Blessings Beloveds!
First and foremost allow me to say I DEARLY APOLOGIZE for not posting this sooner than today! So many things have tied me down this year with moving 4 times, losing our home in Hurricane Irene, hubby going on a 1 year deployment as well as MANY other things......that time has not permitted me much if any extra to devote to this blog! I meant to share our 2011-2012 curriculum sooner....so, I ask for your forgivness in my tardiness. However just to giggle a tad because laughter is good for the soul -BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!! LOL
So, here we go; I had it upon my heart to share with you a few ( or more than a few lol) of the items we will be using throughout this year in our homeschool. (MOST IF NOT ALL WERE PURCHASED AT
MOORE EXPRESSIONS NEW & USED HOMESCHOOL STORE. <...I know I mention them ALOT, but this wonderful group of ladies truly are the best and the prices cannot be matched anywhere else! ;)
Anywho, I can't believe I am saying this but, Pika is now entering the 6th grade (and will be 13 years old the end of this year), Kitty is in 3rd, and Bunny is in Kindergarten! The time is flying by so fast, and as I sit back and look at how much they have blossomed over the years....NO WAIT -just the last 3-6 months, I have to admit....their focus on getting their schoolwork done, keeping things organized, and helping with home responsibilities has improved GREATLY since I now have them all under my GOD's wing and I AM ONE HONORED MOMMA!
***Curriculum acronyms used and websites to research the items mentioned***
NOTE:
Allow me to first state that I try to combine as many students as possible as far as subjects go. The ones that do not necessarily flow well together in our home are:
1. Math (just the level and workbooks, but we play tons of math games together)
2. Phonics & Reading (depending on the child's level of course and read alouds for literature don't count)
3. Writing/English/Grammar
Everything else we combine =)
SO....COMBINED WE HAVE:
1. BIBLE:
Daily reading of the Bible in Matthew, mark, Luke & John (both NKJV and NIV), alongside The Beginners Bible for shorter and easily understood stories
Storybooks galore with our favorite being, "The Story for Children" -By Max Lucado
Rod & Staff Bible Stories with corresponding coloring book that include a color page for EACH story in the book
Character Builders 8 DVD Set -By AOP. This set contains 16 episodes that cover: obedience, self control, honesty, responsibility, sharing, kindness, confidence, love, goodness, faith, thankfulness, gentleness, politeness, joy, patience, and peace
2. HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY:
- MOH Vol. I (since we use this....it is SUPER easy to incorporate geography into our lessons)
- Unit Studies from the books we check out at the library (that also coincide with our MOH lesson)....recently it was Egypt (I will create a separate post about our journey through Ancient Egypt as soon as I can!)
3. SCIENCE:
Christian Kids Study: Biology
We spend most of our time diving into as many outdoor nature studies as possible to include: bugs, birds, any cold blooded/warm blooded wild animals (once we had raccoons living under our porch and woodpeckers tearing apart our trees).....Our homes away from home are our local Zoo, aquarium, over 50 museums, and Botanical Gardens. We are VERY blessed to be living in such a wonderful homeschool-friendly community!
4. ART:
- Anything we can combine with our other subjects/curriculum. EXAMPLE: For our Egypt study we created pyramids with vanilla frosting and sugar cubes, and a model of the Nile River and surrounding landscape.
5. FOREIGN HERITAGE STUDIES & LANGUAGE:
Being that our childrens' heritage is a melting pot of ethnicity's to include; African American, Italian, Hungarian, Cherokee Indian, German, etc. I try to incorporate units or lessons that not only explore everything we are not, but things the children can find a relation too. I speak Italian as my mother is 1/2 Italian (my maternal grandfather) so our language of choice is obvious =)
Some of the items we use are:
- Flash cards for shapes, alphabet, colors, numbers, words etc...
- Italian audio cd's, cassetts, DVD's etc
- Books we check out from the library
- On my Android we also have flashcards and Italian books/APP's and downloads we well for our on the go days =)
6. COPYWORK:
7. HOME ECONOMICS/LIFE SKILLS:
Having girls, it is my upmost duty to keep them busy at home (Titus 2) and train them to love the LORD, their husbands, and children! I strive my best to be a studious homemaker! I do not need to list the duties as a homemaker (or maybe that will be another post lol), as many of you reading this are eaither a homemaker or homeschooler and we know what the job entails! LOL
For our son however, it is up to my husband to lead him down the road of Godly manhood in lessons of working hard, building things with his hands, applying wisdom to his Christian walk, etc etc....
We do however find ourselves doing ALOT of:
Sewing
Crocheting (and I am no knitter, but learning the best I can lol)
Cooking
Gardening
Cleaning
Baking
Making things with our own hands (candles, soap, laundry soap/softener, toys etc)
Church activites
Organizing and Decorating
Jewelry Making
....you get the picture =)
8. MUSIC:
Our son is currently taking guitar lessons through www.gielowmusic.com to which his teacher (and awesome man of God) comes to our home 1x per week and instructs Pika.
Our daughters are itching to take piano and violin lessons this upcoming year (we are praying financially about this one, so please pray with us....thanks =) In the mean time, we spent alot of time listening to classical music, writing and singing hymns, and dancing our hearts out throughout our home. Oh, if these walls could talk! LOL
9. FIELD TRIPS......and yes this is the absolute best part of homeschooling (other than teaching them to love GOD and being able to wear pajama's all day)!!!!!!
You name it....and we're there! Living in Virginia, we are VERY BLESSED to not only have very EASY homeschool laws to adhere to, but invaluable resources in the palms of our hands all thanks to God blessing Daddy's Naval Career! Some of the wonderful places we have near by can be found on these websites!!!!
Now for the subjects to which each child's specific needs are met...
***Please keep in mind that although many items are listed, we do mix and match quite often according to the lessons grasped. We do not do all of this EVERY...SINGLE...DAY as that would be overkill for all of us! LOL***
Bunny's Kindergarten Curriculum:
1. MATH:
- Math.U.See Alpha with extra worksheets printed from their website
- Horizons K (Orange books) with extra practice worksheets
- More M&M's Math book by: Barbara Barbieri McGrath (this is a hit with all of our children as they LOVE to eat their math!)
2. PHONICS & READING:
- Horizons K
- Rod & Staff 1st Grade Bible Nurture and Reader Series
- Geo Safari Phonics Pad
- BOB Books......All 5 Sets
- What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
- Weekly trips to our local library
3. HANDWRITING:
- Rod & Staff Printing Practice
- HWT we mostly use the manipulatives, but on occasion the workbook as well
- Copywork from various activities
Kitty's 3rd Grade Curriculum:
1. MATH:
- Horizons 3rd Grade (Red Books) with extra practice worksheets
2. READING:
- BJU 3rd Grade (3A "Once Upon an Open Book" and 3B "Not So Very Long Ago")
- What Your 3rd Grader Needs to Know
- TONS of literature books....she is the reader of the family! LOL
3. HANDWRITING:
4. LANGUAGE ARTS:
- BJU English 3
- BJU Spelling 3
Pika's 6th Grade Curriculum:
1. MATH:
- BJU 6th Grade set plus extra worksheets and the activity book ( everything except the textbook is optional, but for him....it was needed) Also, we do not use any of the DVDs or Online options in our home.
2. READING:
- BJU 6th Grade (As Full as the World)
3. HANDWRITING:
- A Reason for Handwriting F (Although next year, we will actually be stepping down a few notches due to the fact this is his first year of homeschool and public school NEVER taught him how to write in cursive! I had no idea when we started and had already purchased the book)
4. LANGUAGE ARTS:
- LLATL: The Tan Book and it covers:
- Grammar
- Reading Skills
- Vocabulary
- Spelling
- Creative Writing
- Library Skills
- Researching
- ....and much more!
Well, I am praying this about covers it because my poor little fingers are done for the day! Thank you again for taking time out of your VERY BUSY day to spend some time with me =) May God continue to bless you in FULL abundance!!!!
BE ENCOURAGED!
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