Our Homeschool Curriculum for This Fall

I am so excited about all of our curriculum choices this year that I can hardly wait to start school again.

Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed our summer break as much as the kids have. At this point in our homeschooling career~the early, very hands-on years~I cannot imagine schooling year-round. Mama needs a break just as much as the kiddos do! At least this mama does!

Ever since our first year of homeschooling (2007), which was really a K4 year for The Princess, I feel as if I have been in perpetual research mode concerning curriculum. There is just so much out there and I want to choose just the right things for my kids~it can be overwhelming! I probably drive the other moms in my homeschool group nuts asking them questions about the curriculum they use, but so many of them are SO much more experienced than I am that I value their input. Other moms can be one of your greatest resources! Plus there is always new stuff coming out~not that it's always the best, but I like to look into it. That's why I so enjoyed attending my first homeschool convention this past May. It was incredibly helpful for me to browse the vendor tables and really look at their books and materials and even talk with some of them.

So after hours pouring over catalogs, a weekend at a convention and more hours browsing websites, here are our curriculum choices for this year:

Bible:We are going to do a character study each month using the Character Sketches books from the Institute in Basic Life Principles as a one of our guides. My hubby is going to be working up these studies, focusing on a different character trait for each month. Maybe I can talk him into creating some worksheets that I can share here, if anyone is interested.
Phonics~Grammar~Reading:

The Princess {2nd grade} will be using Horizons. This is our second year to use their curriculum for this subject. I don't know how many years we will use it, but I have been pleased with it for these early years.
Mr. B {K5} will be using my very own Calvert 1st grade readers (I was homeschooled for 1st and 2nd grades and still have my readers & they're wonderful). Along with them I will be using some workbooks from the local teachers' store for short & long vowels. This is the system I used to teach The Princess to read and it worked beautifully.

Handwriting:

We will continue using the Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting series. The Princess is now on book *D* and Mr. B will start with book *A* this year. I have been very pleased with this program.
Spelling:

This is a new subject for us, since last year I didn't have an official spelling curriculum for The Princess. I found A Reason For Spelling at the homeschool convention. It looks good and I hope we will like it. It is a Scripture-based program and I like that a lot. This will be a subject just for The Princess.
Math:

We are making a switch this year in our math curriculum. I have used Math-U-See for the past two years with The Princess and have been very pleased with it. However, she is just not a math girl (I see myself in her in that regard) and really dreads math. Math-U-See is wonderful and solid, but the pages are kind of monotonous and colorless, so I'm trying the Horizons program this year with both of the kiddos (since Mr. B is very visually oriented as well). The Horizons workbooks are very colorful and varied in exercises. I'm really hoping that this will stimulate The Princess' interest in learning math.

Science:

I am very excited about starting Apologia's Exploring Creation series this year. I wish I had known about it last year. We will be starting with Exploring Creation with Astronomy and will be doing it together as a family. We will also be using the Notebooking Journal that corresponds with the book.
History:

This will be another family subject. We are starting The Story of the World series this year, beginning with Ancient Times. We will also be using the Activity Book. I'm very excited about this new choice for us as well (I am a total history buff!!).


Geography:

Yet another family subject, we used Galloping the Globe last year some and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to digging deeper with it this year and coordinating it with our history lessons. Homeschool Creations has some free downloadable worksheets to go along with this book that we will be using again this year, too.


Music:

We will focus on a different composer each month, using Great Composers as a guide. I will also be using free downloadable worksheets from Practical Pages to help us as we learn about each composer.

I am still deciding what to do about continuing piano lessons for The Princess. They are just not in our budget right now, but I really would like for her to continue learning. My sister gave her beginning lessons last year, but has really gone as far as she can. I am considering doing it myself, with the right curriculum. If you have tried something like that and it has worked well for you, please tell me all about it!

Art:

We will focus on a different artist each month, also using worksheets from Practical Pages along with these art books as well as a few others that I've been rounding up. Used book stores are a wonderful resource for these types of books, although I did pay top dollar for the Can You Find It? book just because I thought it was so good.

We will have various hands-on activities and crafts to correspond with each artist, along with various arts and crafts projects with each season.
P.E.:

This will be another subject that my hubby will lead in. This will include such things as family bike rides, outdoor games, hiking as well as other opportunities that may come.

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I plan to post about homeschooling more regularly as the year goes on. I want to be as much of an encouragement to others as I can be. And I always love reading about others' homeschool plans and ideas~that is a continual source of encouragement to me. If you are homeschooling, I'd love to hear more about it in the comments!