Our Curriculum

     This is the curriculum I am currently using with my children.  If you want to find out more about preschool curriculum, check out the tab, “Preschool Curriculum” and my tabbed articles “Preschool Goals” and “The Four R’s“. 

Curriculum Choices, 2010-2011– 2nd and 4th grade:

   Note:  We do everything together except language arts and math. 

Bible:  The Bible; Vos Story Bible; The Victor Journey through the Bible (fabulous!), Character First; Pleasing God  and The Word of God (both from Rainbow Resource.)  For more specifics on our goals, read “Curriculum Planning Part One.” 

Math:  Rod and Staff for our second grader; Teaching Textbooks for our fourth grader

Language Arts:  Sing, Spell, Read and Write; Explode the Code; Daily Grams (orally); Queen’s Language Lessons

Unit Study:  We are going to alternate history and science by topic, turning each into its own unit study. 

History:  TruthQuest (a literature approach that ties time periods together via a narrative) supplemented with Homeschool in the Wood’s Time Traveler’s (lapbooking).  We’ll also use Sonlight Timeline figures to make 5X8 timeline cards.

Science:  Apologia Zoology 1 (Flying Creatures) supplemented by Knowledge Box Central (lapbooking), various living books and nature experiences.

Art:  Open-ended projects from my book; Homepreschool and Beyond; Artistic Pursuits, and picture study from Queen’s Language Arts as well as misc other resources.

Music:  Private music lessons/listening & composer studies/singing (for more specific information, look at my post, “Curriculum Planning 2010-2011”, part two.) 

For My 12^th Grader:

-Bible:  Summit Bible College Courses (Apologetics/Kingdom of the Cults–you can watch videos of their classes/seminars online for FREE!)

-Consumer Math: Larry Burket’s Money Matters for Kids; Uncle Eric books/managing her own money and checking account

-Later American History: Notgrass American (from the Civil War until the present–we divide Notgrass  into two years, and go into further depth); Politically Incorrect Guides/real books and novels

-English:  Notgrass for lit; writing and editing assignments including creative writing (Christian fiction), a term paper and Institute for Excellence in Writing.

-Civics (semester):  Uncle Eric books; Basic American Government by Carson

-Economics (semester):  Uncle Eric books; Money Matters for Kids by Larry Burkett

-Home Economics/Child Development:  Assigned reading/notebooking/life experiences/skills practice as assigned by Mom throughout the year.  I’m thinking these courses will be one semester each, but we’ll see.

-Work Experience:  Administrative Assistant, Summit Bible College, part time

2009-2010 Curriculum Choices

For our little ones (ages 9 and 6):

-Bible:  Vos Story Bible; The Answers Book for Kids, by Ken Ham (volumes 1-4); daily memory work.  We also keep some type of “devotional” or “inspirational” book going.  We just finished Comfort for a Child’s Heart:  The 23rd Psalm & Bible Promises, by Haidle (awesome!); next up will be The Evergreen Wood:  An Adaptation of Pilgrim’s Progress, by Alan and Linda Parry.

-Math:  Rod and Staff (we add our own manipulatives.)

-Language Arts:  Sing, Spell, Read and Write; Explode the Code (for extra practice);  bits of Queen’s Language Lessons.  We also write down any vocabulary words that come up, either through our reading or our conversations, and we review these from time to time. 

-Unit Study (History, science, geography):  Galloping the Globe, plus notebooking.  (This is a literature approach.)  For science, we study each country’s major habitats, unique animals, and so on. 

For my high schooler:

-Bible:  Kay Arthur studies; Bible survey (with mom/making a Bible notebook): Learn the Bible in 24 Hours by Missler.  She’s also auditing a survey class from our local Bible college.

-Math:  Video Text Interactive Algebra.

-History, literature, church history (EarlyAmerican, until the Civil War):  Notgrass American, plus lots of supplemental literature; Politically Incorrect Guides. 

-Science:  Apologia Biology (co-op class, complete with microscopes and disections.) 

-Work experience (volunteering at Summit Bible College 6 hours a week.)

Extras:  We may decide to pick up Japanese again (she’s already had 3 years.)

© 2009- 2010 Susan Lemons all rights reserved. No portions of this post may be altered, copied, sold or distributed electronically or otherwise without express permission.