Almost ready

I sort of waited until the last minute to order some of my home school curriculum. The last box is expected to arrive today.

This is what we will be learning this year in first and third grade:

In Bible, we’re going to start with these little studies I found that I’m really excited about:
Choosing Kindness
Choosing Obedience
Choosing Responsibility
Choosing Thankfulness
and Choosing Self-Control

We’ll also be reading through The Child’s Story Bible. I love how this Bible presents the material in a storybook form. We are planning to start at creation and work our way through the Old Testament since that will correspond to my first grader’s history lessons.

We are using Saxon Math. The workbooks aren’t that exciting, but this is the curriculum my boys used in school and they both like it. Plus, I understand how it is presented, which will make it easier for me.

My first grader will be doing Math 2, which is the second grade curriculum. My third grader is doing Math 3.

Next is phonics. Once again, we are using Saxon. For those of you who know how much my third grader disliked Saxon Phonics, you are probably wondering WHY I decided to torture myself.

My two boys’ brains are wired as differently as night and day. Where the right brainer needs the big picture, my first grader’s left brain loves details. He wants to understand the minutiae of how everything works. I think he’s going to love Saxon. If he doesn’t, we’ll toss it!

In third grade, we are going to try Spelling Workout. This is one of the most difficult subjects for my third grader, so I will be supplementing with some other ideas to help him with his spelling.

We’re using the Shurley English and Grammar curriculum. Same reason: We used it before and like it. So, we’ll try it!

Both boys will be going through The Story of The World in history. The first grader will be starting at the beginning of time and studying ancient Egypt and working his way through China. I bought also bought this book on CD, so he can do the read-aloud portion on his own.

The third grader is ready the Middle Ages. He will be immersed in knights, castles and supplementing his learning with stories about King Arthur, Robin Hood and a class at our co-op. He also has the book both in printed form and on CD.

If you are like me, and never learned much about history, especially ancient history, I highly recommend Story of the World in book form or CD to get caught up in a very entertaining way! We also have a huge workbook of fun activities that go along with the reading.

In Geography, we will be Cantering the Country and learning all of the state capitals in song. I also bought some Map Skills books, which I think will be really fun.

In Science, both boys will be studying Exploring Creation with Astronomy this year. I’m excited about all of the hands-on science projects in our curriculum. If we have time, I’m going to be introducing my first grader to the animal kingdom, but he also will be getting a class on that in his co-op on Fridays.

Finally, we have some great literature selections, Spanish via Rosetta Stone‘s computer program, handwriting and hopefully typing. (I haven’t found any software yet that works on the Mac.)

The boys will be going to a home school gym class at the park district, an art class at co-op, karate and Awana.

So, that’s my plan for now. I know every home school mom has different preferences, but this is where we will begin. If we don’t like something, we can always take another path!

The boys are starting to get excited about all we are going to learn, and so am I!

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