Not Back to School Blog Hop Curriculum

Due to technical difficulties, I'm a little late. However, the saying is - better late than never - right?  It's passed time to join the Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013! 

The first week was curriculum and since I have 5 students this year,  I have a variety.

Let's start with the easiest and the oldest. My 9th and 7th graders will be doing all their work on the computer. They enjoy the freedom of getting up, getting started, and getting finished without much interference from mom. I just log on, verify the work, and grade what I need to. This year they both will be using Switched on Schoolhouse. I used this last year for the oldest and  he did very well. 

The next two, 4th and 6th graders, will be doing a combination of computer work with traditional classroom type work. They will be using Teaching Textbooks for math. This is also a curriculum I tried last year and the kids really did well. This would be the favorite of all the math ones we have tried. It is on a CD-ROM so they get to work on the computer a little too. The program shows them step by step what to do then walks them through a couple sample problems. Once they get into the actual "worksheet" part of the lesson, they know immediately whether they got each problem right or wrong. If they missed it, it gives them the option to see exactly how it should have been done.  

We will be doing science and history together for the 4th and 6th graders. I will be using Christian Kids Explore Biology. I borrowed this from my sister-in-law a few years ago and went through it with the two oldest, but not the girls. So, we will be going through it this year together. We'll be doing the activity book this time and I'm hoping to get to do a lot more of the experiments and hands-on activities this time around.

 History will be from Answers in Genesis, America From the Beginning. I reserve the right to change this during the year, since it is the first year for this one. I have used Answers in Genesis in the past for simple Bible units, and have know people that use them for VBS themes with positive feedback. With that in mind, I found this while looking for our Bible curriculum and thought it looked very interesting and fairly simple. We shall see. That leads me to Bible - Answers for Kids Bible Curriculum. I'm hoping to be able to use this as a group Bible time for all of us. Since it still hasn't arrived, I haven't been able to look through it to make sure. 

One of the blessings of homeschooling is being able to be flexible!

Their English will be Easy Grammar. I have used this for the past couple years and find it one of the easiest for teaching English. Most curriculum I have used jump around too much getting my kiddos confused. It doesn't help that English is probably my LEAST favorite subject to attempt to teach. Along with their Easy Grammar, we will be using Soaring with Spelling. This is one my sister-in-law uses and likes really well. Spelling is an issue for both of my girls. I'm hoping that this will help them. There is nothing I dislike more than getting texts with an abundance of mis-spelled words. We're going to work on that this year. Their reading units will consist of grade appropriate books they will read through and do a book report on. One of my biggest challenges with the oldest girl is reading books; which I find difficult to deal with since I LOVE to read. 

That leaves the little one. She will be in K4. I'm going to start her out with the ABC Mouse program online. She loves being on the computer and this will keep her interested with their games and she will be learning as well. We also will be using BJU K4 Foundations for Learning on DVDs. 

I believe that covers everyone and everything. That only took me two hours to complete since my computer is still acting horribly!

I have enjoyed browsing through seeing what everyone uses. Check back to get a peak at our classroom.