Curriculum for 2014-2015

Okay, so this is the tentative plan for our next school year.

The one thing I'm not sure about yet is history for Jeffrey, Lydia, and Samuel.  I'm pretty set on the medieval/renaissance time period since Jeffrey just finished reading about the Fall of Rome.  I really like what I see with BiblioPlan.  I hadn't ever explored it before, but it looks a lot like Sonlight or Tapestry of Grace--only not as intense and more flexible.

I can also use BP for any grade.  They have four different levels of activity packs.  Sam would do Cool History for Littles.  Lydia would do Cool History for Middles, and Jeffrey would do Cool History for Advanced.  (They also have an Upper Middles set.)  The title "Cool History" is a little hokey, but what's inside looks good, so I'm willing to overlook it.  There are also map and timeline packs.  The downside?  $$$  While it's not nearly as expensive as Sonlight or TOG, it'd still be about $200 to get everything I want to cover the three age groups.  (Emma's One Year Adventure Novel costs even more.)  Emma's really interested in Biblical Archaeology.  We already own two of the books she'll need for the course, so it won't cost much more to get the rest.  Otherwise, she could do BiblioPlan, too.

I'm getting ready to sell some used curriculum on Amazon again (I made about $400 last summer).  Hopefully that will bring in enough money for me to get BiblioPlan & OYAN.  My second choice for history is Mystery of History, which doesn't look as thorough at the high school level.  I'd have to work harder to supplement, but it only costs about $40 for the basic book.  BP is very open-and-go, except for deciding which literature suggestions we would do.  Everything is all laid out otherwise.

Oh, and for foreign language, we're going to end up doing two years of French in three years.  So we'll start French 2 after Christmas break.

Here are the details:

Emma ~ 11th Grade
Bible ~ New Testament Survey (C. MacDonald); Read through the entire NT;
            More Than a Carpenter (Josh McDowell); Scripture memory
Math ~ Math-U-See Algebra 2
Science ~ Apologia Chemistry
English ~ The One Year Adventure Novel; Vocab from Classical Roots C & D
History ~ Biblical Archaeology; Current Events ~ Trak Magazine
Foreign Language ~ BJUP French 1 (finish) and French 2 (start)
We'll do some swimming & physical therapy exercises for a half credit in P.E., and she might be in the homeschool musical next year.  (She took this year off.)  That would give her another half credit in Drama.  She's most excited about The One Year Adventure Novel.  We got the sample DVD--which is quite informative--and it looks fanTAStic.  And it had better be.  It's also quite expensive.  Since she wants to be an author, though, I figure it's a good investment.  Besides the cost, I haven't read a bad thing about it when I scoured the web for reviews.

Jeffrey ~ 9th Grade
Bible ~ Same as Emma
Math ~ Same as Emma
Science ~ Survey of Astronomy
English ~ WriteShop I; Vocabulary from Classical Roots C & D
               The history program below offers his literature.
History ~ BiblioPlan Year 2 (Medieval);
               Current Events ~ Same as Emma
Foreign Language ~ Same as Emma
He'll also do swimming.  Our rec center offers a Lifeguard Readiness program for kids who aren't old enough for the Lifeguard Class yet.  I doubt that Jeffrey will ever be in the cast for the musical, but he did help out in the light booth this year, so maybe he'll do something like that again.  It won't count for any kind of credit, but I'll mark it down for his volunteer hours.

Lydia ~ 4th Grade
Bible ~ Read through Gospels & Acts; Awana
Math ~ Math-U-See Delta
Science ~ God's Design for Heaven & Earth (Answers in Genesis)
Lang Arts ~ Simply Grammar; Building Spelling Skills (CLP);
                  Student Writing Intensive Level A with
                  Fables, Myths, and Fairy Tales woven in ~ Both from IEW
                  Literature is built into history.
History ~ BiblioPlan; Current Events ~ News Flash Magazine
I'm still figuring out art & music, though I think she'll continue with piano.  I'm pretty confident she'll be in the homeschool musical again and take dance lessons.  We'll likely get some swimming lessons in there, too.  It's such a good life skill to have--and great exercise.  I might have her do a typing course too.

Samuel ~ 1st grade
Bible ~ Same as Lydia
Math ~ Math-U-See Alpha
Science ~ Same as Lydia
Language Arts ~ Sonlight LA 1 with Explode the Code & A Reason for
                           Handwriting A; Literature is built into history.
History ~ Same as Lydia
Again, I'm still thinking about art/music.  He's undecided about the musical for next year, but it's early yet.  I'd really like for him to do swimming lessons--especially since we live on a lake all summer.  If he has any interest in piano, I'll just teach him myself.
                     

Whew!  It's going to be a fun, full year!