Our Large Family Homeschool Curriculum For 2016-2017 School Year

Here is our curriculum choices for this new school year! I’m missing a few small things, like handwriting and spelling. Some things I’m still figuring out exactly what we are doing, but I have all the major stuff! We started over a week ago, and so far it’s going good!

7th Grade

Math – Math U See and Teaching Textbooks (we struggle in math, so we are quickly going through some Math U See books to really get some concepts down, and will try going back to Teaching Textbooks in a month or two.

History – Notgrass From Adam To Us, and Tapestry of Grace. Yes, we use both. My boys love to read, and love history. We did this last year and it worked well, so we are trying it again this year.

Science – Apologia General Science. I was worried about starting this, because it’s a big jump from the elementary series. So far he has done great, and seems to be enjoying it!

Literature – Books from Notgrass and Tapestry of Grace

Grammar – Fix It Grammar from IEW

Writing – Student Writing Intensive Level B from IEW

Geography -Daily Geography by  Evan Moore, plus other map work from Tapestry of Grace and what I’m putting together. I was able to get the Evan Moore workbooks for all the children with store credit on Zulily, so it was an affordable option for daily drills.

Spelling – Building Spelling Skills by Evan Moore (and hopefully the IEW spelling program)

Latin – Latin for Children Book A from Classical Academic Press. This will be our first year to ever start learning Latin, so even though this said it is for an earlier grade I’m thinking it is the best level to start it. I don’t want them being frustrated with a really difficult program, and this looks fun to do! I’m really looking forward to learning Latin along with them! I learned just a little bit in high school.

Art – Tapestry of Grace assignments

Music – Cello lessons and Beautiful Feet Classical Music study

5th Grade 

Math – Math U See and Teaching Textbooks

Science – Science Shepherd Introductory Science and Apologia Astronomy Book – I wasn’t planning on him doing both initially. I loved the idea of the Science Shepherd being short videos they watch, with workbooks to fill in. It said it was for ages 6-11, and has two different workbooks for the different age levels. So far, it’s just right for my 1st and 3rd grader, but really easy for my 5th grader. So…we went ahead and got the latest version of the Astronomy book for him to do as well. I love all the new updates in the 2nd version of the Apologia Astronomy!

Grammar – Fix It Grammar from IEW

History – Notgrass From Adam To Us, and Tapestry of Grace Year 2.

Writing – Student Writing Intensive Level B from IEW

Geography – Daily Geography by  Evan Moore, plus other map work from Tapestry of Grace and what I’m putting together.

Latin – Latin for Children Book A from Classical Academic Press.

Art – Tapestry of Grace assignments

Music – Piano lessons and Beautiful Feet Classical Music study

3rd Grade

Math – She has used Horizons math from the beginning, and it’s an excellent fit for her!

History – BJU Social Studies and Tapestry of Grace Year 2

Writing – I was originally going to do the writing course from IEW with her, and just use the assignments from Level A. After starting it, I can tell right away it’s not a good fit for her yet. She just needs to be a little older. So I think I’m going to get the Writing & Rhetoric Book 1 from Classical Academic Press and use with her. It looks really good, and she loves workbooks!

Science – Science Shepherd Introductory Science

Grammar – Fix It Grammar from IEW

Spelling – Building Spelling Skills by Evan Moore for a daily drill, and Phonetic Zoo from IEW.

Geography – Daily Geography by  Evan Moore, plus other map work from Tapestry of Grace and what I’m putting together.

Latin  – Song School Latin book 1 from Classical Academic Press

Art – Tapestry of Grace assignments  (Artistic Pursuits will be a  big thing we do this year)

Music – Violin lessons and Beautiful Feet Classical Music study

1st Grade 

Math – Horizons grade 1

History – Tapestry of Grace Year 2

Science – She is doing the Science Shepherd Introductory course, and it’s perfect for the 1st-3rd grade level!

Reading – All About Reading Level 1

Geography – Daily Geography by Evan Moore

Latin  – Song School Latin book 1 from Classical Academic Press

Pre-K/Kindergarten

This 4.5 year old girl is doing a mixture of Pre-K and Kindergarten work. She loves math, and is just ok with all her letters still. So…we let her excel in what she loves right now, and worry about learning how to read when she shows more interest. 🙂

Math – Primer Book from Math U See – so far she LOVES it!

Kindergarten workbook from Costco – I’m keeping it simple, and a scholastic workbook from Costco is going to be just fine. 🙂 She seems to enjoy it.

That’s pretty much all I’ll do with my 4 year old this year! We might add on some All About Reading later in the year if she seems interested.

That about sums up our school year! As my husband wrote in his blog post today, it’s crazy and hectic! Here is a quote from his post:

“Caroline is an optimist at heart. She formed idyllic scenes of happily educated and well behaved children in her mind long before she met me. However, anyone who has schooled their children at home for any length of time knows you have to fight for those dreams and they can often feel nearly impossible to realize. To be sure, it’s an ideal and striving for, but there will be many days where it feels like it’s nothing more than a fanciful notion conjured up by artfully staged photographs or youthful naivety or both.”

You can read more of his blog post here.

It’s been a really stressful year for our family, personally. I had hoped some things would lesson by now, but so far we still feel in the thick of it all. Sean and I are searching for some direction in a few areas, and it all seems to affect our homeschooling somehow (nothing like sending them to public or private school).

I’m thankful for the big boost of encouragement I’m going to be receiving next week during the Encouragement for the Homeschool Mom, Online Conference! I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I have been discouraged, and then been able to chat with other homeschooling friends and left feeling so inspired! Our hope is that this conference will give you all that boost of inspiration and hope.

We added an extra bonus for you all. Jami and I will be sending out a 21 day devotional, giving you a fresh boost of encouragement for 21 days in a row! 

Hurry and grab your early bird ticket! There are only a few days left for the sale price!