I’m not quite sure how we’ve made it to the seventh week of our homeschool year and I’m just getting around to posting our curriculum choices. But…here I am!
I feel like we’ve gotten into a good routine with school this year. I was a bit anxious about adding Jenny into the mix as a Kindergartner this year, but she’s doing great. I’m exhausted at the end of a every single day, but honestly, it’s a good exhausted.
I didn’t make any drastic changes this year. I’m not a proponent of making changes unless they are absolutely necessary. The biggest change we made was in using Rod & Staff Grammer since First Language Lessons stops at grade 4.
Here is a run-down of the curriculum we are using in our homeschool this year.
EA & MC (5th Grade)
Core (History, Read-alouds, & Readers) – Sonlight E (continued from last year) Year 2 of American History
Math – Saxon 6/5
Language Arts:
Science: Apologia Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Elective: Typing Instructor for Kids
Legacy Christian Academy (co-op) Classes: History/Geography, Creative Writing & Hand Sewing
Extra Curricular – AWANA Truth & Training Club & American Heritage Girls
Will (3rd Grade)
Core (History, Bible, Read-alouds & Readers) – Sonlight C Intro to World History Year 2
Math – Saxon 3
Language Arts:
Science: Apologia Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Legacy Christian Academy (co-op) Classes: P.E., Five in a Row, & Science is Fun
Extra Curricular – AWANA Truth & Training Club & Trail Life USA
Jenny (Kindergarten)
Core (History, Read-alouds, & Readers): Sonlight A Intro to the World: Cultures
Math – Saxon K
All About Reading – Pre-Reading and moving on to Level 1
Explode the Code – Books A, B, & C
Handwriting – A Reason for Handwriting K
Science: Apologia Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Legacy Christian Academy (co-op) Classes: Arts & Crafts, Math & Science Games, & Before Five in a Row
Extra Curricular – AWANA Sparks Club & American Heritage Girls
Whew! There you have it…now, that I have all of that written out, there’s no wonder why I’m so tired.
A few notes…
I LOVE Sonlight and have used it as our core curriculum for years, but I do supplement their Language Arts instruction. I have decided against combining all of my children into one or two cores for various reasons…it just worked better for us not to. It would be MUCH easier on me if I did, but I think in the end I’m doing what’s best for them and my relationship with them. I think so much relationship and connection is built through reading together! So, we’re doing three separate cores and I’m reading all the day long.
Also, we have always and will probably always use Saxon for our math curriculum. I love the spiral approach and I am convinced that it lays a solid foundation for math concepts.
This is our first year delving into the world of homeschool co-ops. I found a co-op through friends at our church that only meets twice a month for class days and offers field trips. This sounded like a perfect way to get an introduction to a co-op and still be my children’s primary teacher. So far we are all loving it!
If you have any questions about the curriculum that we are using this year, please feel free to ask away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to get back to you!
Luke Holzmann says
After all these years, I didn’t realize you were doing so many Cores all at the same time. …I do tend to just glance over people’s “what we’re doing this year” posts, so maybe that’s how I missed it. But I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts, insights, and experiences with doing multiple Sonlight programs. I know people do it, but I haven’t heard the specifics of “how.” …if you’re looking for blog fodder, I think that would make a very interesting post (at least, to me [smile]).
~Luke
Monica Andrews says
I’ll definitely be doing a follow up post on how I make doing multiple cores at the same time work. This is my first time doing three cores, since I just added in my youngest. It’s been a challenge and I admit that several times a week I’m questioning myself, but in the end I am convinced that this is the best for us…at least for now. 🙂
Thanks for commenting! And thank you so much for Sonlight’s support. Another post I need to write was my experience with talking to a Sonlight adviser. It was one of the most encouraging experiences I’ve ever had with homeschooling!