Curriculum we love

Here are some of our curriculum choices this year. If I've listed it here, that means we love it! The kids love it... I love it!




Rosetta Stone Spanish: The easiest way to learn a language... for the student AND for Mom! Believe the commercials.

Truthquest History: The ultimate living history book list! If you enjoy learning history through literature, this is an incredible resource. Michelle Miller's commentaries through the guides are extremely helpful.

Teaching Textbooks: Everyone I know who is using this curriculum for math is ecstatic. The teaching DVDs are easy to navigate and lessons are taught very well. My kids rarely need any additional help. And they love the graded lessons and quizzes and the grade book feature.

A Reason for Handwriting: This is great for practicing handwriting for any elementary grade (beginners through cursive). Where other handwriting books may give sample sentences to practice, A Reason gives scripture verses as the copy.

Institute for Excellence in Writing: This is a big hit with many homeschool families I know. This is our first year to use it, so I'm still in the learning process. I am very excited about it! I've tried teaching writing on my own without any curriculum at all because English is my favorite subject, and it's time to call in some reinforcements. Gotta love the DVD teacher when things get tricky!

Favorite Thanksgiving Books

Here are my favorite books for this time of year for elementary level kids...

Stories of the Pilgrims by M. B. Pumphrey (Christian Liberty Press)

The Landing of the Pilgrims by J. Daugherty (A Landmark Book)

Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims by C. R. Bulla

The Pilgrims of Plimoth by Marcia Sewall

Sarah Morton's Day (A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl) by Kate Waters

has real photographs of the outdoor living museum in Plymouth

Historic Communities A Child's Day by Kalman & Everts

1621 A New Look at Thanksgiving by Grace & Bruchac (National Geographic)

also has photographs from the Plimouth Plantation

Our Bible History/Western Civ books for next week...

Austin has finished reading and studying Genesis (using the Bible and Omnibus I) and is far enough into Exodus now for us to do some fun books with the younger ones. I'm really looking forward to moving into Exodus and bringing in some Egypt study. We will probably take the next few weeks to work on Ancient Egypt... I'm excited! Now to find a source that will teach me how to pronounce Egyptian words and names...

Our first few days of school have been wonderful. The usual real-life interruptions have been as abundant as ever. BUT!... Having a detailed schedule to keep us striving towards order makes the world of difference. I must say, the thing that I always thought would be tedious and overbearing is actually freeing. Our schedule is our servant, not our master, but it's a schedule nonetheless. And I expect it to make our year a very successful one. The children even love it!

We have started going through Genesis using Omnibus I and various Old Testament study guides and books. It has been an incredible way to start the year. As the Omnibus book points out, we can only fully understand history (and the present, for that matter) if we have an understanding of our origin and the ongoing struggle that remains. It has reminded me of what I read in R.C. Sproul Jr.'s When You Rise Up. He says of Genesis 3:14-15, "Here God declares solemn war against the serpent through one born of a woman, but also promises to change the hearts of his elect, such that they would hate the serpent. This great battle is the setting of history, and therefore the setting of our lives. If we are his, we are at war, and that affects everything." Starting in Genesis has been such a wonderful way to get perspective on our history lessons, bible lessons, character studies, worldview, and even the little ins and outs of our days.

I hope to post about some cute stories from our week later today or tomorrow. I'll also be posting soon about Teaching Textbooks.

1 more week

I can't believe we just have a week until our first official day of school. Of course, I'm one of those moms who feels like even though we took a summer break, we were still learning. But as far as a structured day and checklists are concerned, we're only a week away. I feel like I spent more time "planning" during this last month than I ever have during a break, I've got so much to finish up this week. Wouldn't you know that my first day of the "I'm down to the wire now" week would be consumed with a 3 year old's fever and earache and a scooting baby who is trying to figure out how not to keep rolling over into hard furniture which bumps that precious little head? So, no last minute school preparations for me today. Hopefully everyone will rest well tonight, so we can start fresh tomorrow.

This year will be organized by a schedule on the wall, lining out each person's duties and times to accomplish them. The kids will also have checklists I made on Excel. They get a sheet for each week that shows their daily chores and school subjects. After they have checked the boxes under each weekday, they will give it to me to file for my records and get a clean checklist for the next week. I have also been recording every chapter book they have ever read, so I will continue to do that.

This week I'm supposed to make a list of all the books that I want them to read this year. I already have stacks of books ready to list, so I just need to get it organized. The bulk of their books will coordinate with our history lessons. There are also some good fun ones and inspirational books, too. I had also planned on getting our timeline ready this week. I got one of those huge paper rolls that you use on craft tables to use as our timeline. We have done a Konos timeline before and have used The Timechart History of the World, which is an incredible book fold-out timeline. I would like to do something this year that we can write on ourselves. If it works like I hope it will, we will continue to use it from this time forward. I've got to back-track everything we've studied so far and plot that before we start on this year's history. OK, maybe that won't get done in time. It may stay a work in progress for a couple more weeks. And lastly, I've got to finish organizing my third grader's binder that will house all of his phonics, copywork, handwriting, and spelling.

My 3 year old's favorite book at the moment is The Little Engine That Could, so at moments like these, it's automatic for my mind to say... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

History Lesson Plans

I finished my lesson plans for this year's history. Phew! This will be the first year that we won't all be covering the same time period. It will be a little more challenging, but I am excited about the way this will cater to each of their interests and needs. My 8th grade boy will be delving into the Old Testament times and ancient Egypt and Greece. My 6th grade girl will do Old Testament with us, listen in on some of the age appropriate parts of the Egypt and Greece topics, and she will be reviewing the American history that she has studied the last several years by reading historical fiction. After many years of studying American History using the Truthquest study guides, she is very interested in diving further into the time periods that interest her. And my 3rd grade boy will be doing the Old Testament, listening in on a small amount of the Egypt and Greece, and working on the American History that he is still in the middle of with Truthquest.

Here are our reading lists to go with History (and Western Civ) this year:

8th grade:

Curriculum: Truthquest History Guide Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece
Omnibus I Biblical and Classical Civilizations
Diana Waring's True Tales Ancient Civilizations and the Bible audio
Genesis
A Child's History of Art (Hillyer)
Janson History of Art
A Child's History of the World (Hillyer)
Shadow Hawk (Norton)
Cat of Bubastes (Henty)
Cleopatra (Stanley)
Exodus
Tirzah (Travis)
The Golden Goblet (McGraw)
Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis)
Hittite Warrior (Williamson)
First & Second Samuel
First & Second Kings
God King (Williamson)
The Chronicles of Narnia series (Lewis) he's read most of these already
The Heroes (Kingsley)
A Wonder Book (Hawthorne)
By Jove! (Macrone)
The Iliad (Homer)
The Odyssey (Homer)
portions of Last Days of Socrates
portions of Invitation to the Classics
portions of The Works of Flavius Josephus

6th grade:

Curriculum: Truthquest History Guide Ancient Egypt and Greece
Historical fiction books

The Victor Journey through the Bible as a source book
A Child's History of the World (Hillyer)
A Child's History of Art (Hillyer)
Janson's History of Art
Cleopatra (Stanley)
Tirzah (Travis)
Genesis
Exodus
God King (Williamson)
The Golden Goblet (McGraw)
d'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
Aesop's Fables
many resource books and historical encyclopedias on Egypt and Greece
Martha of California (Otis)
Almost Home Daughters of the Faith Series (Lawton)
The Tinker's Daughter DotFS (Lawton)
The Christian Heritage Series The Salem Years books 1-6 (Rue)
Attack in the Rye Grass Trailblazer Books (Whitman)

3rd grade:

Curriculum: Truthquest History Guide American History

The Victor Journey through the Bible as a source book
A Child's History of the World (Hillyer)
A Child's History of Art (Hillyer)
Janson's History of Art
Cleopatra (Stanley)
Tirzah (Travis)
God King (Williamson)
The Golden Goblet (McGraw)
d'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
Aesop's Fables
many resource books and historical encyclopedias on Egypt and Greece
The Dragon and the Garden (Wilson)
In the Time of Noah (Wilson)
The True Story of Noah's Ark (Dooley) incredible illustrations!
Exodus (Wildsmith)
Joseph (Wildsmith)
Journey through Bible Lands Candle Discovery Series
Living in Bible Times Candle Discovery Series ** these interactive books will be enjoyed by all
King Midas and the Golden Touch (Perkins)
The Landing of the Pilgrims (Daugherty)
Stories of the Pilgrims (Pumphrey)
The Pilgrims of Plimoth (Sewall)
Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims (Bulla)
A Child's Day(Kalman & Everts)
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (Grace & Bruchac)
The First Thanksgiving Reader (Jackson)
Sarah Morton's Day (Waters)
If You Lived in Colonial Times (McGovern)
If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial Days (Brenner)
(some books will be read aloud by mom)

Like I said... phew!