I’m joining ihomeschoolnetwork in their “not” back to school blog hop for the month of August. As I previously shared, we will not be doing Modest Monday’s during August, but will still have a link up at the bottom of this post for you to share your homeschool posts.
I can’t remember ever being so excited to start a school year. While I’m apprehensive as to how I will manage with a nursing baby, a two year old, a husband in college, and a business to run, I’m looking forward to the subjects we are going to cover and the curriculum we are using.
We decided to use Heart of Dakota curriculum this coming school year, though I picked a few different items to use for math, english, and spelling instead of what the curriculum called for.
Mosiah-age 8
Mosiah will be in the Bigger Hearts For His Glory set. I had originally planned on combining both boys in this year, but after looking at the year after this I realized that our 6 year old would not be ready for it next year, so I’m separating them. This is the perfect level for Mosiah, and he is so excited over the school books I’ve shown him he gets to use.
Math- he will be using Teaching Textbooks 3 for his math. We have used Math U See and Christian Light Education before, and I’m hopeful that this will be the perfect choice for him. He struggles with math, so I’m praying that Teaching Textbooks will take the struggle out of math each day.
History-this is one of his favorite subjects! As assigned in Heart of Dakota, he will be reading A First Book in American History, Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, The story of the Wright Brothers and Their Sister, and Journeys in Time for history.
Science-I’m very excited about the science that Heart of Dakota uses. I think it will be the perfect level for him! He will be using One Small Square: Seashore, One Small Square: Woods, Science in Colonial America, John Audubon: Young Naturalist, A Pioneer Sampler (I love this book!) and Thomas A. Edison. The teacher’s guide gives you science experiments to do throughout the week, which look fun and easy!
Grammar-Heart of Dakota calls for Rod and Staff English, but I’m using Essentials in Writing, which is on a DVD. It’s our first year to use it and I really like what I’ve seen so far!
Handwriting-He will be doing Rod and Staff handwriting, copy work of the poems he will be studying, and later in the year will start a cursive handwriting program.
Reading-He will be using the Heart of Dakota’s reading program – Drawn Into The Heart of Reading.
Timeline-My Mom would be so happy, we are going to start a timeline for both boys this year using the beautiful Homeschool In The Woods Timeline. I have memories of creating a timeline in high school with her. I will be purchasing the CD of all the timeline figures soon, so we should be set for the rest of our school life! I plan on letting the boys color the people and put in their timeline book.
Music-Mosiah started taking piano lessons this year, and on top of that we will be focusing on learning the hymns as outlined in Heart of Dakota.
Israel-age 6
Israel will be in Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory. He loves the time period this curriculum uses, so I have no doubts as to him enjoying school this year.
Math-Israel will be finishing up Christian Light Education Grade 1 books, and then going into Teaching Textbooks Grade 3. He is pretty good at math, and I don’t think he will struggle with the jump at all.
History- He will be reading American Pioneers and Patriots, Stories of the Pilgrims, and Boys and Girls of Colonial Days for history.
Science-We will be using God’s Wonderful Works for science, along with lots of science experiments that go with the book.
Grammar- Both boys will use the same Grammar DVD and do it together.
Handwriting- Israel will use Rod and Staff handwriting books.
Reading-I don’t think that Israel is ready for Drawn Into The Heart of Reading, so he will be using the scheduled books for emerging readers. Some of the books he will read out-loud to me are:
The Early Reader’s Bible, Owl at Home, Frog and Toad All Year, Frog and Toad are Friends, Wagon Wheels, Amelia Bedelia, Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express, Prairie School, First Flight, Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book One, Underground Railroad, Animal Adventures, and The Courage of Sarah Noble.
Carrianna-age 4
I’m learning not to stress about teaching my children to read at a really young age. When they are ready to read, they do it. I struggled with Mosiah for a long time, and when I was pregnant with our last baby and sick in bed he just had it all click by himself and started reading. Carrianna loves to do workbooks and have her own school time, so we are going to use Little Hands to Heaven with her and have Olivia (who is 2) sit in with us during that time as well). I’m going to do lesson time with the girls right after devotions, so they will hopefully be a little more content to play and do a few things on their own.
Carrianna is also going to start the Primer book in Math U See. I LOVE that book for starting children out in math, and I plan to use it for all my children, even though we do not stay with Math U See. Carrianna does not know how to write all her numbers yet, but a lot of it can be verbally done and then I will help her learn how to write her numbers as we go through the book.
Later on this week I will blog about my criteria for choosing curriculum, and what I look for when picking out new curriculum.
Now I would love to hear about your homeschool life! Instead of our normal Modest Monday link up, I’m asking that only homeschool link ups be shared below. Thank you!
Feel free to grab this button (code is on the right hand side of the blog) to link up to this post.
Wow… I just read over your list of commitments in your life and you sound a bit like me!
Let me just say that it all can be done. I have an almost 2 year old who still nurses, my husband and I run our own business, and I have three older girls (6, 7 and 7) who I homeschool. Plus there’s my blog hobby that is turning into a business as well, there’s just so much to do. Let’s not even mention laundry and dishes 
But really, all the important stuff will get done and whatever doesn’t get done, probably wasn’t as important as you thought it was. Thanks for linking up with the Blog Hop at iHomeschool. That’s where I found you and I LOVE finding new homeschool blogs. I look forward to reading more from you and I hope you have a chance to come visit me in my little corner of the web!
So fun that you’re using HOD too! We’re also using Teaching Textbooks, and love, love, love it. We started math already, and my children are begging to do math every day for the first time ever!
Looks like a great year in your home. I’ve never used that curriculum, but have heard nice things about it.
Ooops! I did not see the fine print about what we can link up today and my posts are not about homeschooling. I do not know how to take them off. Can you?
Yes I just deleted it. Sorry about that, I changed things around for this month due to my own time constraints as to what I could handle.
We use HOD too! My oldest will be using Beyond this year and we’ve have enjoyed Little Hands to Heaven twice. It is such a precious program! If you are interested, I’d love for you to come link up your blog over on the HOD 2012-2013 blogroll that is running over on my page: http://reachtothemoonandback.blogspot.com/p/hod-blogroll-2012-2013.html
It’s fun to read about how others are using the same curriculum!
We used Heart of Dakota’s preschool book, too! I’m linking to post I did on the “hows” and “whys” for our family in homeschooling. Thanks for hosting the linkup again!
Your plan looks great! I’ve just started a loosely structured kindergarten with my almost-5-yr-old (and the 2-yr-old sits there with his own books!) using Queen Homeschool materials. They are also a Charlotte Mason style publisher, and their language arts materials are especially nice for a very informal, gentle approach to a sometimes challenging subject. (I’d started another phonics program, and we were both quickly overwhelmed!) I always enjoy reading about your family. God’s blessings to you!
You do sound busy! I’ve seen Heart of Dakota mentioned other places and it looks sweet. We’ve got 7 little ones and the only way to keep things sane is to work together in as much as we can, especially history. I love that homeschooling looks so different in each family and yet still works! You can see our plans for the year here: http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/curriculum-for-seven-kids-2012-2013.html
My son has been using teaching textbooks the past 2 years and went from low math scores to now almost being in the advanced area in his testing. He loves doing math now.
I think your son will enjoy it. Thanks for sharing your homeschool year with us…I am working on my curriculum post here soon! So fun.
How fun!! We are starting our first year of Home Schooling and we are useing HOD too. and we also are adding the music from Song for Saplings!
We are doing a giveaway on our blog this week for 6 CD’s from their ministry!
come check out our blog!
http://jonncarramoorman.blogspot.com/2012/08/songs-for-saplings-cd-giveaway.html
I’m glad you picked HOD! You will love it. It is not recommended to have children in back to back guides though. I have done both of those guides. We are in Preparing. If I were you I would reconsider putting both of your children in Beyond and save Bigger for next year. You can always add in extra reading for your oldest. Then next year he could read the extension readers. One big problem in our house when I tried to keep my boys apart is that they wanted to listen in on each others school. But, there was not enough time for it. My boys were 8 and 6 when I combined them into Beyond even though my 8 year old had already done Beyond when he was 6. Life that year made me combine. Now they are in Preparing and I am so glad I combined them years ago. I enjoyed that year with our family. I still had time to enjoy my newborn that year and my toddler.
Thank you for the suggestion! I’m going to sit down today and look at the guides today. I might do that. I wish that Beyond had an extension pack as well….but Mosiah could do the extension readers in Bigger as you suggested. This might make our days go smoother! Ah the beauty of homeschooling, plans always changing.
Yes, you can always give it a one week try. This is what I looked at. Beyond takes 1.5 hrs. Bigger takes 4hrs. You will be spending alot of time just on school. At those ages you are still walking them through everything. Just add a few readers onto beyond. I just created my own extension readers at that level. We read the D’auluaire book on George Washington, a Jean Fritz book on Plymouth Rock, and just a few others that went along with the time period. You can also add in some vocabulary words for your oldest if you feel he needs more. I just stress less by adding to a curriculum rather than taking away from a curriculum. Enjoy your low key year before it gets so time consuming.
We used Little Hands to Heaven when mine were younger! Such a sweet program!
Popped by from the “Not-Back-to-School” Blog Hop: Curriculum Week!
Hope that you have a happy homeschool year! Happy planning for 2012-2013!
Hope that you will pop by to say hello over at my blog and my Pinterest boards too!
Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama
http://pinterest.com/f5th/
Sunrise Learning Lab
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-school-year-right-around-corner.html
Hi!
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Here’s the link:http://www.momessentials.net/fruit-drink-power-nutrition-in-a-cup/