Our 2011-2012 School Year

This post is for families who homeschool or just interested in seeing what we try to accomplish in a year. I've had several people suggest I post what type of curriculum I use for school so other families can see what homeschooling is like. We have only completed one year of homeschooling, so I am in no way an expert. I have received lots of advice from other homeschooling families, from websites, and homeschooling conventions. I am learning some subjects right along with my kids as I teach them. Last year I used mostly ABeka and Saxon since my kids had used that at their private school they had previously attended. We were very happy with those two curriculum choices, but we wanted to try something new. We have joined a program called Classical Conversations(CC for short) which you can read more about at http://www.classicalconversations.com/. We will be meeting with a local community of CC every week for 24 weeks this year. I am looking forward to it and what my kids and I will learn from other homeschooling families.

Here is what our year will look like:

Bible-
Character Building for Families (Both) This a great book that uses specific character traits (ex: truthfulness) and then uses the Bible to illustrate that character trait. It guides the parent with a script on what you can ask your children to make sure they are comprehending the verses and the meaning behind the story/verse. There are also 1-2 bible verses that they would memorize with each character trait. I used this part of last year.

Language -
ABeka Language 3, Spelling 3 (Nicholas)
Essentials of the English Language (Victoria)
Our Mother Tongue: A Guide to English Grammar (Victoria)
IEW for writing (Victoria)
U.S. History Based Writing Lessons IEW (Victoria)
Vocabulary from Classical Roots (Victoria)

Reading-
I don't assign reading books. We go to the library every couple of weeks. My kids read a lot! I am fortunate that I not need to motivate them to read. If I want them to read a book, I will simply leave it lying around and one of them will pick it up and start reading. They get reading comprehension from their history, science, and language assignments. They like to tell Allan and I about the books they've read verbally as well. I will probably have them also do a few simple book reports.

Math-
Saxon Math 3 (Nicholas)
Saxon Math 6/5 (Victoria)

History-
We are studying U.S. History this year and will check out many biographies and books on U.S. history.
ABeka Our American Heritage (Nicholas)
Story of the World Vol. 3 & 4
Veritas Press History Timeline Series (from Old Testament to Present)

Geography-
will learn to draw and memorize all 50 states and their capitals

Science-
Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards: Anatomy, Chemistry, & Origins
201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre & Incredible Experiments
My Body
We will also check out other books at the library on the human anatomy & chemistry. We'll be doing at least one science experiment per week with Classical Conversations. My kids love to do experiments, so I bought 10 experiment books for them to tinker with. I have just have to monitor Nicholas.

Extra-
Health for the Glory of God by Rod & Staff (both)
Choir (Victoria)
Piano (both)
Art - Drawing with Children (both), Discovering Great Artists (both), Classical Music for Dummies (both), will learn to play the tin whistle with Classical Conversations
P.E. - hiking, roller blading, biking, running, flag football(Nick), basketball, and other large motor skill activities
Computer - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Version 18
Latin - through our Classical Conversations program we will learn John 1:1-7 in Latin

As I scroll back through this list it seems like a lot. We'll see what we can accomplish. We are not planning on going through each book entirely in one year. I left out a little of what we'll be doing with Classical Conversations. The CC program is lots of memory work for all the main subjects (Math, English, History, Science, Geography, and Latin). They'll be memorizing weekly grammar sentences or words in each subject which will help them as they get older and need that specific piece of information. Also, for hands-on projects they do a weekly science project and something with the arts as part of the CC program.

I pray that most importantly I rely on Christ in everything I do and say with my kids in teaching them this year. I am excited about our second year of homeschooling!!