Box Day Fun

After much time spent researching, I decided to use Sonlight for both Hailey and Hunter next year.  So, I placed our order and soon after our boxes arrived.  We love box day- it’s so fun to get our new curriculum!

Hunter was very excited to get his box.

He started checking out all of his new books right away.

Hailey was very excited about her box too.

She couldn’t believe how many books they were able to fit into the box.
I ordered some summer reading for her too, so she got started reading her summer books right away.

I am definitely not wishing away the summer, but we are excited to use Sonlight in the fall!!

Preschool Curriculum

Hunter loves to do school- and when Hailey is doing her schoolwork, he is looking for something to do too.  So, I am preparing to start preschool this fall with Hunter.  I need to be organized and have things planned out as much as possible since this will be a very busy fall for us!  Here are the plans I have so far for Hunter for preschool:

I am going to use Little Hands to Heaven with Hunter which includes A Child’s First Bible, Big Thoughts for Little People, and some music.  Each unit focuses on a new letter.  Since Hunter is still young I am planing to stretch LHTH out for 2 years.  We will do a new unit every other week.  The off weeks we will focus on the same letter we learned the week before using LHTH.  Those weeks we will use Alpha Tales, Montessori Letter Work and Number Work, Farmland Math as well as some printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

In addition we have lots of manipulatives that Hunter will enjoy using.  This is just a small portion of what I have for him to use.  I will rotate these every week to keep him interested.

This is the plan for now… of course that can and probably will change.  We’ll have a newborn in the house and I’m sure my plans will need to be relaxed and flexible.  Of course, these plans will also depend on Hunter’s interest.  If he isn’t ready for something or isn’t enjoying something I will put it away until he’s older.  But for now, this is the plan.

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Third Grade Curriculum 2014-2105

Here is a look at our plans for third grade:

Language Arts:

We are using Rod and Staff Building English 3- we used level 2 last year and Hailey really liked it. (4x per week)
All About Spelling (4x per week)
A Reason for Handwriting (4x per week)
Daily 6- Trait Writing (4x per week)
Critical and Creative Thinking Activities (4x per week)

Here are some of the books I will read to Hailey this year, although chances are good she will end up being the one reading some of them.

Here are some of the books Hailey will read aloud to me.  She has actually already read a good portion of them this summer, so I am going to need to find some more for her to read during the school year.

History/Geography:

I had purchased Story of the World to use for History, as well as History Pockets to go with it.  Then we reviewed Veritas Press Old  Testament and Ancient Egypt and Hailey loved it and begged to continue using it this fall.  Since both cover ancient history I am going to use both- it will be nice to use Veritas Press because it is online and won’t require much work on my part- and with a newborn I know that will be very helpful.  But, I will add in some of the reading and activities from Story of the World to go along with it. (4x per week)

For geography we are using Daily Geography Practice and the United States Sticker Book.  Hailey also receives Little Passports USA and Highlights USA, so each week we will focus on one state.  (2x per week)

Bible:

We are going to try out Grapevine this year and see how we like that.  We’re starting with Part 1- Creation to Jacob and will move on to part 2 when we finish that if we are enjoying it. (4x per week)

Science:

We are going to use Science in the Beginning this year and add in some fun unit studies along the way.  (2x per week)

Math:

Teaching Textbooks 4 is my plan for math.  (4x per week)

Health:

We are using Health, Safety, and Manners from A Beka for Health. (2x per week)

So, that is my plan for third grade.  I am sure things will change along the way, but this is the plan for now.

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2013 – 2014 Curriculum

Now that I have made the official announcement that we will be homeschooling this year, I thought I would share our curriculum choices with everyone.

Our core curriculum will be Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory from Heart of Dakota, with a few extras added in, which I am using for second grade.

My teacher’s guide 🙂  I love how everything is so nicely organized for me!!

Language Arts: (we will do this daily)

We are using Heart of Dakota for LA.  I will use their spelling lists (list 2) as well as some of the language arts activities.  We are also using the Emerging Readers Set from Heart of Dakota, where Hailey will read the books in the picture and then answer various questions about the books.  We are using Rod and Staff 2 for grammar.  For handwriting we are using Cheerful Cursive, since Hailey has been asking to learn cursive.

These are story time books from Heart of Dakota that I will read to Hailey.

Math: (we will do this daily)

It took me a really long time to decide what math curriculum to pick.  I finally decided to go with Singapore.  This summer we are going over 1B since Singapore tends to be ahead of where public schools are.  So far it’s going very quickly because it’s all review, but I know when we get to the end of the workbook it will slow down.  When school starts in the fall we will do 2A and 2B.

History: (we will do this daily)

We are using Heart of Dakota for history and will use the books pictured above as our text.

Geography: (we will do this 2 times per week)

We are going to use Road Trip USA for learning about the 50 states.  We are only going to cover 1 state per week to start.  Depending on how it goes we might move up to 2 states per week as the curriculum is written, but we’re going to see how it goes first.  In addition we are also using Highlights Which Way USA magazines and/or Little Passports US edition.  Right now are getting both subscriptions because I can’t decide which one I like better hahaha

Science: (we will do this 2 times per week)

We are going to use Heart of Dakota for our science curriculum and the book pictured above will be our text.  It seems pretty light to me, so we are planning to add in some unit studies based on Hailey’s interests.

Bible: (we will do this daily)

We are going to use Heart of Dakota for our Bible curriculum.  In addition to that we are going to read through Bible stories and do activities based on the stories.  We are also going to use the What’s in the Bible DVDs, although right now we only have the first DVD and I want to make sure we like them before I buy anymore.

My Planner:

I love planners and writing my plans down 🙂  It took me forever to decide which planner to buy and so far I’m glad I decided on this one.  It might not be totally necessary to have a planner when using Heart of Dakota, but the plans are written based on a 5 day week.  We are going to go to a homeschool co-op once per week (this will be our art, music and physical education) and will be gone for most of the day on our co-op days, so I am trying to re-write the plans to fit things into a 4 day week.

So, that is my plan so far.  We will see how it goes and adjust as needed 🙂

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