So in the beginning of September, business took us on a trip to Durango, Colorado. The beauty of Homeschool is the flexibility for us to be able to travel on business when need be but also be sure that our arrows get their learning in too! Grandma is an amazing artist so we found a beautiful park in Durango to sit down and enjoy an afternoon art session in the park with Grandma.
This year is going to be a way different than previous years because we made the decision to step away from the Abeka program. Abeka was our curriculum of choice since the beginning of our homeschooling journey. As a family, we realized we have different teaching and learning styles and we wanted to capitalize on that fact, to the fullest. Huge shout out to Rebecca Spooner from Homeschool On for providing the teaching style and learning quizzes to get us pointed in the right direction. She also took the time to answer many of my questions personally. Thank you lady! You are an inspiration! So this is our first school year where we get to build our curriculum from a variety of options and styles. We started testing this new method in January, while we were still doing Abeka. One aspect that I loved the most, was being able to do a few of our subjects family style. Bible, Science and History are perfect subjects for all my arrows to participate in, regardless of age. Huge plus for families of all sizes.
Enough rambling, here is our breakdown on curriculum for the 2018-2019 school year.
Bible: for our bible curriculum we are using Grapevine Studies. Their curriculum is structured for different learning styles and can be taught family style. Huge plus for what we were wanting to do.
Math: we are using Master Books. I really like the approach of their books. Its Charlotte Mason style so it’s fun for the kids to read follow along stories, while learning math.
Language Arts: we are doing Brave Writer. I have done a lot of research on this program and I absolutely love the whole approach to writing. The creator says that her whole goal for this program is for you to build a relationship with your child/children. She says it’s a lifestyle type of approach and I definitely love this change for my arrows.
Spelling: we are doing Spelling You See. I started doing this with my younger daughter and i have seen a huge growth with sounding out words. Since she’s a kinesthetic learner this is perfect for her. I am also incorporating this for my oldest daughter’s curriculum too.
Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful. I absolutely love all of their subjects, but one of my favorites is handwriting. My girls love doing their work sheet every day and it has a fun activity for them to do on each page. It definitely has made tedious handwriting something that we look forward to doing each day now.
Science: The Good and the Beautiful. We did their human body unit study in January and we absolutely loved it. I let the girls decide what they wanted to learn about next and they chose the solar system unit study and the anthropoids unit study. These units are family style as well which we really enjoy.
History: The Good and the Beautiful. We are doing year 1 history. Reading the contents of this unit study really was exciting and definitely got my girls looking forward to History. It’s not just about learning, but the way you learn, and year 1 history is a bullseye, incorporating fun games to go along with learning. We will be doing this course family style as well.
Nature Study: Nature’s Anatomy book. The Nature Notebook from The Good and the Beautiful. It’s simple, we go into Nature, bring our journals and let your arrows express what they see, touch, smell, hear, and experience. Let them draw. Let them write. Let them collect. Let them get in touch with what God created, in their own way.
Art: Homeschool Art Studio. We just started this curriculum and don’t have much to say about it so far other than we are loving it! Especially my oldest arrow. There are many types of art lessons to choose from and its like having an artist in your house teaching yourself and your arrows how to achieve the finished piece. I will definitely be doing a review on this as time progresses.
Of course, last but not least is our Handy Dandy Morning Basket. We all love this time of our day. Please stay tuned for another post where I breakdown our Morning Basket Routine.
So that’s our Curriculum choices for the year. What are yours?
Thank you for joining our homeschool journey.
