Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Hi! My name is Jenny, and I'm a Curriculaholic.

So, I've already received some of our curriculum for the fall.  We finished our school year a week-and-a-half ago by now, so it's time to start planning for next year, right?  *rolls eyes*  If I didn't have summer camp on the horizon, I might put off planning until mid-July.  In the fall, Emma will be in 8th grade, Jeffrey in 6th, Lydia in 1st, and Samuel...well...he'll turn four in October.

Here's what I've gotten so far:
Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra ~ $$$!  But I think it'll be worth it.  It will pass down well.
Apologia General Science ~ I bought this from a friend's rummage sale.  Then I found the Multimedia Companion CD for $5 at Christianbook.com.  It's all the older edition, but I think it looks great.  And, the price was right.
Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day ~ After I'd already ordered this, a friend at the homeschool park day told me she had a copy I could borrow for the year.  **Note to self: In the future, don't purchase any curriculum until after the first park day.**
Diana Waring's History Revealed: Ancient Civilizations & the Bible ~ This is my most favorite new thing so far!  It has something for everyone, so we can all do the same time period together.  It will involve more prep work on my part, but it'll also be tons more fun.  Unfortunately, that's been lacking somewhat in our homeschool.
Rosetta Stone Homeschool Edition ~ Japanese!  This was the kids' language choice, so we're going to go with it!  Rosetta Stone had dropped their prices by about 35%, so I finally splurged.  I think the sale goes until June 11th, so you still have time.  (It was $159 for Level 1--normally $249, I think.)
The History of Classical Music Study Guide by Beautiful Feet Books ~ This is a one-year curriculum which we'll stretch out over two years, or perhaps three.  I still might need to purchase some resources for this, but I'll check the library system first, of course.
Institute for Excellence in Writing ~ This is on loan to me from the same friend who has the Flying Creatures book.  She's such a good sharer.  (Thanks, Char.)  This will be mostly for Emma & Jeffrey.  I have an older edition (1997) of Sonlight 1-LA which uses Alpha-Phonics.  It worked well for Jeffrey, so I'll be using it with Lydia.  I also have the I Can Read It! books on loan from another friend.  (Thanks, Liz.)
Do Hard Things by the Harris brothers ~ This will be a sort of devotional book for Emma.  Our history has lots of Old Testament Bible in it, so I wanted something different for the kids' "normal" Bible subject.  Jeffrey will go through Lee Strobel's The Case for _____ for Kids series.  And I think I'll do Leading Little Ones to God with Lydia (and Samuel, as much as he will sit in).  We've also been going through Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade as a family devotion.  I love it.  It goes through the Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English.  (Whew! Say that five times fast!)  Six days of readings--a few short paragraphs and supporting Scripure--are supplied for each of the 107 questions.  If that's the *shorter* catechism, I wonder what the longer one is like!  This will take us two or three years to finish!

I still have to purchase Lydia's math, some language arts items for Emma and Jeffrey (spelling, grammar, vocabulary), art for all, and--if there's any money leftover--some fun things for Samuel.  I've been looking at the Frances Study Guide by Valerie Bendt for him.  It's a unit study based on the Frances books by Russell Hoban--all of which we already own.  I *adore* these books.  I wish there were more of them.  Sam will still be three at the start of our school year, so I don't feel like I really need to start with him yet.  We'll see.

Well, if you've read all the way through my ramblings, congratulations!  The only prize I can offer is my gratitude, for what that's worth.  = )  If you homeschool, I'll be glad to know what your family is doing.

7 comments:

  1. I'm using some of the same things for Drew's 8th grade year as you're using for Emma's. He'll be doing Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra and he'll be finishing Apologia General Science (which he did the 1st half of this year)

    I have everything else picked out, and a lot of it purchased already, but I'll talk about that in a post on my own blog sometime in the future.

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  2. Cool!

    Is your General Science the 1st or 2nd edition?

    Jeffrey has caught up to Emma in math, so he'll be doing pre-algebra too. (Gulp. I think he's ready.) Since he'll be a 6th grader, I'm going to give him the choice between doing science with Emma or Lydia. My guess is he'll choose Emma, even though that will be more work. He and Lydia often rub each other the wrong way.

    I just looked at the end of Lydia's Flying Creatures book. It has the butterfly habitat for the final project. = )

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  3. Your gratitude is priceless.

    And I heartily approve of Teaching Textbooks and Apologia. The former saved mathematics in our household.

    Unfortunately, I have next to no subjects this senior year and those I am taking, I already have the books for. No happy Christmas-like box opening day for me. =( I've resorted to stealing my freshman siblings' literature and history over the summer. It works quite well.

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  4. Darn it. This is the second time I've typed this. I messed up somehow and the computer ate my other comment.

    Anyhoo...

    Lydia will love that! I kinda want to do another one.

    We have the 2nd edition of Apologia Gen Sci, but we use the CD-Rom version instead of the book. It's all the same, but every 3 lessons or so a little video is included to illustrate whatever is being taught. It's fun.

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  5. Bailey ~ It *has* been sort of like Christmas around here lately. The mailman must think I'm a little goofy. Well, I can't argue with that.

    It's encouraging to have a student's stamp of approval on curriculum. Thanks. = )

    So, which subjects do you have left to finish up next year before you graduate? I'm sure Bethany is quite fine with you stealing some Lit, especially if it's by a certain Bronte sister. ; )
    ________________________________________________

    Sue, the $5 Multimedia Companion CD I mentioned above has stuff like that for my first edition book. I'm thinkin' that *could* be the best five bucks I've spent for next year.

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  6. Health and personal finance -- both one semester, I think, plus American history from Lewis and Clark to the Civil War (somehow I missed that in my elementary years). But I'm sure that I'll become so comfortable with the idea that I have a "light school year" that I'll load up on other things and have the busiest year yet.

    You know how that goes. :o)

    Rest assured, Bethany will not have to read anymore Bronte, but I have a feeling Homer and the Iliad might have to struggle to earn acceptance. (The twins are repeating world history -- lucky.)

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  7. Yep. I know all too well what you mean, Bailey.

    We studied the 1800's (give or take) this past year. I enjoyed learning about the Civil War more than I thought I would. "In Flanders Fields" made me cry. Oh, and I did particularly well on an episode of Jeopardy (from my couch--not in the studio, of course) because of our studies.

    We're all looking forward (or it is backward?) to ancienty history.

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