This Years Line Up

We have used a number of curriculum over the fews years.  Some we are keeping and others, well, they didn't work for us.  Here's what we are using this year.

Math-U-See:  Keeper!  It works great for both kids and for me.  I can't say enough about it.  I have recommended it to other people who love it as well.

A Reason for Science:  Keeper!  It comes with everything you need!  We are going to be doing 7th and 8th grade this year.  There are only 36 lesson per year.  Both kids are doing this together.  DD was having a hard time getting science.  DS gets it easier.  So I lowered her two grades and teach them together.  By the end of this year DD wil only be one year "behind" and DS will be one year "ahead".  This curriculum only goes up to the 8th grade.

Analytical Grammar:  DS will keep on working on his grammar.  It is a three year (6th-8th) course.  DD was able to do it in one year.   It is a pretty intense course.  When they are done with it they should "know" all the grammar they need.

Sonlight: Core 7 for history, geography, current events, writing, bible, etc.  Again, both kids will be using this.  This will be our first year with Sonlight.  Have heard many wonderful things about it.  I finished reading through my instructor's giude and I think I got it.  We'll have to work out how they are going to share the books.  From the looks of it, I know I am going to love the books.  We have read some of them already.

Wordly Wise 7 and 9:  This is through Sonlight.  I think you can get it other places.  It will be our spelling (ha...I just spelled that wrong...twice!).  I am sure DD will have no problems.  Spelling is one of her best subjects.  I often have her look over the things I write.

We don't have set electives.  The kids "do their own thing" here.  They each play an instrument...drums and guitar.  DD takes singing lessons and spends her time making movies (really small videos).  She also volunteers at a local thrift store once week.  DS is always doing something, drawing, building, sports (not with any group), he has a garden.  They both "dress up" and do skits, which are video taped and then DD makes then into videos.  We like to let them come up with their own stuff here.  It is probably more on the lines with what they will do in real life anyway.

Spring Break and Books

Ok, do I still even have any readers? It's been so long since I updated. Sorry! School has been going good. We are on Spring Break right now. Will be back to school on Monday. So we have gotten caught up on cleaning. (You know the deep stuff.)

I have ordered most of the curriculum for next school year! I am excited. The kids are like oh. Here's a quick break down of what we are going to be using. Sorry no linking. I'll do that later.
Math - Math-U-See
History-A good amount of living books from Beautiful Feet and Amazon (CM books) and some cd's/workbooks from Your Story Hour
Science-undecided still, but it will be hands on experiments
Geography-Beautiful Feet and amazon (CM books)
Grammar-Analytical grammar (one year course for C and 3 yr for J) (Simply CM)
Writing-free workbooks from another homeschooler!
Have timeline charts on history, science, composers, etc from Beautiful Feet
Spelling-(dictation too) Spelling Wisdom (simply CM)

I think that's it. We are almost done with this years History Alive. We all like it, but will probably wait to continue the next sections until they are older. I got 9 history books from the library at under $.10 each!!! So we'll use those when we are done with History Alive.They are century books. they break down the 1900's in ten year sections. Also, a lady from church, who HS'd her boys is giving us a full set of encyclopedias!! J LOVES encyclopedias! He takes them to bed to read, seriously!

When I get my schedule written out for next year, I'll post it for you guys.

That's all for now.

Presidents Day and the Bible Sites

I have a few more sites for you!

For bible study: They have each of the books broken down. We are going to finish Genesis today. They have maps, charts, etc. too. The Church of Zion does it, but so far the content has been pretty good. It's amazing the topics we have covered. Some very "adult" topics. I myself have enjoyed it.

For studying the Presidents: I wanted to study the presidents a bit since Pres. Day in here soon. This is actually coloring pages. BUT they are cool pages. Our DC are 13 and 10 and like to them! We do five a day. So, we are going to do our 4Th set today. After they are colored we cut them out and hang them on the wall just under the ceiling. I made numbers and names. We have read some about pres. before so they kids have a few faves. J is excited to get to Garfield and Grant today! They even have a page for our newest president. We even used the pic in our LA study. I veered off of our curriculum. (Which I do now and then.) I want the kids to get better writing skills. (Poor kids have a mother who wanted to be a writer, has four blogs, etc.) Anyway, I explained how words can paint a picture. We had to pick a pres. and describe him/the pic so we could guess who he was. I tried to tell the not to be too obvious, especially at first. It was fun to see how we described the same pres.

We have also been borrowing the School House Rock DVD from a friend. WOW! I don't know who's liking it more the kids or the parents. The kids keep saying, you know this song? Yeah, we grew up on it! But as an adult, I really get what they are talking about. Like I think I get the electoral college now. I KNOW what a conjunction is, etc. Too funny.

I need to stop rambling!
Have a great day!

I have some curriculum recommendations for you.

The first one is for the kids, but will greatly help the parent/teacher as well.

Math-U-See Is so worth the money. We have been using it for a little more than two weeks now. The curriculum comes with student book, teacher book and test book. They are VERY user friendly. It also comes with a DVD where Steve Demme teaches you the teacher how to teach the next lesson. Our kids watch it with me. Every time we've watched it we've said, "Oh!" or, "Ah!" Math really makes sense. I can't recommend this enough. I'd even suggest it to non-homeschoolers. If your child is struggling in math this would be a great tool to help them. They have free demos online so you can get an idea of the lessons. They also have manipulatives to use that make sense too.

The second one is for parents/teachers.

Dianne Craft Teaching the Right Brained Child. (I have a test under the labels to find out more about right/left brain.) I cannot say enough good about this way of teaching! Our DS is more right brained. And let me tell you these techniques work! (Also, look under lessons in my labels.)
Now this is not curriculum. It is a teaching DVD with book.