Our curriculum this year

People frequently ask what we use and the list is long and ridiculous. Mainly b/c I don't have one set curriculum I go with, we're eclectic... meaning we pick and choose pieces of things to use. I REALLY wish there was one boxed curriculum that fit my kids but there's not so I just piece it together as needed.

Here's a list of what we're using this semester. Who knows if I'll change it up next semester!! I try not to deviate too much from any years program but sometimes I see things I just GOTTA have. :D

***For some reason, the links are not showing, but if you're interested in what each subject looks like, just click on them and it will take you to the actual book or program we use***

Tony uses:
Math U See Beta (MUS)**
Learning RX games (these are the THINK portion of Grace's program from last year)
A Young Scholars Guide to Composers
Manners Made Easy
Bible Memory
Piano (Mommy lead b/c lessons cost a fortune and Grace is almost done with her first books)
Math Basics (just a math workbook to keep him from getting in a rut with Math U See)
Maps & Geography
Machines & Motion
Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier (because every good writer needs to know how to make their books more reader-friendly)
Easy Grammar
Our Weather & Water
Story of the World Volume 2 (SOTW2)
Timeline work each week based on composers and SOTW
Institute for Excellence in Writing though co-op (IEW)
Art Appreciation through co-op
Word Roots

**Tony is VERY behind in math... due to my lack of knowledge on how to teach (or even comprehend) math, combined with his lack of interest. This is not his correct grade level but he does several lessons daily and finished Alpha (1st grade-ish) in 3 weeks and has moved on to Beta. I anticipate he will be through Delta before the year end. Thank God for video teachers!!

Grace uses:
MUS
Bible memory
SOTW2
Easy Grammar
A Young Scholars Guide to Composers
Manners Made Easy
Learning RX games
Our Weather & Water
Mind Benders
Word Roots
Piano lessons in co-op
TONS of read alouds. She reads at least 2 chapters from a mom-approved book daily + independent reading throughout the day.

Kate uses:
MUS primer
Learning RX read and games
Bible memory

I read Fallacy Detective to them one night a week, usually Saturday so Daddy can join in. He enjoys logical thinking so this is fun for him too. Most of Grace's work and all of Kate's require my direct teaching while Tony does a lot of his on his own. He would probably do it all without help except that some of the subjects require he do them with Grace so we just do them all together. Kate usually listens in but is not required to. She IS required to be quiet while I work with the big kids though and she loves her daily "boxes" that she gets to play with during this time. It works well to keep her focused and quiet.

I have not yet figured out how to do a time schedule. I'm not sure I even want one. I would hate to stop someone in the middle of their lesson just b/c they took longer than allotted; although I do have friends that this works for. We just have more of a groove than schedule. :)

Some cute pictures from the school week

Tony hard at work. His schedule is actually too big for his whiteboard but he likes to keep his schedule attached to it so it works. He has about an hour of work on his own each day. The rest is done with me. Grace working on her picture of Vivaldi for our Classical Composers study while listening to his music. We make folder books about each time periods most famous composers. We're learning about the Baroque period right now.

Kate has daily boxes of activities. She only gets to do the lace up toys and geometry shapes one day a week. Each day has different activities. This gives her something educational to do on her own while I work with the big kids.

Tony's school area

Ok, here it is. Yes, he organized this himself and keeps it maintained. He likes orderly bookshelves. :)

This is the neatest room in the house. Except for when he gets his legoblock men out, then it's just craziness.

Back to school

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to start school today because my schedule was still not just right (AND I accidentally labeled Grace's file system starting with next weeks date). However, the kids woke up crazy early, brushed teeth & hair, made beds (and even made mine while I was in the shower!) and did chores without being asked...all while I was getting breakfast ready. They did all that because they were soooo excited that school was starting. How can you not love that??? So, we did school.

We started off with a smiley breakfast

Then we went outside for first day pictures. It took a few shots before everyone cooperated.

Take one:

Kate was NOT going to smile because she had flip flops on and the grass was touching her toes. VERY unacceptable to her!

Take two:

There's always one clown in a class and Tony is happy to fill that role.

And take three:

Ah... perfection!

Then we went in the house and looked at all our new books. Kate immediately dragged out Grace's Learning RX since that is what she will be doing this year (among other things). Grace & Tony went to their respective areas and started working although Grace is mostly teacher led still so she didn't do much. Tony however is quite independent in his school work so we didn't see him for awhile except for an occasional question.

Kate and I finished Learning RX and Grace and I started working on her things. It was rather chaotic but she has learned to block out the chaos so she did fine. Kate is supposed to be playing with special toys that only come out one day a week but that was just not her thing today; she wanted to be in our business. lol

Once we all got done with the big subjects, it was lunch time. Daddy was ready to take me shopping for my new school desk so we snatched him away from the base and took off to the store. Fun time there, I love my new desk which will be delivered later this week. We also bought Grace a chair for her desk. She has the most adorable desk ever (I'll take pictures later this week) but has always had trouble finding a chair that put her high enough to write on it. Today we found it - in PINK! What more could a girly-girl ask for??

After dropping Daddy back off at work, we came home and wrote up our first day papers. This is just a paper where they write their names, height/weight, favorite color, favorite movie, favorite food, etc. Then I put their individual first day school picture on it and file it away. The highlight of that whole paper is they get to write what they want to be when they grow up. Tony wants to be a published author (big time published, not self published like he did before), Grace wants to be a missionary and Kate wants to be Spidergirl. Cool, those are do-able. :)

We finished the night off with dinner and Daddy reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to the kids. So although it did not go as planned, the day was perfect.