A Few Changes & Next Years Curriculum

Just a quick update on what we are using right now and what the plans are for next year's curriculum for both boys. We have been using BJU's Distance Learning classes with Joshua.  It's going very well but when I started BJU math with Joshua I knew he might not thrive well with it.  Since I had to pay for the complete grade kit for the BJU Distance Learning classes I wanted to give it a try.  I've learned that Joshua does much better with incremental lessons and consistent daily review of those concepts.  Mastery based math just doesn't seem to be enough review for him. So we decided to move him to Saxon math.  We are also using Teaching Tape Technology dvd's with the Saxon books.  With the English he was doing ok but again he seemed to need the same constant review of grammar concepts that he needed in math.  I learned that Saxon had a grammar and writing curriculum also so I took a look at that and have decided to move Joshua to Saxon for grammar also.  I will be picking up the Grammar & Writing at convention this coming weekend in Memphis so we will start that the following Monday.  If all goes well with it we will continue with it for the next level.

My research for next years curriculum brought me back to Heart of Dakota.  We have enjoyed BJU but I wanted to shorten our school day and I've always wanted to do HOD with Joshua. I just couldn't seem to make it work for us in the past.  I knew that we could go back to using HOD for next year so I began looking into the Creation to Christ manual.  I was completely sold on coming back to HOD for both boys starting next year.  It hit me one day that I could do Preparing right now with Joshua and it would help him with the skills he will need for CtC in the fall.  We will receive our Preparing materials on Tuesday and get started on that for Bible, History, Geography, and Science.  We are really looking forward to Preparing and HOD in general.

For Spelling, Reading, and Cursive Handwriting we are continuing with the BJU Distance Learning classes. Next year for Reading we will be doing HOD's Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. I'm really liking BJU"s Spelling. As we get closer to fall I'll make some final decisions regarding Spelling but at this point I'm leaning heavily towards doing BJU Spelling again only teaching it myself.  Joshua's cursive is coming along very with BJU right now. For next year he'll do all of the writing & copywork required in CtC in cursive to serve as his handwriting.

I'm also considering enrolling Joshua in an IEW writing class taught by a licensed IEW instructor.  IEW stands for Institute for Excellence in Writing.  If I don't do a class then we will get the Student Writing Intensive dvd's for him.  I'm leaning towards a class for accountability and to start giving him an idea of what high school might be like.  I likely will make use of tutorials, etc. in high school and I want him to start understand what it's like to have to do work and turn it into someone other than me.

Jacob is turning 5 in April and he's doing so well with "school" type stuff I feel confident in going ahead and doing K with him in the fall.  He will be 5.5 years old at that time and he's already chomping at the bit to learn his letters and numbers. Right now he enjoys playing on Starfall, doing Abeka's ABC 123, Readiness Skills, and Art workbooks. I'm also using Learning at Home by Ann Ward with him.  I plan to start him in Little Hearts for His Glory at half speed in the fall for K.  I will be going half speed so that LHFHG can be used his K and 1st years.  I will be using the appropriate levels of math and phonics for him each of those years. At this point I plan to use Saxon Math and Phonics for him. We'll see how that works out.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Well this went much longer than I had planned. If you stayed with me bless your heart.  I really appreciate it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful school week!

Our Summer Curriculum

Over summer we will be working on some school things so I thought I would update what we will be using.  Joshua struggled to learn to read but he's doing really good.  I've prayed about it and I believe the best thing for us to do this summer is work on his phonics so that he can get better and faster at his reading.  I've purchased Saxon Phonics Intervention for him so that is the only Language Arts we will do over summer.  For Bible we will be using the Discover 4 Yourself How To Study Your Bible.  I will also be working with him on All About Spelling as that will only reinforce what we are doing in Saxon Phonics Intervention.  He is participating in 2 summer reading programs with Barnes & Noble and our local library system.  He's reading Hank the Cowdog books right now and loving those.

I'm also having to reevaluate our math.  He's been using Teaching Textbooks and he really likes it but I feel that it's not sticking with him like I feel it needs to.  I'm undecided what to use yet but I'm leaning towards Singapore or Saxon for math.  I'll update with final decisions on that when I know. 

He will continue to use A Reason for Handwriting for his cursive.  He's doing very well with his cursive.

I've not made any plans for the next school years curriculum yet.  I'm leaning heavily towards Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory program for history & science.  We'll see what the summer brings with Joshua's reading and I'll go from there.

Latest update on homeschool curriculum changes.

Final decisions have been made so I thought I should update anyone who is interested. I really like Teaching Textbooks for math but the level my son needed isn't being released until Feb. 2010. I really like CQLA but I know we needed more phonics instruction to help Joshua's reading along even more. I was in our local homeschool store last week and happen upon Saxon Phonics and Math. I was really impressed with their Phonics so I researched it a bit more at home. I also gave him the placement test for Saxon math. So last week I bought the Saxon Phonics and Math and we started them last week. Saxon has computer CD's that are very similar to Teaching Textbooks starting in 54 so that is covered if I feel like I need it. I have decided to wait on CQLA and see where we are at the end of this year for that. At a bare minimum I see myself using Meaningful Composision in the future. Then again I might just go back to CQLA. I just feel like we might need a bit more formal grammar than CQLA gives but that is easy enough to rememdy with CLE or ACE English. I am very pleased with the Saxon at this point. I was somewhat of an anti Saxon person so this was a pleasant surprise for me. I'll try to start doing a weekly update and give my opinion of the Saxon Phonics (and Math too).

We are using Heart of Dakota for our history and science. I love HOD so this is working out great for us. I am looking into using BJU science in addition to HOD's though. I think HOD's science is fine but Joshua is science minded so I think using a formal science might be a good idea for him in case he ends up in a science career down the road.

We are also starting Notgrass's Celebrate Thanksgiving unit study this week. This is super fun and we are looking forward to doing this over this month. We will also do their Celebrate the Savior study over December. I will post our Advent plans very soon since it starts here in a few weeks.

My computer's hard drive is dying so I am borrowing my neighbors laptop to update here. I hope to have a new hard drive put in my laptop soon so I can get back to business.

I'm Recanting

Ok only part of my confession but I am recanting. I am not sure what we are going to use for grammar,writing or math yet. I am looking into Teaching Textbooks for math and Character Quality Language Arts for our Language Arts subjects.

Everything else will be what I said in my previous post about our updates.

When I FINALLY make up my mind about LA and math I'll update again.

Shees I wish this wasn't so hard to decide!!

Next Year's School Plans

Well I think I am pretty set on most of next year's curriculum choices for my oldest son. We will continue with Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory until we finish it. We will also continue with All About Spelling. We are currently in Level 1 but I expect to finish that by the end of summer and move into Level 2. We will also continue using BJU English & Writing. I am really liking this because of the alternating focus that BJU takes with this course. It's one chapter of grammar and then one chapter of writing starting in 2nd grade.

Right now we are using Singapore math and using the lesson plans that Heart of Dakota has written in their manuals to coincide with the Singapore workbooks. I really like Singapore for it's mental math component and Joshua is doing fine with it. I keep thinking don't change something that's working but I really am considering putting him back in BJU math. We did BJU before Singapore and he did fine with that too. I am waiting to see what BJU does with their online classes because I want to use the distance learning classes for English, Math and Handwriting from BJU but right now you can only buy full grade kits at $1000 a pop to get those classes. So no classes for us right now. I am teaching the English class myself and it only take about 15 to 20 minutes for us to do. If they offer an acceptable plan for the online classes then I will use those classes for English and also move him back into BJU for math. At least with the distance learning classes I know that the basics will get done if for some reason I am unable to teach one day.

With Bible I am thinking of going with the Summit's Building on the Rock World View/Bible Survey curriculum. We currently use Grapevine Bible in addition to HOD's Bible and we really like Grapevine but I am drawn to the age appropriate study that Building on the Rock offers. I just might have to try it out to see how it goes. BotR is somewhat expensive to get started so I haven't made up my mind for sure yet but I am strongly leaning that way.

I am also looking into adding Evan Moor's A Word a Day books for vocabulary. Thanks to Dana for that idea.

Soooo I am fairly set except for concrete decisions on Math and Bible yet. We will be working through summer since we didn't get very far at all into Bigger Hearts. I know it will be a great summer with HOD though so I am really looking forward to watching Joshua grow in his reading ability while doing Bigger Hearts. We will be going through HOD's emerging reader set over summer and into next year to help give Joshua some practice and confidence in his reading.

How about you? What are your plans for your homeschool next year? Any new things? Keepers? Tossing? My top keepers are for sure Heart of Dakota and All About Spelling.

Our Preschool Curriculum

Well I ordered my books for our preschool curriculum for Jacob. We will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven.


When Mrs. Austin wrote the Little Hands to Heaven manual she used a devotional book called Playtime Devotions . It's now out of print but Mrs. Austin has substituted it with another great book called Big Thoughts for Little People. I decided to buy Playtime Devotions because of Jacob's age. He will just turn 3 on April 12. I wanted a very easy intro to school things and Playtime Devotions looked like it was just what I was looking for. I want to instill a love for learning in him and make some wonderful memories with him. I looked at Big Thoughts extensively and I think that when he's just a bit older I will get that book and use it at night before bed. Big Thoughts is a very good book and I was torn because I didn't want to miss out on it either. Little Hands to Heaven also uses A Child's First Bible. In Little Hands to Heaven each unit has a theme centered around Bible characters. These stories provide the focus for the day's plans. The daily activities are linked to the Bible stories. There are musical selections from The Singing Bible that correspond with each unit. I have no doubt this will be a favorite of Jacob's.

My plans at this time are to do Little Hands to Heaven a couple of times a week because of his age. I plan on taking 2 years to complete it. Jacob has shown signs of being gifted so I might end up doing LHTH every day and have to change my long term plans for him but in the beginning this is the schedule until I see how he does. On the other days I plan to use some Kumon First Step workbooks called Let's Cut Paper!, Let's Fold!, Let's Color!, and Let's Sticker & Paste!.

I am also strongly considering using Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning Prek with Jacob. It's for 3 & 4 year olds and I think this book and maybe even the ones that follow it would dovetail very nicely into Singapore math which we will use when Jacob is older. Singapore is known for it's mental math component so I think these books will be an age appropriate precursor.

When I start will depend on when my books arrive. I will be posting about some of our days and weeks in review also.

I'm also working on a new daily schedule now since I will need to make sure I allow enough time for working with Jacob. I will post my new schedule when I'm done with it.