Our Curriculum

I don't tend to think of my blog as a "homeschooling" blog, but it is a blog about my and my family's life and, let's face it, homeschooling is a big part of it now. I see questions all the time about what curriculum is being used for what grade, so I thought I would include that information here. I'm also including how I think it's working for us. If you're a homeschooler, I hope you find it helpful. If you're not, and your eyes are glazing over at the thought of reading this, you have my permission to skip this and return another day.

We've only been homeschooling since January. I started out following the Well-Trained Mind approach to classical education. It was very helpful as a newbie to have something to follow. While I love the classical approach, I feel that with more experience I will follow the guidelines of that book less strictly. However, I strongly recommend it to anyone who is just starting out.

Items used for both children

• Bible - Calvary Chapel Old Testament - We read the Bible story and do the worksheets. I like that it is giving my children experience in looking up scripture. I also like that it is free! We supplement with Journey Through the Bible.
  
• History - Story of the World Vol. 1: Ancient Times and Activity Guide
• Science - We don't have an official curriculum for this. We've done animal studies from library books and worksheets found at Enchanted Learning and Learning Page.
• Writing - included in Rod & Staff English; copywork and dictation; Evan-Moor Write a Super Sentence; writing games from Peggy Kaye's book titled (what else?) Games for Writing
• Geography - map work from Story of the World activity guide
• Spelling - Spelling Power - This is a good program, but my perfectionist children just fall apart when they misspell a word. Ugh.
  
• Vocabulary - Wordly Wise 3000 - My feelings can be best summed up in "adequate". We didn't love it, but do you have to love everything? Robert did book B. Ruth did book A.
  

3rd grade

• Math - A Beka 3 - There are too many colors and distractions on the page for my son. We are switching to Saxon next year.
  
• Grammar - Rod & Staff English 3 - I really love this program, but my children prefer workbooks, so I may change it. I really do love it, though, and they've done fine.
• Music - viola lessons and practice
• Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears Printing Power - This program has really helped my son's handwriting.
  

2nd grade

• Math - Abeka 2 - Ruth really likes this. We will be sticking with it for at least another year.
  
• Grammar - We started with First Language Lessons, but it is heavily oral and Ruth hated it, so we switched to Rod & Staff English 2 (see above comment about this program).
  
• Music - cello lessons and practice
• Handwriting - Bob Jones University Handwriting 2 I chose this because I think it's a very pretty handwriting style, but not too difficult. It's slightly different than what you would consider traditional school script.