Our curriculum for 2012-2013 school year

It wasn't my plan, but I needed to make a lot of changes to our curriculum this year.  I have also realized that I should just plan on doing this every year.  The kids grow, and they need their curriculum to grow with them each year.  A lot of stuff from their last years curriculum I will still keep accessible on the bookshelf though so that I can pull from it because a lot of their books still had a lot of usable pages. 

So, I got the okay from Hubby to buy some books, I made a list, and we headed to Exodous books (a great local homeschool bookstore).  They had every book on my list, and some I didn't :-)  I'll list these out in each child's curriculum plan.

All the new books we came home with...


 


Aaron's new books...
 
Note:  Not all I have listed below are in this picture.  This is just the new additions for this year.

Aaron (age 6, grade 1)

Explode the code book 1 and 2:  I am going to give this a try.  He might find this too tedious, but Aric really likes his, so I thought Aaron might do good with it.  I like the simplicity of these books.
Five in a row:  We now have 2 volumes of this series.  We have been using vol. 1 for a few years now, I'll be glad to have some new FIAR books to discover.
Now I'm reading! books:  He has set 1 and 2 from Kindergarden, and still hasn't gotten through all of them. 
Singapore math 1A:  We started this book at the beginning of summer, but we really didn't end up doing much over the summer.  He is liking it so far though.
Life of Fred apples:  We will do this for math as well.
Download and go unit studies:  These are great for an easy unit study.  I will do some portions of these as Aaron is interested.
Science experiments in a bag:  I hope to put these together and have some fun science projects throughout the year.
Exploring Creation with Astronomy:  Aaron will focus on Astronomy this year.  He will also be using the Jr. Notebook to go with it.
Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 1.:  I'm excited to start these.  I just discovered them, and I think they'll be a great addition to our nature studies.  I'll read this aloud to the boys.
Story of the world:  This history will be new for Aaron this year.  He'll join us for the reading, and whatever activities he's interested in.
Speekee TV:  I plan to use this as an introduction to Spanish.  It has 10 videos to watch, and I get an email with weekly activities to go along with the videos.
Draw, write, now books:  I am collecting these as we go through each school year.  This will be a fun way to practice drawing and writing about what was drawn.
What your first grader needs to know (reading supplement):  It's fun to start using some books that April used!  We have this one from when April was in 1st grade (her first year of homeschooling). 
All about reading level 1:  I have not acquired this yet, but would really like to add this later.  I am trying to decide on it still, but will most likely get it.

April's (mostly) new books...


April (age 11, grade 6)

Singapore math 5A:  We started out at the beginning of summer with 6A, but we decided it was a tad bit too advanced for her.  We decided to jump back to 5A, this seems to be a better fit for right now.
Life of Fred: fractions:  She's still working on Fractions, but when she's through with that she will move on to Decimals and Percents.
Zoology 3 (land animals of the sixth day):  I said she could choose which Apologia science book she wanted to study, and she picked this one.  She'll also do the Zoology 3 Notebook with it.
Handbook of Nature study challenges:  I will do this with all the children as well, but she'll be up for more of the "challenge" parts.
Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 5:  April requested one of these readers for her level, so she'll be doing this one.
Story of the World Volume 1:  We are continuing this from last year.  We also have the SOTW activity guide for all the maps, coloring pages, and projects to go along with each chapter.
Lessons in responsibility for girls level 3:  She did Lessons in responsibility for girls level 2 for the last 2 years, so we got the next level that matches her age.  They are all great lessons on homemaking and life.
What your sixth grader needs to know (reading supplement):  She wanted to get one of these books because I had them for the boys.  They really are packed with a lot of reading and information. 
Creative and critical thinking activities grade 5:  This is a leftover from last year, but I will continue to pull pages out of this quite often.  It has a lot of great puzzles and thinking activities.
Building spelling skills (grade 6+):  This is also a leftover from last year.  She will mostly use this as a way to discover new words.  I am really looking into a new spelling program for her though.




Aric (age 4, PK)

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons:  don't know if he'll do very much of this, we might just give it a try once in a while.  Picked it up for free at a homeschool swap.
All about reading pre-level 1:  I have the activity book portion of this.  I am hoping to get the rest, but haven't yet.  The activity book that I have looks really good.
Get ready for the code book A:  we started this mid-summer, and he likes it.  He'll be onto book B real soon.
Bob books:  We just picked up the first set of Bob books earlier this summer.  He enjoys reading these with me, but isn't quite ready to read them on his own.
Babba Co monthly box:  We happened to be getting a free box this month to try out, and that will help me to decide if we will keep going with the monthly boxes.  I think it's a fun idea, but a little bit spendy.
Science experiments in a bag:  (same as his brother)  These are great to have all ready to pull out and do every once in a while.  Now I just have to put the bags together!
Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 1.:  (same book as his brother) I'm excited to start these.  I just discovered them, and I think they'll be a great addition to our nature studies.  I'll read this aloud to the boys.
Preschool activity bags:  These will be simple activities that will be put together to pull out and do during our school time.
Speekee TV:  Aric will do this right along with Aaron.  He is picking up a lot just in the 1 week we have been watching it.
Wee sing bible songs:  He gets these wee sing bible songs from the library a lot so I finally got it for him to listen to during our scripture time.
Kumon make a match level 1 & 2:  These are pretty simple, just pages and pages of circling matches.  It helps the child get better at finding matches as there are more objects added in as you go along through the book.  He does these a lot.
K4 curriculum:  printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler
Letter of the week activities from various places

So, that's our curriculum in a nut shell.  I do use lots of freebies like homeschool share for lapbooks, and I have subscriptions to others like Enchanted learning, and abcteach that I will also use all year long for all the kids. 



Happy not-back-to-school!
Desiree