It's that time of year again, when homeschooling moms start getting excited over all of the curriculum choices for next year. Or confused. Or overwhelmed.
I had a brief fling with the notion of online school...which I just couldn't do. Maybe in a year or two, but not yet.
Ever since I started homeschooling 4 years ago I have longed for a 'boxed' curriculum-one that had everything in it from A to Z that I loved and my kids loved and didn't cost a fortune. Anyone found that yet? Yeah, me neither.
So, I want to change stuff up for next year. I feel like we are in a rut.
I have always been an admirer of Sonlight, but felt it was so darn expensive. And the fact that they use so much fiction. I wanted more non-fiction. Cue Winter Promise! http://winterpromise.com/ They have great non-ficiton books on their booklist that mesh wonderfully with Sonlights fiction selections. That, along with our local used bookstore and Amazon.com, have been the determining factor for next years curriculum.
Next year will be the 1850's- Modern Era. So we will be pulling selections from Sonlight's Core E for fiction and WinterPromise's Later American History and Culture http://www.winterpromise.com/american_culture.html for non-fiction. What drew me to Winter Promise is the fact there are plenty of books they use that have tons of hands on projects, which we love.
Math will remain Saxon. My kids love it, it's affordable and has tons of review. What's not to love?
Science will be a mixed bag, as always. Since we will be studying Thomas Edison, electricity will be a focus, along with physics and technology, as technology had a boom in the modern era. Also, since Charles Darwin will be in there as well, genetics ,evolution and intelligent design will be studied as well.
Art will focus on modern artists...Mondrian, Warhol, Kandinsky, Grant Wood and Wyeth, as well as photographers such as Ansel Adams and architects as well.
Music this year will include a study on opera http://www.squidoo.com/opera-for-children which excites me to no end!
Language Arts will include Spelling Power, Latin and Greek root words for vocabulary, and possibly Growing With Grammar for grammar.
Writing stumps me. Anyone have a writing curriculum they love?
What about you? Are you changing things up next year or sticking to the tried and true? I'd love to hear your plans for next year!
Looks like a good plan. Since we're doing Classical Conversations, Caleb will be doing IEW for writing. I'm not sure how it'll go, but we'll see. :) Here are our plans for next year...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.childresshousehold.blogspot.com/2012/04/curriculum-plans-for-2012-2013.html
Ha ha HA! I KNEW you would like WP! You'll have to tell me what you think! I'm going to create my own "boxed" curriculum this year...because I'm all kinds of crazy. Well, and I have 2 kids 6 years apart! Here's what I'm going to spend my summer doing: organizing all the lessons into a MFW/WP/Sonlight inspired binder. I did mention I'm crazy, right? Here's what's on the agenda for us:
ReplyDeleteHistory & Geography:
Mystery of History 2 for both kids(we LOVE MOH)
other reference books:
Story of the World 2 (bedtime story book - seriously, this is how we read SOTW last year)
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Science:
Christian Kids Explore Biology for little sis
Apologia General Science for big sis
Grammar:
Primary Language Lessons for little sis
Rod and Staff 7 for the big sis
Math:
Singapore 2A&B for for little sis
Teaching Textbooks PreAlgebra for the big sis
Literature:
Still researching!
Phonics:
Horizons 3 for for little sis
Spelling:
undecided
Writing:
Local composition class
Handwriting for a Reason for for little sis - whose manuscript handwriting is so incredibly neat that she asked if she could do cursive and well, why the heck not?
Latin:
First Form by Memoria Press for big sis (Thank God for DVDs!)
Latina Christiana for for little sis(maybe, I already have the books...so maybe I'll start it with her next year)
Logic:
Fallacy Detective
Bible: This is really why I am writing my OWN "lesson binder" I want to incorporate 1) the Memory Verse box as described on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers - we LOVE this box now 2)some awesome kids apologetics books I have collected 3) memorizing things like the Apostle's Creed, the books of the bible
Wordly Wise (which may or may not make the final cut)
Did I mention that we'll have to do ALL of this in just 4 days? We'll be at our fine arts co-op from 9-3 on Fridays next year!
CAN'T WAIT!!!!
Lisa W