Ooohhh I so meant to be all put-together. We are usually back in session by now. But can you believe it – I haven’t ordered a single book yet for this upcoming school year? We typically start in late July so we can take a week off around labor day, another week around Thanksgiving, a couple weeks around Christmas… etc. We work hard, so we break often.
If you’re not a homeschooler, the rest of the post will make your eyes roll back in your head. Come back tomorrow for Sweet Shot Tuesday!
Both older boys together: 5th and 3rd-ish/4th-ish grade – ages 10 and 8/9:
Grammar – Growing with Grammar
Spelling – Spelling Wisdom
Writing – not sure yet! We own both Writing Tales and IEW (“Institute for Excellence in Writing“).
Science – Real Science 4 Kids, Biology.
History – Kingfisher Ency of History, Story of the World Vol. 1 – Ancients. Activity book + lit based period fiction
Logic – The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning
Economics – Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?
Reading – various books based on interest, history supplements, etc.
Art – they take various classes at the museum
Music – private music lessons
5th Grade – age 10
Math – Singapore Primary Math 5a, 5b, Intensive Practice, Challenging Word Problems 4
3rd-ish / 4th-ish Grade – age 8 / 9
Math – Singapore Primary Math 3b, 4a, Intensive Practice, Challenging Word Problems 2
Trouble’s school year
My little guy has his own timeline of learning, so this is what I’ve got planned, or what resources we’ll continue using:
Handwriting Without Tears
Explode the Code a, b, c
Bob Books
Kumon – various workbooks for pencil work
Math – my own put together curriculum using mostly manipulatives
lots and lots of reading together (Mommy loves lap time with books!)
Looking over that list, it’s ambitious. Realistically we tend to fold in subjects as the year progresses. Week 1 is usually grammar, math and history. Each week we fold in another subject so we’re in full swing by fall. We typically finish by Memorial Day.
This blog hop used to be hosted here at Life with my 3 Boybarians. We’ve moved this year! This post is linked to the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter. Come be a part of the biggest collection of resources by homeschool blogs in the blogosphere! These posts generate a LOT of traffic and interest in what would otherwise be behind closed doors. Come join other homeschool families no matter what style of homeschooling you do – and check out what other families are up to! I can’t wait to see what you’ve put together.
Wishing you all a fun and successful year!
thanks so much for doing the blog hop! I am so enjoying seeing what everyone is doing!!
Stef
http://laytonfamilyjoy.com
We loved ETC. Aren’t your boys a bit young for Fallacy detective? We did it last year 8th/9th. Some of it was over MY head!
Not sure yet. I planned to spread it out over 5th, 6th, 7th. It’s 38 lessons. So i was thinking ~12 a year for 3 years. My 10 yr old does tend to work above grade, so if we start to lose him, I’m perfectly fine with holding off. My 8 yr old read the first chapter the day it arrived and was laughing at it – no idea if he gained anything or not.
Good to know to expect it to be meaty and that we may need to shelve it.
Thanks!
Darcy, Looks good! Better to be too ambitious than to come up short-handed. Have fun with the history based fiction!
Sounds like a good plan! I’ve had my eye on the Econ book, please let me know how you liked it. Thanks!
I haven’t ordered anything either. By my calculations, we still have a good four weeks before we finish the curriculum we’re working on now. I’ll order new stuff after that and we’ll take a short break while I look through everything, do some planning and get it everything switched over for the new school year.
You can do it!! Book delivery is so fun for me, I am not ashamed of being a nerd! At least you know what you want! Thanks for starting this, I have my calendar marked, and am thinking of a good spot for school pictures already!
I haven’t ordered mine yet, either, and I’m still not 100% on what curriculum we’re using! ACK! But I only have one to worry about. I just don’t know if I could do two, much less three! : )
I’ve never heard of the economics book but the amazon reviews look interesting! I’m having trouble figuring out what to do for writing too — is that another form of writer’s block? : )
Writing is so hard for me. I’m not entirely sure my boys are ready to really study writing. I am torn between nailing down some grammar and spelling better first, or letting them sink or swim with a writing curriculum.
I’ll be eager to see what you decide…
Looks like a great year. I’m going to have to check out that penny candy book. I’ve seen it twice now and I’m intrigued.
Darcy, I just can’t believe how time flies. You don’t have babies any more! Your line up looks great (as expected). I kinda laughed at the “Spelling with Wisdom” for Spelling Wisdom’s title. I wish I COULD spell with wisdom. Ha
Crapola! Fixed.
That’s what I get for copying and pasting. Good editing eye, Kysha!
Wow, I wish there had been a blogosphere of homeschoolers when I was home schooling! I’ll keep it in mind for when I have kids.
Your little guy’s year sounds a lot like my little guys year. I wish your and your boys the best year!
I’ve been looking at curriculum all summer online. The Science curriculum you’re using was one I’ve been looking at too (thanks to your recommendation earlier) and it looks exciting. We love Story of The World too. I’m still trying to figure out if I want to do another year of piecing curriculum together myself or just got with My Father’s World.
Thank you for sharing your curriculum lineup. I have found such great books through your recommendations in the past.
Re: Real Science 4 Kids – I met Dr. Keller at a conference. I know not everyone gets a chance to do that, but after meeting her and listening to her talk about the reasoning behind the scope and sequence, I was sold. Then she talked about the cogs she has planned – interdisciplinary work – and I was really sold. We’ll see how it goes!
Happy schooling to you!
Just had to pop back in – I was able to download the Chemistry Level 1 books from Gravitas (great money saving option). We love it and my boys are now begging me to do Chemistry and getting all antsy-antsy in anticipation of working through the experiments. Thank you for your original post about this curriculum. I’ve never been able to make it to a homeschool convention and have found word-of-mouth (especially from my favorite bloggers
) to be invaluable in putting together a set of curriculum that works for us. I am going to be downloading the KOGS next and am so excited for the rest of this year.
You have IEW.. I was just looking at that two days ago! Do you like it? Is it worth the price tag? Is there anything I should know about it? You know, the sort of thing you don’t know until you get it home?
Not sure yet Krystal. We started it last year and it was too over their heads. I watched the DVDs and learned a ton. My boys were not ready. I think it’s a good program, but I think it’s pretty advanced for the age group they say it is.
My son will be a 5th grader; he may be ready this year. He wasn’t last year.
Writing Tales seems gentler. But the DVDs from IEW sure are convenient.
Good to know. I was thinking is sounded like too much, even though it says you can start at 2nd. I think I will wait until they are older. Thanks! I’ll ask later in the school year how you are liking it.
Thanks for this blog hop. It is so fun reading and seeing what others are doing. I’m thinking about using Singapore Math this year. I’ve looked into IEW a couple of years ago after seeing Andrew Pudewa at a HS conference. I am thinking of using it when mine are Jr High and up. They aren’t ready yet. HWT is my favorite writing curriculum. Looks like you have a great year planned. I pray it is a successful school year for you guys.
Thanks for sharing some of your gems for the upcoming year! There are so many resources I wouldn’t have known about if not for blogging
Jenn
Hi Darcy,
I was wondering that for my kindergartners do i need to buy only the singapore math workbooks or also the teacher’s guide.
I am pretty good in maths myself and my daughters are already half way through CBSE (indian syllabus) first grade maths, so i did not want to buy the teachr’s guide if not essential.
I also tried kumon simple addition workbook: its terrific.
Shruti