What We're Using 2013-2014

Every year we evaluate the girls curriculum, we want to make sure that it's still working well for them. It would be easiest on me if we picked one and stuck with it of course, but I do remind myself frequently that the reason I choose to homeschool is so I can taylor my child's education to my child. Does this mean that we end up swapping, switching and moving things around sometimes - Absolutely! Totally worth it! 

Nanners - 10 years old

Math - Horizon's Math 5, Teaching Textbooks 5

Writing - Institute for Excellence in Writing

Spelling - All About Spelling Level 3

History - Hougthon Mifflin History 5

Science - Harcourt Science 5

Grammar - Growing With Grammar 4

Reading - One Minute Readers, Classic Lit Books

Geography - Mommy Made :)

Spunky - 7 years old

Writing - Institute for Excellence in Writing

Spelling - All About Spelling

History - Houghton Mifflin Social Studies 2, Internet Resources

Science - Harcourt Science 2, Internet Resources

Grammar - Growing with Grammar 2

Reading - One Minute Readers, Chapter Books of her choice

Geography - Mommy Made  :)
Math - Horizons Math 3

Baby Big Girl - 5 years old

Writing - Primary Arts of Language

Spelling - All About Spelling

History - Made Made :)

Science - Mommy Made :)

Grammar - Growing With Grammar 1

Reading - Reading Eggs

Geography - Mommy Made :)
Math - Horizons Math 1

So far this is working great, but I'm sure that we'll encounter a few bumps along the road. Every year we get better, and every year I learn new things about the girls and myself. Nanners will be doing Horizons math during the day, and following up with Teaching Textbooks in the afternoon as "homework". We decided to do this because while I like both programs, and so does she, we want some extra practice for her this year. We're hoping that it will help get her math level, and understanding of the areas that she continues to struggle with closer to her "grade level". Who knows, we may end up abandoning that before the holidays. We'll play it by ear.

Getting Back to the Grind

Monday came and went, with not a single lesson plan in sight. I did have a good reason though, The Boy was home. He had the day off, and we had some errands to run so we did that. We also had some laundry to do, I did that.

It's Tuesday morning and I'm printing up various worksheets to stack into their manila folders for use later. I'll post some pictures of my crazy system sooner or later, and you'll see just how organized I am.

Fare well summer, I will see you again soon. Hopefully next year it'll be in shorts.

Lesson Planning

Ahh, it's that time of year again - the dreaded lesson planning season. You see while many of our friends are giddy and dancing down the isles of the local Target with their back to school list in hand, we are not.

We homeschool our girls, which means that there is no break for us. This isn't to say we don't back to school shop. Who can pass up pencils for a penny and packs of paper for a quarter? Not me, definently not me!

I love pileing new crayons, rulers, notebooks, folders, and of course new pencils into our cart. I'll assign each girl their own color and write their names on their new school stuff. I neatly assign each girl their own shelf, labeled with their name.

This time of year reminds me of one thing - my lesson plans are not complete! AHHH! Seriously I'm one of those over planners who also second guess every decision they make. So much so, that I'll often end up giving up on the whole thing. (Perhaps this is why we eat out so much?)

While I'm not terribly behind, I don't like the feeling of stress that I know will inevitably envelope me in a few weeks. This year started off bad a year ago when I realized that I would have a junior high student. Yep, on top of dealing with the sassy remarks, and breaking up fights between her and whatever sister she happens to be trying to "persuade" at the moment I get to create her lesson plans for the year. Joy, oh joy!

I've given myself a reprive for this weekend. Starting Monday I will be a lesson planning fool. Maybe I'll post some, perhaps someone out there will appriciate the loss of sleep that I get in creating them, because these kids sure don't seem to appriciate it at all!

Good thing I knew this would be a mountain climbing lesson, without ropes it feels like at times. The countdown begins...14 days to go. Guess I better print up the lesson plan book at least. :)