Our Homeschool "Plans"

I have seen many homeschool Moms posting about their curriculum plans for the next school year - yup its about that time for us all isn't it? So I thought I'd jump on board and post our plans as well, because its fun! And slightly addicting maybe for this homeschool curriculum junkie mom. We'll start with the 9 year old first, and work our way down to preschool next time.

For our 9 year old (would be in public 4th - but yah, we don't really DO the whole grade thing here)

History / Science / Language Arts / Reading / Bible / Vocabulary / Geography:

 

We will be using Heart of Dakota - Preparing Hearts for His Glory. Its Charlotte Mason style with lots of wonderful living books, but its all laid out and ready to go with lesson plans and assignments all made out for me (which I need this year with a new little starting homeschool and a new baby to adjust to having around!). History and Science are mostly living books with activities scheduled in, there is independent and together reading scheduled in as well with some good quality books that support the main material. There is a daily Bible lesson and a weekly memory verse, and vocabulary lists are also included that go along with the main things being read each week. For Language Arts they recommend using Rod and Staff, so we will be using their level 4 book (just the teacher and student texts, not the tests and worksheets). We are not using their recommended math curriculum.

Math:

 

Teaching Textbooks, we're using level 4. Its our first year using this, but I am hoping for good things! We have done the samples online and my daughter has enjoyed those and does well at understanding the material covered. She is a bit "behind" in math (I don't buy that whole ahead and behind thing - kids are different) so we're keeping her at level 4 because it seems to be the best fit for her (many people say you should bump up in TT because they seem a little behind state standards). In the past we have struggled with math - she's a bit of a perfectionist and math doesn't come naturally to her, and I am a natural math whiz, so putting the 2 of us together for actual math instruction is VERY difficult. Too much bumping of heads. I am hoping the computer instruction will help, so I can just be there for assistance and back up rather then being "teacher" for this subject. Hoping some conflict will be avoided this year.

Literature:

 

We have always done literature by just reading good quality books. However this year I wanted to begin incorporating actually story elements. Since this is all going to be new to us, I've chosen a program that's fairly simple and fun in its introduction to all of this. So we are going to be doing 2 literature studies a semester from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I let my daughter choose the stories since I thought it would help encourage her to read and do the work if she chose the book herself (plus if she hates it I can always say "Well you picked it!" lol!!). So for this year we are doing Stuart Little, Black Beauty, Dr. Dolittle, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Writing:

 

This is something new we are introducing as well. She has done short writing assignments, but hasn't had a formal instruction program. This year we are starting with Writing Strands 3 to introduce her to a more formal way of writing. I think its going to be a great program for her - and the book is actually slightly humorous. The author did a good job with making the instruction fun!

Spelling:

 

My daughter is a horrible speller. Charlotte Mason seems to be great for natural spellers, but it just has not at all clicked for my daughter, so I'm adding a formal spelling program. I don't like just the whole use a list thing every week, so we're going with a spelling program on the computer. We are tentatively planning to use Click N Spell - it covers the 800 most commonly used words in the English language. I think for someone who struggles with spelling and is a perfectionist, this will be good for her because she will for sure be able to spell the most common words used. After we complete that and she has some more confidence, we will probably switch to a different type of spelling curriculum that helps breaks words down into pieces and shows how to figure out the spelling rather than just memorization alone. But that's for another year!

Typing:

We are doing more on the computer this year, and in this day and age typing is almost more important than handwriting (ok, maybe it IS more important than handwriting). I found an online website that has free typing lessons for kids, so we are just going with that and then letting her play fun games online to reinforce that. http://kids.learn2type.com

Handwriting:

 

Some homeschoolers I know don't even bother teaching this anymore as its own subject, again its the whole computer technology thing. I still think its important - so we still do it. We're working on cursive, and we are going with a formal "program" this year and using The Joy of Handwriting. In the past we didn't use a program, just practiced with copywork as per Charlotte Mason. I've found this doesn't work out very well for us - my daughter forms lots of her manuscript letters in a weird way and makes it way more complicated than need be. We're going to use a curriculum for cursive this year, and if it works out well I will probably have her go back next summer and quickly run through the manuscript program to improve those writing skills which seem to not be fully developed how I would like.

Music and Art:

 

We're doing quite a bit for this actually, which is a change for us. The Heart of Dakota program is only 4 days a week, which allows us to have 1 day a week we can dedicate to those "extra" things that often get overlooked. For music we are doing a local homeschool choir program called Heaven Sent Choir, along with at home piano courses via Mary Jo Moore Piano Courses. I was only going to do one of those, but my daughter really wanted to do both, so I'm trying to encourage her in that since its the first time she has really ever WANTED to do something other than play, lol. We'll also be doing a weekly hymn study using the book "Then Sings My Soul", and an Artist and Composer Study via Confessions of a Homeschooler (the Artist study is FREE for the month of July!).

Other:

In our state we are required to do a "Good Citizenship" course every year. But this requirement can be so easily met (we have no state monitoring anyway since homeschool here is considered private and there is not state oversight). So I count Bible/Character along with our history lessons as completely covering that requirement. Of course as she gets older we will include government and that sort of thing, but its not something I'm really worried about "finding a curriculum for" right now. right now our good citizenship curriculum is Jesus!