I am very happy to say that most of what we have done this year has turned out well. We have had some good things in years past, and major fails. For instance, we planned to do music study one year. It NEVER happened. Oh well. It's on the shelf, and one of these days we will get to it, but, it just didn't make the cut that year.
This year I chose the following;
History: Story of the World Volume 2 and Activity Book (2nd, 5th, 8th)
Streams of Civilizations (for my Eighth Grader)
Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia (Fifth and Eighth Graders)
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (Fifth and Eighth Graders)
Bible: Discover the New Testament from www.discoverthescriptures.com Grades 1-3 (2nd, 5th, 8th)
Journey Through the Bible by David Cook (Fifth and Eighth Graders)
LDS New Testament Reader (Kindergarten and 2nd graders)
www.lds.org Bible Videos
King James Version of the Bible
Science: Apologia Exploring Creation with Land Animals (2nd and 5th)
Apologia Physical Science (8th)
Apologia Notebooks
English/Grammar: Learning Language Arts thru Literature (Yellow and Purple Books)
Apologia Jump In (8th)
Progeny Press Study Guides (8th)
Winston Grammar Basic and Supplement (5th and 8th)
English from the Roots Up (2nd, 5th, 8th)
Spelling: Spelling Power (5th)
Math: Math U See (Everyone)
This year we are using/have used Primer, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta.
Kindergarten: My Father's World Kindergarten
the Bob Books
So, let me just say that we ditched art this year. The girls took an art class over the summer. And we do drawing in our history and bible notebooks, so I have decided it wasn't necessary to do an art Program. With 5 kiddos, one of them being an infant, I needed to have less stress. For Music, Abby and Rachel are taking piano. I've been getting better at making sure to get their lessons in. (I have 11 OTHER students that I teach each week, so, it gets a little crazy.) Jacob has participated in Football and Basketball, and Abby and Jacob will be starting track soon. Rachel and Abby are currently playing Basketball. The girls are both learning to cross stitch and they do that in the afternoons. Abby and Rachel have learned basic crochet, and we will brush up on that here in the next few weeks. (We always have them work on a baby blanket during General Conference. You can learn more about that at www.lds.org.)
History: Story of the World has been a lot of fun. The kids have enjoyed listening to me read the stories. We try to do all the maps. I need to be better about doing a timeline. I loved that My Father's World came with timeline figures last year. I have been missing them this year. I meant to buy them, but never did. We've been reading the Usborne and Kingfisher Encyclopedia pages that go along with each chapter as indicated in the Activity Book. I tried to buy read alouds to go along with Story of the World. So far we have had some fun ones, Hour of the Olympics, Hour of the Olympics Fact Tracker, Stallion in the Starlight, The Golden Goblet, The Bronze Bow, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Alladin, & Son of Charlemagne. I also got Caesar Augustus World. That one was huge. I assigned it to my 8th grader as Independent Reading. That was a fail. Ha ha. He got about halfway thru and we both lost interest. To help me, I have been reading Seven Tipping Points that Saved the World. LOVE IT!!! It has really been a fabulous resource. Another book I read was The Centurion Principles, very good. I also read Julius Caesar (with cliff notes in hand!) For my 8th grader I added Streams of Civilization reading. It goes further in depth for history. Occasionally, I have had him write a short essay on what he read. When we have coloring pages to do out of the Story of the World Activity book, I have my kids write a summary of what we read on the back. Often I use the narration questions to help prompt them. I usually have them write as many sentences as their grade. For my 2nd grader, I have her narrate and I write down what she says. Overall, we have really enjoyed Story of the World Volume 2. I would definitely suggest getting some read aloud books to help make the history really come alive! The Activity Book has a lot of great suggestions.
Bible: Discover the New Testament. This has been fun. I purchased the 1-3 grade PDF only. It's perfect for my 2nd grader. The bigger kids do it. My 5th grader enjoys it as well. My 8th grader loves our Journey Through the Bible book. It has great pictures and tells a lot of the background of the scripture stories. The 1-3 PDF is meant to go along with the New Testament Reader. I simply wrote down the corresponding scriptures from the King James Version of the New Testament and then assigned pages from Journey that went along with those. We read together and then discuss the scriptures. I have LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the new Bible videos from www.lds.org. They really make the scriptures come alive.
Science: Apologia Exploring Creation with Land Animals (2nd and 5th)
This has been a really fun science. We started off the year with me reading to the girls. As time went on and my baby became mobile, the girls read to each other. They read out loud so I can listen. I have been really impressed with how much they have learned and retained. We have the notebooks from Apologia to go with the book. SO WORTH THE PRICE!!!The Jr Notebook has been perfect for my 2nd grader. Instead of doing all the work in 2 days like the schedule has set up, we spread it out over 4. We don't do all the activities. I usually pick a few, and then they choose 1 or 2 of their favorites. Going to the zoo has been so fun. They love to tell me all the facts they remember about the animals. This is our first year that science has been a success for my younger kids. YEAH! Rachel has been begging to do Astronomy, so I think Apologia's Astronomy will be next on our list.
Apologia Physical Science
Last year our co-op did General Science with the kids 12 and up. We had decent success, so I decided I would get the Physical Science for my 8th grader this year. Last year we did not get the NOTEBOOK. I saw some of the other kids had them, and my son wanted one. It has definitely been a big help in getting the assignments done. This year I also bought an experiments kit. Unfortunately, it was the lower priced kit with mostly basics. We have found it to be lacking. It makes doing the experiments difficult, which is what I was hoping to avoid. My advice would be to pay for the full kit, so you can do the experiments without worrying about where to find a test tube or a copper wire, etc. Overall, it's a great course and I am glad we are doing it.
English/Grammar
I really, really, struggled with what to get for English. I asked lots of questions, looked at lots of curriculums, watched videos, and prayed like crazy to find something that would work for our family. In the past we used Language Lessons for the LDS child, and Sandi Queens Language Lessons for the Elementary Child and Language Lessons for the Secondary Child. I liked copy work and it really only took me 2 years to figure out dictation. My kids loved the picture studies. But, I just wasn't in love with them. We had tried Writing Strands for writing. We all agreed, we hated it. In a sense, I felt like we were behind. I felt like we kept trying things and I didn't really feel like we were retaining what we were supposed to be learning. In the end, I decided to go with Learning Language Arts thru Literature. We took the placement tests and my second grader went with the Yellow Book and my 5th grader went with the Purple Book. I talked with consultants from Rainbow Resource who suggested I add spelling for everyone and extra grammar for my 5th grader.
I have been so glad to have Really Liked this curriculum. I am getting better and better and understanding how to implement it. We like the Literature Links and the poems and the daily assignments. They are small manageable lessons. You as the teacher definitely need to be involved with the lesson, but they are short enough that it doesn't take up all your time.
There is one thing I plan to change, the Yellow book works on cursive writing. The book is hard to lay flat and all the cursive writing practice is on the left side. The pages are perforated so you could pull them out, but, I just plan to take it to the copy shop and have the binding changed to a spiral binding so the book will lay flat.
Winston Grammar (5th and 8th)
Can I just say I love this program. We used All In One Grammar for my 8th grader last year, it was a mess. He hadn't really learned how to identify all the parts of speech and so it was really difficult. We needed to go back to the basics. Winston has been such a blessing. The cards are easy to use and makes everything so plain. We have used the supplemental book for extra practice. I highly recommend this program.
Apologia Jump In Writing (8th)
Another major blessing. This book teaches the student how to write multiple kinds of papers and essays. It teaches all the different types of Poems. It teaches how to write a bibliography and more! Simple, daily lessons. Our reluctant writer has really come a long way.
Progeny Press Study Guides (8th)
These are great. I do recommend BUYING the book that goes along with it. We have borrowed books for the library for these, but it is much easier to just buy the book. Then, you always have it for reference.
Spelling Power (5th)
I am not in love with spelling power. My fifth grader really struggles with spelling. Her siblings do great, but she has a hard time. I just can't seem to be consistent with it. So we have gone back to lists and writing words five times each, and writing them in a sentence. Finding a good spelling fit for our family is high on my list for next year.
English from the Roots Up
We used this last year and studied Greek Roots. We did okay with studying Latin roots first semester. We just haven't been able to fit it in this semester. I am determined to get back in the habit. We really learned a lot with the Greek Roots. I just found a help on pinterest that might make our Latin Roots get going again.
Math
Math U See
We love this program. I love the blocks and the hands on nature of the program. I love that the program is straight forward. Steve Demme does a great job explaining the lesson in a short time (under 5 minutes.) We have used ALL the books from Primer to Zeta.
Kindergarten: My Father's World Kindergarten
I have been spoiled. I have a group of moms that do this as a co-op. We each teach on Mondays and Wednesdays our own children, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they meet together. This has definitely helped me time wise. I love the Character Lessons my son is learning. He has learned to blend his letters and is reading CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant.) He enjoys the lessons. I did not buy the packaged book set to go along with this. I had a lot of books that went along with the lessons already. I did buy a few books for units that I did not have books already. We have added some crafts, but mostly we use the lessons as is. They are great.Very little prep work necessary. We have really enjoyed this program.
Field Trips:
Albuquerque Balloon Festival
Albq Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, Zoo
Pumpkin Patch
and we are Going to the Petrified Forest in March
