Let me start by saying, I recently finished the "Teaching from Rest" book that many homeschoolers have been raving about. I really liked it! It was nice and short and it was nice to hear things I've often believed/felt coming from someone else. Even though there are a lot of Catholic references, I still found it applicable. I think even a secular homeschooler would get a lot out of it. When it comes down to it, I think all of us want the same thing - a peaceful learning experience. Harmony in the home. Making relationships with our kids the primary focus.
That said, my older student is very much ready for a heavier work load. He finishes very quickly and is a good student in most every subject. So the challenge for him is not backing off, but rather finding enough material to engage him. I feel like I'm always trying to catch up to him, rather then the other way around. With my younger student we will continue to take more of a "Teaching from Rest" approach. She's starting to slowly transition to a fuller schedule though as well.
The biggest change to our curriculum this year has been switching to Voyages in English for language arts. I appreciate how thorough and well organized it is (I LOVE the daily schedule. I wish every curriculum came with one exactly in this format!), and that the format is colourful and engaging. It has been the most user friendly writing curriculum we've ever used and my only regret is not starting it sooner (goes from Kindergarten to Grade 8). Well worth every penny! Besides that, I think next year will be almost identical to this year which should really help with keeping things moving smoothly.
We came across a hiccup though. The writing portion was at just the right level, but we found the grammar portion was harder to retain since we haven't done a lot of grammar. So we will either have to do some remedial grammar and keep going with the writing material separately, or figure something else out. Either way, still very happy with Voyages in English and hope to continue using the program.
I also didn't start with Visual Latin yet because we need to work on more grammar first before we get started with that. Hopefully soon!
It seems like there is a lot of excitement out there building about a new curriculum called "The Good and the Beautiful". After going through a lot of the samples and the free PDF downloads (some of the entire levels are free, worth checking out) and initially getting very excited about it... I've decided we will probably not be using this curriculum. At least not the whole of it. I think we may use the handwriting, creative notebook and typing. I do love the beautiful illustrations and paintings, those are hard to resist! But the quality of the content is not as good as other curriculum. In an effort to stick to "clean" literature I think it ended up a bit too whitewashed and boring. From what I've read on the Well Trained Mind forum a lot of others have shared these same opinions. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people that jump headfirst into this curriculum end up quitting it in a year or two. That said, many of the PDF's are free so why not just try out the free stuff first and avoid buyers regret?
Grade 7
That said, my older student is very much ready for a heavier work load. He finishes very quickly and is a good student in most every subject. So the challenge for him is not backing off, but rather finding enough material to engage him. I feel like I'm always trying to catch up to him, rather then the other way around. With my younger student we will continue to take more of a "Teaching from Rest" approach. She's starting to slowly transition to a fuller schedule though as well.
The biggest change to our curriculum this year has been switching to Voyages in English for language arts. I appreciate how thorough and well organized it is (I LOVE the daily schedule. I wish every curriculum came with one exactly in this format!), and that the format is colourful and engaging. It has been the most user friendly writing curriculum we've ever used and my only regret is not starting it sooner (goes from Kindergarten to Grade 8). Well worth every penny! Besides that, I think next year will be almost identical to this year which should really help with keeping things moving smoothly.
We came across a hiccup though. The writing portion was at just the right level, but we found the grammar portion was harder to retain since we haven't done a lot of grammar. So we will either have to do some remedial grammar and keep going with the writing material separately, or figure something else out. Either way, still very happy with Voyages in English and hope to continue using the program.
I also didn't start with Visual Latin yet because we need to work on more grammar first before we get started with that. Hopefully soon!
It seems like there is a lot of excitement out there building about a new curriculum called "The Good and the Beautiful". After going through a lot of the samples and the free PDF downloads (some of the entire levels are free, worth checking out) and initially getting very excited about it... I've decided we will probably not be using this curriculum. At least not the whole of it. I think we may use the handwriting, creative notebook and typing. I do love the beautiful illustrations and paintings, those are hard to resist! But the quality of the content is not as good as other curriculum. In an effort to stick to "clean" literature I think it ended up a bit too whitewashed and boring. From what I've read on the Well Trained Mind forum a lot of others have shared these same opinions. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people that jump headfirst into this curriculum end up quitting it in a year or two. That said, many of the PDF's are free so why not just try out the free stuff first and avoid buyers regret?
Grade 7
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Spelling: All About Spelling
Grammar: Voyages in English by Loyolla Press
Handwriting: Getty-Dubay Italics
Writing: Voyages in English by Loyolla Press
Creative Writing: Voyages in English by Loyolla Press
Vocabulary: Michael Clay Thompson
Advanced Phonics: Megawords by EPS, and reading McGuffey's Eclectic Readers.
Literary Analysis: Mosdos Press
Reading: Still working on making a list.
Extra L.A.:
- Poetics by Michael Clay Thompson
Math: CLE (Christian Light Education)
History: A mix of Story of the World, Mystery of History, church history novel set, and Human Odyssey K12. We love history around here so we just fill our plate and enjoy slowly - as long as it takes. :) I'm more interested in covering more events/people and less interested in finishing a certain curriculum "on time". History isn't part of the local school curriculum here anyways, so anything we do is bonus. We will be focusing on the Middle Ages and early Church history this year.
Science:
- CPO Life Science and starting Physical Science
- Last year we did Mystery Science with both kids together. We finished most of the applicable modules and I'm not sure if we'll continue with it anymore. It's great though, and the kids loved it!! The format is perfect. Just not sure it's worth paying for another year since we did almost all of them already.
- TOPS Learning Systems - hoping to get to "Corn and Beans" and maybe one or two others next year.
- Some reading selections from Guesthollow Botany
- Various scientist biographies (probably DK Biographies)
- Nature journaling based on "Nature Connection" book. Nature studies are really important to me, I want to make this a priority.
Socials/Geography: still working on it
- CNN 10 Student News Videos on iTunes
- ArtK12 Draw United States
- Reading selections from Guesthollow Geography Book List
Also several reading selections from this list.
-Montessori Style Country Boxes or theme weeks (ideas on Pinterest). So far I have a lot for China. So if we even only do one country study this year, China will be it.
-Documentaries and travel shows about different countries
Latin
- Visual Latin video online subscription with the activities
German
- Homemade vocabulary and verb flash cards based on the book "Fluent Forever"
- "Wilkommen in Deutschland" and "Nico's Weg"
- Memrise App. This is the best language learning resources I've come across yet. I'm bilingual and most language learning curriculum I've come across seems to be a waste of time to me, this one is an exception. It really works (at least for spoken language).
Art:
- Atelier Art DVD based art teaching program, probably level 5. The kids would do this together. (This one I haven't tried out yet so I'm not sure it will work out or not. I think this year we will focus more on art history and next year do more actual art techniques)
- We are doing "A Child's History of Art" curriculum by Calvert alongside our history studies.
- Mike Venezia biographies on various famous artists
- Montessori style art history with Child-size Masterpieces cards
- "The Artists's Specials" DVD set
Bible: Still working on it. Want to incorporate early church history during the Renaissance.
- Scripture Memory system from Simply Charlotte Mason
Typing: MAC Typing Instructor App and/or The Good and The Beautiful Typing.
Music Appreciation: Mike Venezia's composer biography series, listening to various composer's, The Composer's Specials DVDs.
- I think we're going to give SQUILT a try! When I first tried it a couple years ago I wasn't impressed, but now that the kids are older I think it will be a good fit.
Health and Careers:
These are optional... we do a lot of informal nutrition, so we might not get to these.
- Janice VanCleave's Food and Nutrition for Every Kid (experiments)
- probably "Gods Design" series
Extra Units: (OPTIONAL, as time allows)
- Economics (Janice Van Cleave book)
- Filmmaking/Animation (Khan Academy, and maybe some other sources)
- Architecture (resources from Rainbow Resource)
- short reading list on history of health and disease
- biographies for free reading time, from this list
PhysEd: gymnastics and swimming
Grade 3
LANGUAGE ARTS
Grammar: Haven't decided yet... might be First Language Lessons with the goal of eventually moving over to Voyages in English by Loyolla.
Spelling: All About Spelling
Handwriting: Zaner-Bloser, switch to Getty Dubay?
Writing: Voyages in English by Loyolla
Phonics: All About Reading mainly, Explode the Code as supplement if needed.
Reading: Penguin Young Readers
Math: CLE with extra manipulatives. Might add in some Montessori Math or math resources from the Well Trained Mind press (like the "Math Facts that Stick" series).
Social Studies and Geography:
- still working on it. Would like to do something Montessori inspired.
History:
- Story of the World
German
- Homemade vocabulary flash cards based on "Fluent Forever" book. My daughter really loves this.
Art:
- Atelier DVD based art instruction (maybe)
- Child Size Masterpieces Montessori style. This is one of the new discoveries I've recently made, and I love it! It's deceptively simple. Yet it helps teach art analysis skills that are sometimes not learned until college. It's meant for younger children but I think it can suit any age.
- nature journalling
Science:
- Mystery Science together with her brother (maybe)
- TOPS Science kits (Lentil Science if I can ever finish getting it together... this is seriously the most demanding prep work of any curriculum I've ever used, EVER. Hope it's worth it!)
- Science reading and writing from "The Well Trained Mind". (Most likely!)
Bible:
- "What's in the Bible?" DVDs
- "Telling Gods Story", together with either "Bible Road Trip" or "Picture Smart Bible" (together with brother)
Music Appreciation:
- reading Mike Venezia composer biographies
- The Composer's Specials DVD
Health: reading books
PhysEd: gymnastics, swimming and Ballet
