2011-2012 Curriculum
Our kids will be 9, 7 and 5 going into the upcoming school year. We’ve never taken a summer break before, but we are this year, since we’ve had a pretty incredible year with some loss and a lot of moving around. We are all excited to be taking a break, but we keep going with math–it’s too easy to lose ground there–and we’ve done a lot of nature study.
Bible:
We read from the Bible, do scripture memorization, and I’ll be using the Hero Training Camp curriculum this year from the National Centre for Biblical Parenting, as well as some other similar Bible studies.
History/Geography:
Story of the World: Early Modern Times – Susan Wise Bauer
I have also chosen a number of books as supplementary reading from the accompanying activity book, in PDF format
We’ve also bought several of the Geo Puzzles and use them regularly.
Math:
Math-U-See
Life of Fred
(I have always had two math programs on the go. I’ve made an effort to make math simple and fun. It was something I struggled with, and I wanted to make sure my kids didn’t face that. It’s been good to have more than one way to explain a problem. For 1st through 3rd grade math, we used Right Start/Dreambox in conjunction with Math-U-See. I think math is worth the investment, so I don’t mind spending the extra money.)
Language Arts:
Rod and Staff English for my daughter who’s seven (this is the book her brother used last year)
First Language Lessons for my son, in PDF format
Brave Writer and The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever for writing
We’ll continue with Spell to Write and Read for spelling and Getty-Dubay handwriting
Science:
Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy
French:
Le Francais Facile
Latin:
Song School Latin and Lively Latin (probably) , available in PDF format
Art:
Artisitic Pursuits
Music:
Simply Music
Our kids will also be learning Chinese. We’ve had some difficulty finding exactly the right resources for this. We assumed they’d be able to jump right in and make friends to learn the language but because their friends are so busy studying after school, there aren’t as many opportunities as we’d imagined. We tried having tutors, and finally did find a really great one for about four months, then she became pregnant, and there were complications. The kids have enough proficiency now to navigate the early stages of friendship, and we’ll use Little Pim and Early Advantage DVDs to supplement. I think we’re also going to purchase Rosetta Stone, which my husband and I used online early on. We’re quite excited about that.
