Because let’s face it all homeschoolers love to see what everyone else is using for their school year. It’s part of our curiosity or what have you………
I was going to separate out what the boys are doing and what Princess is doing, but let’s face it. She insists she’s 6 whenever it’s convenient for her, so she’s doing mostly the same things. She’s just a couple of month behind in math, and she does less of the writing than they do. She does more tracing. That’s the main difference.
Apologia Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day– All ocean animals all the time. My kids are so excited! I didn’t know how many of their favorite animals were ocean animals until we started this study. We’ve done a couple of chapters, and we’re probably going to repeat the ones we’ve already done. We’d be going through it a lot faster if I hadn’t cough cough misplaced my book cough cough. That’s what happens when you haul it around everywhere. I think it’s in a suitcase somewhere…….. Which one is the question. I’d guess we’ll finish this mid-way through the year and just move on to land animals.
First Language Lessons– grammar, copywork, memorization, all of it in one book? Awesome! It’s a fairly gentle introduction to the material, so I think this will be a good fit for us.
Bob Books– I know last year I said we’d be using Sing, Spell, Read, Write this year too, but as I got further into it I ran into the problem the readers that came with it are just way too long for my kids right now. One of the beginning first grade readers is 50 pages long for one story. So, we’re going to be using Bob books for now, I’m curious to see if All About Spelling gets their other reading levels out soon because that might be the answer….. We’ll see.
All About Spelling- I think this combined with Bob Books and the various other readers I have will be quite enough to get them spelling. It’s a lot like Open Court Phonics which I used when teaching and I loved that. We’re part of the way through book 1, in case you can’t tell I don’t really worry about finishing things according to any sort of school year. At some point soon I’ll have a post up about different ways to practice spelling. I’m still thinking through that.
Time Travelers Colonial Life– This is part one of a six part series on American history that we’ll be doing with another family. I’m really looking forward to history with this family. It’s going to be very interactive, only downside is it will be a lot of printing. A LOT.
Math U See Alpha- I wrote a detailed review of Math U See last year, and the boys continue to love it. Princess is struggling with it, and I think it’s mostly maturity, not academics that is her problem, so I’m trying to figure out how to balance all of that.
Educating Layton has a Homeschool Curriculum Round up (that is hopefully still going on), that I’ll be linking this up to.
Christy says
June 24, 2011 at 11:30 amWhat is the age difference between Princess and the boys? R is 19 months younger than C and she insists on doing everything he does.
We love Bob Books!
Mama Hen says
June 24, 2011 at 12:20 pmWe haven't done the Swimming Creatures, but we have done Botany, Anatomy, and Space. The older kids are doing Botany again this fall in a co-op setting as the last time they did it they were in 1st and K5. I love Apologia!
We also did Language Lessons for one year. I loved it!
MaryAnne says
June 24, 2011 at 1:14 pmLily thinks she is at least three years old. She is still outraged that she can't go to their gymnastics class, so I finally signed her up to Mommy & Me. We'll see if that placates her, or just makes her feel all the more that she has the right to go to their class as well.
Your curriculum choices sound great! I'd like to check out apologia sometime – I'm always hearing about it on homeschooling blogs!
Raising a Happy Child says
June 24, 2011 at 1:40 pmI always thought that it's neat to have kids close to age, since one gets to be a teacher, and another will try hard to be just like the older sibling. I am very curious about All About Spelling – sounds like something that could benefit Anna. Unfortunately, she didn't inherit my natural spelling abilities.
Phyllis says
June 24, 2011 at 1:41 pmI would be interested to hear how you like the Time Traveler series. I almost went with that, but in the end did not.
Kim says
June 25, 2011 at 1:38 pmThese look really neat. I am going to share this with a few of my friends that homeschool.
Julie says
June 25, 2011 at 11:16 pmThanks for stopping by my blog and giving your input on Song School Latin. It's in my Amazon shopping cart, ready for purchase! 🙂
Love your line-up! We used BOB books last year and my son did very well with them.
Tiffany says
August 6, 2011 at 5:44 amWe are using Apologia Anatomy this year & are having a blast & learning soooo much!
First Language Lessons is a keeper at our house. I used it for my now 5th grader & can see the benefits from it now in upper grammar work. I'm also using it with my 5 & 6 year olds & they do great with it!
If you have an i-product (phone, touch, pad, etc) there are some GREAT Bob Book Apps my boys LOVE!!
This is our first year using All About Spelling & it is fabulous! One of my all time favorite curriculums. And there are corresponding readers!! Check out the website. The readers begin in Lesson 6. The readers are available now & the teachers guide is expected to be released soon.
We are also using Time Travelers this year (several) as part of our Winter Promise curriculum. It is wonderful & a great stand alone curriculum. The projects are a lot of fun – wonderful memory maker!!
Math U See is my all time favorite math curriculum. It has been beneficial to my struggling learning & my advanced math boy 🙂
. . . . I love all your choices!
Blessings
Monica says
August 6, 2011 at 11:46 pmWe love MUS. I can't wait to do the Swimming Creatures. You are going to have a great year! Your blog looks good. Jolanthe just updated mine too!
Monica