Our Curriuculum Choices 2011-2012

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This is our first year of homeschooling. We have 4 children ages 11, 8, 7 and 5. We are currently only homeschooling our 5 (soon to be 6) year old 1st grader. Choosing curriculum was quite intimidating with all the choices out there and different styles of homeschooling. Luckily, there are so many helpful sites and blogs out there to gain information on curriculum and choices, each of them with their own pros and cons. So here goes our choices for this year!

Language Arts:

  • Phonics
    • Explode the Code Book 1 & Explode the Code Online
      • Jade loves doing the worksheets everyday and we also use the online program that allows the student to work through all the
        books as the progress through the program automatically.
  • Spelling
    • All About Spelling 1
      • We have been using Abeka 1 Spelling but will be switching All About Spelling. I am very excited about using this and am hoping
        to phase this in within the next few weeks.
  • Reading
    • AbekaReaders 1
      • I love Abeka’s Handbook for Reading and Jade really enjoys all the readers. She has done amazing and has really improved her
        reading skills.
  • Handwriting
  • Writing/Composition
    • WriteShop Primary A
      • I LOVE this program. It has short, fun daily activities based on themes such as pets, family, etc. Jade loves and looks forward to this everyday. We currently do it approx. 3 days a week. It is easy to schedule this as 2x/week to complete one level a year or 5 days/week and complete 2-3 levels in a year. Confessions of a Homeschool writes an excellent review of WriteShop here.
  •             First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 1

Math

  • Math-U-See Alpha
    • Excellent hands-on approach to math. Love using the manipulative and the DVD lessons are great and explaining the information and applying the learning.

Science

  • Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy &Junior Notebook

History

  • BJU Heritage Studies 1

Art

  • The Worlds Greatest Artists by Confessions of a Homeschooler. Check it out here.

Geography

  • Road Trip USA by Confessions of a Homeschooler. Check it out here.

2 thoughts on “Our Curriuculum Choices 2011-2012”

  1. Great list! 🙂 We used to use A Reason for Handwriting as well, and enjoyed it. I think I would probably still be using it if I hadn’t found VocabularySpellingCity when I was looking for an online resource to help with spelling, lol. Since we didn’t really need the instruction, as much as the practice, we started using worksheets from VSC. You may want to look at VSC too…you can create lists using your own words, like words from the All About Spelling curriculum. Once you create those lists, you can use them for spelling tests, playing spelling and vocabulary games and even to make handwriting worksheets like I do. 🙂

    Thanks for posting the links about the Art and Geography unit studies. They both look really cool, but the Road Trip USA looks awesome!!!! Going to discuss it with the hubs tonight! 🙂

    Thanks again,
    Katie

    Reply

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