haven’t read it for a few years, so I need to change that and reread it.  I love easy-to-read instruction guides.  I don’t know if this makes sense, but I can’t handle too many words. I starts to make me twitchy.  I like straight-forward.  Catherine Levison has a great series on Charlotte Mason and this is my favorite.

The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles: I cannot say enough good things about this book.  It is an absolute must-own as a homeschool mama.  Carol Barnier is an excellent speaker and she has such great ideas.  This book is a subject-by-subject guide to teaching your kids in different ways that will help them learn their way.

Mrs. Hutchinson’s Lesson Planner: I mean…you gotta have a good planner, right!?

Mrs. Hutchinson’s Classroom Guides: Ok, I’m a little biased, but these guides are super helpful for organizing your homeschool, choosing curriculum, planning your year, getting started, and more.

I’m starting a month-long series on Wednesday.  Every day for the month of October, I’ll be posting about creating a simpler home and school.  We all want that, right? Simpler.  While multiple kids, full lives, and an endless list of things to do are always there, we can have simple too.  I have a whole month of posts planned out.  I can’t wait to share…this is going to be so fun!