Curriculum 2011-2012

I am posting this now because I am finding that I would like to purchase more items and I have to keep reminding myself that it is DONE.  I can relax!  The crazy part is I actually like researching different school curriculum.  Don't you?

The boys want to study American History and after much thought we decided to try a new curriculum. Now don't get me wrong...we loved Story of the World and Mystery of History, both of these made history come alive! I just felt for what the boys wanted to learn we needed to switch it up.  We decided on the literature approach curriculum, Beautiful Feet. 

We have been doing a little bit of Geography with Beautiful Feet this summer.  When reading Mom's Mustard Seed's Blog she mentioned she was also doing the Geography this coming school year.  BUT, she had a writing resource to go with it.  I was like a kid in a candy store!  Right away I purchased the ebook and said, 'DONE'.

I also added Total Language Plus. TLP is a literature based program.  Thing 1 will start out by reading Charlotte’s Web.   While Thing 1 is doing TPL he will not be doing his other Grammar items because with TLP you are given spelling words, spelling rules, copy work, parts of speech, drills, enrichment activities, comprehension and vocabulary {hopefully I am not missing anything}.  Now, in all honesty, we did try this last year. However, this program was too hard for a child who did not have much comprehension.  After spending a year working on his comprehension, I think he can take this on and be successful at it. 

Both Boys Together

Bible~ How to Study Your Bible for Kids by Kay Arthur

History ~ Early American History (Beautiful Feet)  We will also supplement with lessons from Lesson Pathways and GuestHollow

Geography ~ (Beautiful Feet)

Writing ~ Beautiful Feet and Institute for Excellence in Writing put together a writing program to go with the Beautiful Feet Geography.

Science ~ R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey - Chemistry

                 Human Body

Art ~ Artistic Pursuits

Electives ~    Sign Language

                    English from the Roots Up

                    Music Lessons

                    Spanish 

                    Character Sketches (this is a bible/science/character study)

                    Vocabulary

Thing 1 (5th grade)

Math ~ Teaching Text Books

Grammar ~ Spelling Power 

                    Total Language Plus

                    Writing with Ease

                     Language Lessons for a Well-Trained Mind 

                 

Critical Thinking ~ Reading Detective

Thing 2 (3rd Grade)

Math ~ Teaching Text Books

Grammar ~ 

                    Language Lessons for a Well-Trained Mind 

                    Language Lessons for Little Ones {review}

                   Pictures in Cursive Primer

                    Learning to Spell Through Copywork

                    Writing with Ease