Can you believe (not) Back to School time is upon us already? The last of our curriculum orders arrived last week and our homeschool planning is underway.
Last year was a fantastic year in our homeschool for several reasons. First of all, we went from a homeschool of one to a homeschool of two: The Boy and Prissy are both at the table now. Secondly, we’ve finally locked in on the best methods for us; that’s a huge relief! Lastly, we gained a schoolroom. It really was a great year for us, but we’re looking forward to an even better 2015-2016 homeschool year.
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One of the reasons we’re looking forward to a great year is that we have some awesome curriculum choices awaiting us! Here’s a look at the resources we’re using this year:
Preschool
Prissy will turn four years-old during this school year. What a perfect time to break out God’s Little Explorers. Her year will primarily be built around this and I already know she’s going to love it.
I also plan to mix in Brookdale House’s Look What I Can Do! from week to week. I was blessed to grab it while it was available for free earlier in the year and it will be a great complement to God’s Little Explorers. Prissy’s got great things in store, that’s for sure!
5th Grade
The Boy’s year will center around Year 2 of Illuminations, which focuses on the early church and the Middle Ages. Because of that, Mystery of History, Volume II and The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide will be major players in The Boy’s 5th grade year. I’ve already spent some time learning my way around Illuminations and can tell we are in for an amazing adventure!
Language Arts
The Boy is so excited that Brookdale House is once again the heart of his language arts plan. He finished up Sheldon’s New Primary Language Lessons last year and is moving on to the Grammar Workbook. He’s also using The Fun Spanish from Brookdale House this year. We learned the hard way last year that Rosetta Stone isn’t a good match for him – apparently a strong southern accent can affect your progress with the software! I’m hoping a change in his approach to learning Spanish will make a difference for him.
The rest of his language arts plans involve A Reason For Spelling, The Write Stuff Adventure, and tons of great literature from the Illuminations reading list for the year.
Science & Math
The Boy will cover science through Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics and through our homeschool co-op’s STEM focus each week.
The Boy and I are both so over looking for the right math fit – we are ready to find what works and stick with it. After lots of research and consideration, we decided on Math U See. He’s good with math, but he’s starting with Gamma just to be sure he doesn’t miss anything he’ll need for future levels. Math U See is concept-based rather than spiral; we learned that there were concepts in Gamma that hadn’t been introduced to him yet through spiral-based curricula.
The Arts – Working Together
Thankfully, Prissy and The Boy will be able to tackle the arts together. They’ll join our homeschool co-op group to learn about well-known artists and recreate their own art using methods and inspiration from those artists. They had a great time with art through our co-op last year and I know they will this year, too!
We’ll continue to use SQUILT for music appreciation in our homeschool. We’ve all loved SQUILT in the past and are happy to have it back. This is a perfect match for us because Prissy can listen and color while The Boy handles the more detailed aspects of SQUILT. I love that it’s so easy to keep them together for music appreciation!
That’s it for our homeschool lineup this year. We’re changing up a few things and keeping some old faithfuls. What about you? What’s in store for your homeschool year?