2013-2014 Homeschool Curriculum

Drumroll.........I know everyone loves a good curriculum post.  I actually don't know how many people are reading this blog here in its infancy, but I know that if it does pick up readership, especially amongst the homeschool crowd, that the masses will find their way to this post.  Here is what we are doing this school year.

6th Grade
In February or March of 2013, we started using Moving Beyond the Page.  I have loved this curriculum for both of my sons.  This year, my oldest, who is in 6th grade, is starting the year with Concept 2: Unit 3 from the 10-12 age curriculum.  Last semester he completed Concept 2 Units 1 & 2.  Below is an overview of the topics for Concept 2, taken directly from the website.  When we started Unit 1 last spring, we had just hit the Civil War era in the materials we were using so the timing was perfect.  We then rolled right into Unit 2.  He was very excited to dig into Unit 3 starting this year.  An important sidenote is that my oldest son is attending public school for 2 periods each day: band (he will learn trumpet) and an elective rotation period (Chorus 2 days, Art 2 days, Skills/Health 2 days, repeat).  We have talked about gradually transitioning back to school so that he will be full-time public school in high school.  He recently told me that he wants to finish the rest of Moving Beyond the Page (as far as it goes) before he goes back to school full time.

Concept 2: Force and Power
Unit 1: Slavery and the Civil War Unit 2: Force and Motion Unit 3: The World Wars	Unit 1: Bull Run Unit 2: Albert Einstein Unit 3: Number the Stars

I will try to briefly (can't promise brevity, sorry) tell you what I really like about this curriculum.  First, it is set up just how I would put together a curriculum if I wrote one from scratch.  Each unit has either a Social Studies or Science focus, so you aren't doing both subject areas simultaneously.  Rather, you dig deeply into one or the other over the course of the unit.  Each unit has a literature component that corresponds to the social studies or science focus for that unit.  For example, when we studied "Slavery and the Civil War" in social studies (history), the corresponding text was Bull Run, a fictional story set in the Civil War era.  I find that the assignments/activity pages are very rigorous in terms of the critical thinking required.  They go WELL beyond simply reading a passage and answering questions.  There are tons of application activities that really force kids to think outside the box.  I love this!!

Secondly, I love that this is an open and go curriculum.  I am willing, for sure, to put time and effort into the materials that I use to teach my children at home.  However, I am certainly not one to reinvent the wheel.  If someone else has put together something that is just what I want, I will jump on it like flies to honey.  Luckily for me, MBTP is just that.

It is a pricey curriculum, but I feel it's well worth the investment.  One thing we are doing a bit differently with it this year that will somewhat reduce our cost is to spread the units out over a longer period of time.  As written, each unit takes about 3 weeks if you school every day.  By doing the Reading/Language Arts lessons two days a week and the social studies/science lessons two days a week, with Friday as a catch-up day, we will stretch our units out over 6-7 weeks.  Last year when we tried to fit all the suggested activities for both R/LA and SS/Sci into each day, my oldest son got a bit bogged down.  I also felt that we didn't get as much out of it when I tried to plow through it that quickly.  I think we'll both appreciate the slower pace this year.

OOPS........I knew that wouldn't be brief.

OK......for Math we are using Math-U-See Pre-Algebra.  This is our first year with Math-U-See.  I used Right Start the first year and Teaching Textbooks last year.  I don't actually recommend jumping around that much, but I found Right Start to jump around too much with their topics.  I liked the hands-on, but did not feel it provided the continuity that it could have.  I also liked many things about TT, but felt that the hands-on aspect was missing.  I'm hoping Math-U-See will be a perfect blend of what I'm looking for in a math curriculum.

That's pretty much it for my oldest.  To practice cursive, he is writing in a Handwriting Without Tears journal twice a week.  He gets to choose a poem, quote or scripture to write in cursive just to keep in shape with it.  I think it's sad that many public schools are not teaching cursive anymore.  On the days he doesn't do his cursive journal, he will do Typing Instructor to practice keyboarding.

Extra-curricular activities for my oldest include piano lessons, band, and 4-H

3rd Grade

My third grader will be using Moving Beyond the Page Concept 2: Unit 2 for Reading/Language Arts, Social Studies and Science for ages 8-10.  He completed all of Concept 1 last year as well as Concept 2: Unit 1.  Below is an overview of this concept taken directly from the website.

Concept 2: Change
Unit 1: Environments Change	Morning Girl Experience life through the eyes of a brother and sister in the pre-Columbian Caribbean. Life on their island is dramatically changed when a hurricane blows through, but the biggest change is yet to come. . .
Unit 2: Communities Change Over Time	Communities and Cultures Follow the adventures of the Blinkerton kids as they travel back in time and learn what life was really like in Ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages.
Unit 3: People Change the World	American Heroes Read biographical sketches about the amazing people who have shaped our nation. Be inspired to make the world a better place.

I'll just add here that I have loved all the literature and non-fiction book selections for the MBTP units.  We have read books that we wouldn't have read otherwise and have added some amazing titles to our home library.  Fabulous stuff!!!

For math, we are using Math-U-See Beta & Gamma Levels.  Beta will be a bit of a review of multi-digit addition and subtraction and place value, but since we are starting with a whole new math series, I felt the review would be good.  We are planning to move through this level pretty quickly.  Then we'll move into the Gamma level, which is multiplication.

We are trying something new for spelling this year, SpellWell B.  I hope we like it.  I may also add in lessons from All About Spelling which we have used off and on during first and second grade.  I like how AAS teaches lots of spelling rules, but I like that SpellWell has assigned lists and spelling activities for each day of the week.  So it will probably be a combination.

And, I'll be teaching the third grader cursive using Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Handwriting twice a week and keyboarding skills with Typing Instructor twice a week.