Our Homeschool Curriculum 2014-2015

It has been nearly 2 years since I made my last blog post.  My life just got so busy that it became necessary to put my blogging aside for the time.

I just thought my followers would like to know what curriculum I'm using this year.  I like to read what other homeschoolers are using.  Mostly because I think the combinations people use are fascinating.  I've learned about a lot of new curricula that way.  I have 3 girls and I will call them by their nicknames.  I don't like going by graded levels, so for the sake of not putting them in a graded box, I will include their age instead.

Missy Boo, age 10

Language Arts: Living Literature by Cindy West. We really like this curriculum.  It is literature based and for grades 3-5.  It doesn't cover a full year so I've had to write my own lessons to go along with it to make it last an entire year using literature of our choosing.  I just used Cindy's LL as a model.  So far, I plan to use Little House in the Big Woods and By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder and anything else that we might find interesting.

Copywork: Most of her Copywork will be included in her Language Arts but she will also use our Scripture Memory verses.

Reading:  Some of the titles will be of her choosing, some will correlate with Living Literature and others will be from the 1000 Good Books List.

Math: Christian Light Education (CLE) Math 400.  This is our second year with this math program and she really likes it.  Honestly, in some areas I think this math is a little more advanced (as far as grade level) than other programs but I love how its laid out and how it allows her to be more independent with her math.
Plus Living Math!!

Geography:  Trail Guide to World Geography.  She requested that we use something for Mapping and Geography independent from all of our studies. I already had this in my home library, so I thought I'd use it.  I got it for Christmas from my mom (Thanks, mom!).  That lets you know how much of a nerd I am. The Teacher's Manual has the questions in it but it is really nice to just print the Daily Drill questions and maps from the CD-Rom.  If you plan to use this and have the money purchase the CD-Rom, it's worth it.

Art: Art with a Purpose: ArtPac4. While we love art it just always seems to be on the back burner.  I'm hoping that her using this independently will get it done.  It's our first year with this, so we'll see how it goes.  Really and truly, it's a great value for a whole year of art.
    She also has an art co-op class this fall (one day a week) and the it will be using lessons from this book: Discovering Great Artists.

Science:  Another co-op class this fall (one day a week) and we will be using Focus on Chemistry for grades 5-8.  

Piano: Alfred's Premier Piano Course 1A.  She got this for Christmas and has been DYING to use this.  We will begin this next month.

Fomowhop, Age 8

Language Arts: Learning Language Arts Through Literature- finish Red Book and Begin on Yellow Book.   

Reading: Some titles for reading will already be in LLATL but we will also use the Sonlight Grade 2 reading list (I bought the readers used for about 1/3 of the new price) and 1000 Good Books List. 

Copywork: Most of her copywork is in LLATL but she will also be using her Scripture Memory Verses for copywork.

Penmanship: A Reason for Handwriting C.  I bought this for $1 at our homeschool group's used book sale.  Only a few of the cursive letter practice pages were missing.  If I need practice pages I can use the Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker. Its FREE!

Math:  Christian Light Education (CLE) Math 200. 
Plus Living Math!!

Geography: Co-op class this fall (one day a week). She will be learning about US State facts and mapping.

Art: Art with a Purpose: ArtPac3

Science: Co-op class this fall.  She will be studying Hands-on Physics but I have no idea what curriculum-- if any-- that the teacher will use.

Missy Boo and Fomowhop Together

Five in a Row.  We will be using a random selection of books from Volumes 1-4 and studying according to the season or whatever strikes our fancy.

Bible: Finish Foundations 1: Creation to Christ and begin Foundations 2: Christ our Messiah.

Netts, Age 3 

Don't think I'm going to go out and buy a complete all-on-one preschool program with additional bells and whistles.  That's just not for me.  I've learned my lesson with little ones.  Learning comes naturally for them and they learn best through play.  I simply need ideas for fun activities and learning moments.  I'm mostly including a list of books that I will use for inspiration.  I bought all of these books used (except the ebooks on Currclick and they were on sale) so this is an inexpensive preschool "program" that I can use for the next couple of years.

Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner- using the Preschool section

Toddler's Busy Book and Preschooler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

365 Days to a Smarter Preschooler

Science is Simple by Peggy Ashbrook

Before Five in a Row

The Little Hands Art Book by Judy Press

What to Teach before the Numbers by Amazing Grace Learning Centers

What to Teach before the Letters Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Amazing Grace Learning Centers

Homeschooling the Early Years by Linda Dobson

Our State Study

This year as we study Early American History with Adventures in My Father's World we are also doing a state study. Yes, there is one with Adventures but it was just so boring so we came up with our own.  We spend 2 days on each state. 

My 2nd grader has her own notebook that is for our history and geography.  I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of her notebook.

We have a United States Map in the front of our state pages.  When we "visit" a state, it gets colored in.  It looks like we still have a long way to go.

Next is our notebooking pages about the state.  This page is on Georgia, our first state to study.   I use mini post-it notes on the first page to mark each state for easy reference. There are a lot of great state study pages for free.  This Squidoo Lens has alot of great options.  The one I used is the last notebooking page set "Two Page State Layout".
This is Page 1.  You can use this set for any state.  Instead of getting her to draw and color the state flag I used a great product that I'll tell you about a little later.

Page 2.  This is for Tennessee.  We actually got to visit Tennessee on a recent family trip.  While we were there we visited the Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville (see the pic).  We used the brochure to enhance our page. 

State Coloring Page.  There are lots out there.  You can google "Mississippi flag coloring page" or whatever state you're studying and get several great options,  but these are my favorites.

Another great coloring page.  My Kindergartener loves coloring pages and it makes it more bearable for her who finds this type of study very tedious.  Again you can google this, "Alabama State Coloring Page" and get some good options.  Here is the one I use.

Pictured above are our state study packs.  Each bag has a printable element to complete our state study.  Bag #1 State Seals; Bag #2 State Birds and Flowers; Bag #3 State flags.  Our state notebooking pages requires all of these and I made it easy for my 2nd grader to be able to just open the bag she needs, cut out the specific state and paste it onto the notebooking page.  NotebookingPages.com has a great product for this.  I like the convenience of having this already printed out and ready to use.  For the label I just cut out the label for the first page of each set and package taped it onto my bag.  Easy Peasy.  We kept the bags in the front pocket of our 2" think 3 ring binder.

For facts and information my favorite resource is America the Beautiful, third series from Scholastic.  Each state has it's own book and they are expensive ($30 EACH!!).  I would just plan ahead and request them from my local library.  Don't worry, if you're library doesn't have this set, there are plenty of great reference books out there to choose from.  You just have to do some research.

So far we are really liking this set up.  I hope I've inspired some great ideas for a future state studies.

US Presidents Study

Notebooking Nook has a new product on Currclick.com about notebooking the Us Presidents.  With it being in election season, this is such a great time to learn more about our US Presidents past and present.  Here is my 5 star review for Presidents of the United States Notebooking Pages



"This is one notebooking product that will be used over and over through the years. Learning about our presidents is an important part of our american history and being able to notebook about it is even better. This is a current and complete file of all the US Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. It's also massive with a total of 489 pages! Each page is "themed" meaning that it's heading is for a particular president. No generic pages here except for the Cabinet member form which is the last page in the download. There are 11 pages dedicated to each president with an assortment of regular and primary lines. Now your middle schooler, high schooler and your elementary student can notebook on the same topic. All pages are adorned with the Seal of the President of the United States and most have "doodle boxes" to illustrate important facts. There is even a fact page for each president to record date, death, marriage, children, years served, etc. Another thing I love is that this download comes with a Table of Contents. I know that's an odd thing to point out but it's so handy to be able to print the table of contents and put it in a file and know in a glance (without having to turn on the computer) what notebooking files you have on the computer.

Reasons for 5 star rating:
* Table of Contents
* Regular and Primary lines.
* 11 pages for each president including fact page
* Nicely laid out pages and images
* Good value for the money"
Right now it's only $1.00.  It's regular price is $4.99.  I love a  good deal. 
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



More great links to check out for US Presidents study

President Notebooking by Notebooking Pages.com They usually do a good job but it's usually alot more expensive. 

FREEBIE: Notebooking Fairy  I can always count on the Notebooking Fairy to have great free pages.  These are generic pages.  Although that could come in handy.  You can print out a bunch and save it in a notebook.

FREEBIE: Activity Village  Famous person/US Presidents.  Not all presidents, just a few but it's free.

FREEBIE: Homeschool Share Lapbooking Oddles and Oddles of links for lapbook printables with pictures

FREEBIE: Unit Study by another homeschool mom.  Geared toward elementary students.

FREEBIE: Homeschool Helper Online  Lots of great pages and not just for presidents.


~~Happy Homeschooling