Today, I’m also sharing at Homemakers Challenge about your Back to School Dinner Routine. When you’re done reading here, hop on over there and take a peek at how I streamline dinner time during the busy times of life!
It’s time to Not Go Back to School. That means, it’s time to NOT pick out my curriculum for the year. Really. I haven’t even finished finalizing it all yet. You will find the curriculum below that I believe we will be using, but it is subject to change as I get closer to sorting out my goals.
We will be officially starting school up again in a couple of weeks. I tend to want to ease into things and take it slow in the beginning. I have 2 fun new tools that I will be utilizing this year to help keep my planning on track.
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner
AND
I’m excited to be a little more organized this year!
I’m homeschooling 4 this year and a little preschooler tag along, too! The grades I will be teaching are:
10th, 7th, 5th & 2nd
That sounds scary doesn’t it? Oh, it can be interesting at times, but since I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I kind of have an idea of how things will flow. Thankfully, I was able to gradually add one more child in at a time as they got old enough to begin school.
Here’s my plan so far:
Bible:
Grapevine Studies, Esther
Reading straight from the Bible
Math
Teaching Textbooks (10th & 7th Grader) – I found that I had to switch over to Teaching Textbooks in the older years, because I was not explaining the math concepts very well from Singapore Math and we were all getting frustrated.
Singapore Math (2nd & 5th Grader) – I found that early math is simple to teach, but by about 5th to 6th grade, they have to switch over to something with a better explanation than mom can offer. Singapore math is inexpensive and tends to be well ahead of other math programs, so you may need to buy a grade or two below where your child is. You can find a placement test for that online.
Reading
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – 2nd Grader – This is how I’ve taught all of my kids to read! My now 2nd grader was slow to bloom in the reading department and we have been slowly moving through this. She can read pretty well now, but, I’d like to finish up the end of the book to make sure she has the concepts down.
Each child is required to read 15 minutes to an hour per day, depending on the day and their grade level. I allow them to pick books to read for fun and I assign historical fiction books.
Read Aloud Time – I usually read aloud to the children as much as possible. I like to choose books from Sonlight’s book list.
Handwriting
A Reason For Handwriting – Young children start in these books and move through them until they are completed and they can write relatively well. Of course, my 10th grader has been through all these books and still can’t write very neatly…but I think it’s a boy thing!
Composition:
Institute for Excellence in Handwriting – Student Writing Intensive B – We started this last year and haven’t finished it yet. It’s a video course that has really helped my older 2 children with their writing skills. I will most likely move on to the next course once this one is finished.
Grammar/Spelling/Phonics:
Spelling Power – We like to use the word lists from this book, since we have it.
Daily Grams – You can purchase the books, but I recently found out that it is free online!
Explode the Code – (2nd grade) – My kids do these books up until 4th grade
Science
Apologia – Debating between Physical Science & Biology for 10th Grader.
Apologia – Land Animals for the 2nd through 7th graders
History
Sonlight – I have several of the teacher’s manuals and I have yet to decide which time period I want to use this year. I generally get what books I can from the library and buy what I can’t. I’m also debating between Mystery of History and Story of the World. Yeah, I’m confused when it comes to History!
Electives
Karate – I have the 3 older children enrolled in a local karate class 2x a week.
Piano – My mom teaches them piano
Speech – We will be joining our homeschool group to learn speech.
Now, I must decide what I need to add in to all of this. We’re going to be busy, aren’t we? I’ll definitely have to be sure to use my crockpot with my Freezer to Slow Cooker plan, so that I can get everyone fed in a timely manner! We don’t need a 9:00 dinner time!
