2015-2016 Classical Homeschool Curriculum Choices

We are very much in the depths of summer right now and loving it. We’re relaxing a whole lot. That’s something I have to be intentional about, or else I have a tendency to want to go-go-go. That’s no good. There will be time for me to be super busy soon enough. We’re having lots of play dates, board games, sprinklers, playgrounds, impromptu picnics, and all that good stuff.

However… 😉 My wheels have been turning about the upcoming school year. I occasionally find little pockets of time to look over our bookshelves to organize and make note of what we have on hand that can be used for schoolwork this year, make some lists of poetry and scripture verses for our memory work, and click around to lots of fun homeschool planning posts on Pinterest. Like here and here and here and here.

And then there’s those school supply sales. .17 cent spiral notebooks and boxes of Crayola crayons for .50 cents. Be still my heart.

Oh, and if you’re kinda freakin’ out over this whole homeschooling thing, like “howintheworldamIgonnadoallthis?!” kind of thing? May I suggest the book Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace. I read it last year and it soothed my worried mama soul, encouraged me, and was a total breath of fresh air.

Okay. Back to the curriculum.

This year I have: a baby, a 2 yr old, a kindergartner, a 2nd grader, and a 3rd grader. Lots o’ Littles.

I’ll be using loop scheduling for things like history, science, composer study, and art. I also combine as many subjects as possible.

Click here if you’re wondering about that loop scheduling thing.

And these plans will most definitely not go off without a hitch. We’ll have days where we give up by 9am and play boardgames or go to the library. I’ll shuffle things around as needed. I’m constantly assessing and reassessing what’s working and what’s not. Total grace here, ladies (and gents).

This post includes some (but not all) of what’s included in our memory work. I can do another post on that later. And we also always have a read aloud going, audio books, and picture books. We’re all about read aloud time here. And on those really super crazy days when the snow is flying and life isn’t going according to plan, we may even set the “school books” aside and just cuddle up and read together all day. And that counts as a major success in my very humble opinion.

Math:

3rd grader – Rightstart C. We’re continuing this from last year. We’ll level up to Level D probably around Spring.

2nd garder- Rightstart B. Again…continued from last year and will level up at some point.

Kindergartner– Nothing formal just yet. She’s turning 5 in October, so she’s a young K-er. I’ll gauge interest and ability throughout the year, but we may not start Rightstart A until next Fall when she’s closer to age 6.

I also let the kiddos play around with Splash Math for some fun reinforcement. The free version limits them to 20 questions per day, but I’m okay with that.

Language Arts:

We’ll be using Primary Arts of Language Reading and Writing for all 3 school aged kids. I’ll simplify some for the K-er when necessary, and add additional supplements for the 3rd grader. It’s quite below his level for many things, but I’ve noticed some gaps that I’d like to go back and fill in, specifically in writing and spelling. I’ll gauge how this is going and move him up to the next IEW level when I feel he’s ready. In the meantime, in order for him to not feel like he’s doing “baby work,” I’m going to have him “help” mama teach to the 2nd grader and K-er. Hopefully that works.

All About Spelling goes along with the PAL program, so we’ll be using that as well. I purchased Levels 1 and 2 for my kiddos’ age range.

We supplement with Explode the Code books as needed…my older boys love those books!

Science:

The Sassafras Science Adventures: Volume One: Zoology . I purchased the logbook in ebook format so I can print off multiple copies for the kids. This is our first year using this.

History/Geography:

The Story of the World Vol 2: The Middle Ages with additional read alouds and projects as needed/wanted. I also purchased the student activity book in ebook format for this so that multiple copies can be made. Many of the additional read alouds will be from the library.

I also printed off an inexpensive geography workbook from the Scholastic website (ebook format).

U.S. History Songs by Larry Troxel will be part of our memory work.

Art:

Meet the Masters: Track A

Music:

Composer Study (1-2 composers per term). I haven’t chosen any specific materials for this yet. I have a set of classical composer cd’s that was given to me years ago, and then we’ll probably use freebie stuff from Pinterest for related coloring pages, maybe some related copywork etc.

Foreign Language:

Song School Spanish– we started this last year and it was the easiest thing in the world for me to implement, but it got shuffled to the back burner after I had the baby and had to simplify to absolute bare bones for a while. No prep time, no extra papers. Super simple, super fun for the kids. They still walk around singing the songs and it’s been 5 months since we actually played the CD. I’m looking forward to putting this back into rotation.