Weekly Wrap Up! 8/22/11 - 8/26/11

This is our 4 week back to school.  We still aren't back to doing all subjects but I feel like we have a pretty good start. 

This week all the kids and I have been learning about How the Bible Came to Us.  Which has been pretty interesting so far.  We have gone over all the different books of the Bible and who wrote them.  Read an overview of the Old and New Testaments (these pages were pretty cool, the kids want to copy them and make it a board game out of them).

We have kept up with Keys for Kids and our memory verse this week.  Our verse this week is...
1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Computer Girl is playing with Little Bits while I was working with Alpha Boy and The Lil' Chef was doing hereindependent studies.

For history I have been using MFW - Rome to Reformation as a guideline but have still been tweaking it a bit.  We have been reading mostly from Mystery of History this week, we have read about the Punic Wars, Spartacus and Julius Caesar.  I also included What in the World by Diana Waring, we listened to the Punic Wars, Roman Republic and Julius Caesar (I am going to be reviewing this soon).

THe Lil' Chef is reading to the boys while I am working with Computer Girl.  You don't see alpha Boy because he is in the "tent" under the coffee table.

MFW has Augustus Caesar's World as a read a loud for the next 9 weeks (or so) but after looking at this book I have decided to shelf it.  I have to tell you, this book, well the decision whether to read it or not read it really stressed me out a little.  I guess because I am type a like that : )  As I previewed the book I just felt there was a little too much astrology and false gods for my taste.  I know that many people have read this book and loved it but for us and the ages of my kids I am passing.  At least for now. 

Just in case you wanted to see the "tent" and what my house can look like while we are schooling : )

To replace it we are reading Detectives in Toga's.  We are 4 or 5 chapters in so far and the kids are hooked.  There is a few things in this book that I could do with out also but I think for me it is easier to modify as I am reading.  It does mention astrology, which I know was very common in Rome and they stay stuff like dumbell and stupid.  I did read dumbell a few times because of the story but the other potty mouth words I just left out.

Alpha Boy working on his letters with Sing, Spell, Read and Write.

We did a few lessons in The Human Body for Every Kid.  My kids enjoyed doing a little "experiment" on cell membrane break through which involved a colander, pinto beans and salt.  This little project really made the idea click in their heads. 


Computer Girl with our experiment on cell membrane breakthrough.

I decided to add something to our year that I didn't plan on adding.  We have all 3 of the Apologia Zoology science books and haven't used them yet.  I know, shame, shame!  I am POSITIVE that my kids will love this, possibly more than anything else we are doing this year and that my friend is why I am adding it.  We are going to do it very s-l-o-w-l-y because technically we are already doing science.  This is really more for fun.



Computer Girl working on her grammar.  Not sure if she is not really happy to be doing grammar or if she is still half a sleep.

To keep track of all that they are learning they have a drawing or coloring page that they place in their history and science notebooks.  I would LOVE to include lapbooks for them but it seems that I always print out all this stuff and they are just not into it.  For some reason my kids are just not into lapbooks.  It really does baffle me, what kid doesn't like to color, cut and paste?!  
I am always looking for fun things to add to our schooling, so last year when I stumbled upon The Story Keepers videos I was on a mission.  The Story Keepers videos are animated historical fiction videos about Christians that lived in Rome around the time of Nero.  An excellent addition to the time period we are studying!  I found the whole set last year on eBay and tucked them away, until now.  The kids watched the first one and it was a hit. 
 
Oh, before I forget.  One more thing the kids and I did this week was experience an EARTHQUAKE!!  Holy Toledo that freaked me out!  I will share more about this experience tomorrow.  But I will say that the kids got a Bible, science and geography lesson out of it.

Alpha Boy worked in his Sing, Spell, Read and Write workbook, completing the letters T and U.  He also played online at Starfall.com, mostly with the letter games.  He continued in his Abeka Arithmetic K book as well as watched his Mathtacular video. 
 
Computer Girl and The Lil' Chef have both been reviewing the math facts that they seemed to have forgotten over the summer (note to self remember to least keep up math facts a few times a week next summer and ACTUALLY DO IT!)  They have both been working on their spelling lists, Easy Grammar books, memorizing prepositions and their personal reading. 
 
Little Bits has been mostly playing near by or with one of the girls when I am working with someone else.  I read an article yesterday that reminded me of the idea to work with the todler first before everyone else.  This way the don't feel pushed to the side but they have had their one on one time like everyone else. I am going to start that next week.  I am going to do like 20 minutes of "school time" with him before I start with the other kids.  I am also shooting for a reading time with just the boys before lunch, the girls of course are welcome to listen but the reading will be directed to the boys level. 
 
Even though we are schooling I am not as structured as I plan to be next month.  I am still trying to leave a little wiggle room for stuff.  Like this morning, I took the kids to the library.  The girls browsed for books and read while the boys and I went into a reading time for kids ages 3-5.  The boys really enjoyed it and I plan to include it into our schedule at least once or twice a month. 
 
We usually don't school on Fridays, which amy be changing, {gasp} so today we plan on cleaning, catching up on laundry and baking. 

Are you back to school yet?  If so you can link up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers too!

 

2011-2012 Curriculum Choices Part 2 {LINKY}

As I said in my last post, I am really doing a mish mash of things this year.  Here is the complete run down:

Together as a Family:
Bible
My Father's World  (MFW) - We will be studying the Life of Christ and the New Testament.  Last year we used The Victor Journey Through the Bible and we have really come to LOVE it!  we read a chapter in the Bible and then we read the corresponding pages in The Victor, it is like a commentary of sorts plus it gives lots of history facts about the cities and time period - a must have in my opinion.

We will also pull from KONOS and I am sure we will continue with Keys for Kids, at least sometimes since the kids love to listen to them.

History
MFW - Rome to Reformation, the books that go along with it except we will use Mystery of History instead of Streams of Civilization.  KONOS - we will be pulling some fun activities from KONOS.  we plan on including lots and lots of living books.

Science/Health
MFW - Rome to Reformation which will include the study of the human body using The Body Book and planets using the Apologia book, Exploring Creation With Astronomy (Young Explorers). 
We are also going to pull in some fun projects from KONOS like dissecting a cow eye. Can I just tell you that I CAN'T HARDLY WAIT!!

Reading
We definitely read around here.   We do read alouds daily after Bible and then the kids have quiet time.  For at least a half hour I have the girls read and the boys look at books until they fall asleep for their naps.  We discuss our read a louds and I have the girls narrate their readings back to me. 

Art
My kids draw daily.  And craft almost daily.  I frequently have them color something to go along with what we are reading.  We also have several art idea books that we can pull from and the Abeka Art books that we complete projects from occasional.

Extra Curricular Activities I like to do stuff out side of the home but to many things can stress me.  I have been praying about speech, choir, soccer and piano lessons.  These are all things that I want to with me kids but I know that all those things would really be too much.  So, I have just been laying it before the Lord and asking Him what His will would be for us.   So far I think that all the kids will do choir, the girls will do speech and it looks as though the Lord is going to provide flute lessons for the girls.  I think for now soccer may be out. 

The Lil' Chef - 6th Grade
Bible
I am really excited to be adding Draw to Learn from Notgrass this year.  It is like a daily devotional that the children can use independently or together as a family.  Each lesson has a portion of scripture to read and then something for them to draw.  They have several of these to choose from, we are doing the Life of Jesus to coincide with our New Testament studies thru MFW Bible.  VERY EXCITED!!

Language Arts
The Lil' Chef is going to be using Easy Grammar & Daily Grams and Spelling Power. We are generally Abeka users but we are trying something new, I let ya'll know how they work out.  Lil' Chef is also going to continue with Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW), which we reviewed last year.  IEW is a keeper by the way. 

Math
I am still on the fence about this one.  I really, REALLY, REALLY want to use Teaching Textbooks.  I really lack confidence in teaching math,  and it is not my favorite subject, so the idea of TT is very appealing to me.  After researching it, ALOT, and talking to a few homeschool mom's I decided that maybe it was not a good idea for us.  I have heard mixed reviews Teaching Textbooks, one of the not so great things I have heard is that many children do not test well in the upper grades which was a huge disappointment to me.  I had really hope to ride that little wave all the way thru high school but am now having second thoughts.  If anyone has had good experience with TT and would like to way in, please leave a comment.

As it stands right now she is going to use Abeka Math and continue doing Math Facts Now and Times Alive, which we LOVE!


Computer Girl - 3rd Grade
Bible
Computer girl is also going to include Draw to Learn - The Life of Jesus into her quite reading time.

Language Arts - She is also going to try Easy Grammar, Daily Grams and Spelling Workout this year.  I think I am also going to have her work from the IEW book at a very slow pace. 

Math
Computer Girl is using Mathematical Reasoning 3 from The critical Thinking Co. this year.  We reviewed another level of Mathematical Reasoning last year and LOVED IT!!  She will also be doing math drills using Math Facts Now and Times Alive.

Alpha Boy - Kindergarten
Phonics
Alpha Boy is going to continue using Sing, Spell, Read and Write, which  he really loves and BEGS ME TO!  I mean we aren't even doing school right now and it was a SATURDAY and he brings me his book to do.  I was thinking, REALLY!! 

I also decided, just last week actually, when visiting with some friends that I really wanted to incorporate MFW Kindergarten.  I really just wanted it to pull some of the hands on ideas into the letters that we are learning. 

Math
He is going to be using Arithmetic K from Abeka.  I am also adding in Mathtacular for some added hands on fun. 

Little Bits - Pre K
I don't do anything formal with this little guy.  We is more than welcome to hang with Alpha Boy and I when we do our Phonics and Math.  He is generally around for all our reading and I do read to him. 

I plan on setting up a workbox for him to have with lots of hands on goodies to play with.  I am going to include things like wooden puzzles, Play-Doh Cookie Monster Letter Lunch, Lauri Toys Number Puzzle Boards and Pegs and Lauri's Phonic Center

What is your family going to use this year??  Please link up and share with us.

2011-2012 Curriculum Choices Part 1

After much prayer and consideration, and a nudge from a good friend, I think I've  f i n a l l y  got my curriculum for next year figured out.  I think. 

For those of you that don't know, we have been using My Father's World for the last 3 years.  For some reason I was not really crazy about Creation to Greeks.  I loved, loved, LOVED the Old Testament Bible studies but really got tired of studying Egypt.  I was telling a friend today that I felt like we studied Egypt for like 40 years : )

So when you home school and you are not happy with a curriculum you can either 1) suffer through it, 2) do a switch ola or 3) tweak it.  I am deciding to tweak it!

I really wanted to continue the chronological wheel of MFW but just felt l I really did ALOT of tweaking to our curriculum last year and need to change something.  I have been eyeballing KONOS for a long while now.  I just couldn't really seem to wrap my little finite mind around it, so I dug a bit and learned a little more about it.  The more that I learned the more that I liked it.  I was really drawn to the fact the the focus is character traits.  So, long story short I decided that I wanted to find KONOS used and do it along with MFW.  Crazy right??!!  I did indeed find it used, all 3 KONOS volumes as well as the timeline figures to go with it. 

After looking through the KONOS curriculum I began to reconsider doing MFW.  I decided to focus on just KONOS.  We tried a part of the Attentiveness unit at the end of our last school year and really enjoyed it.  We loved the read a louds, the discussion, the hands on projects and such.  BUT, I still didn't feel settled in my mind with it for some reason.  I had been asking the Lord to lead me to the right curriculum and give me a peace about it, but I just really didn't have it. 

Fast forward to last week, my friend Marta (remember the girl from the zoo) stopped by to see the KONOS books because I was trying to get her to co-op and do Konos with me (mind you I am the one that got her using MFW).  She is an hour and a half a way from me but I figured, hey we'd work that little detail out later : )   Once she looked at the MFW book I'd be using next year (Rome to Reformation) and Konos she said, hey why don't you tie them together.   The Lord reminded me that this was the original leading that I had.  But I really didn't think I could do it since there isn't a ton of Roman studies in Konos.  Marta encouraged me to just sit down and take a look at both curriculum's, and that is just what I did last Friday evening. 

What I figured out was, where I couldn't pull from Konos to match up with the MFW history I could match up the science.  So, some weeks we will pull in some science from Konos and some week history stuff.  Hope this makes sense outside of my brain.  I am really excited to finally feel at peace about it our curriculum for next year.  I don't know about you but I am a little bit stressed when my school plans are in limbo.  Ya know what I am sayin'!

I tell you what we are doing for the 3 R's in another post.

Weekly Wrap Up!

This year we have been doing My Father's World - Creation to Greeks.  I have loved using MFW the last few years, but this year I have definitely tweaked things more than in the past.  

For quite awhile now I have been eyeballing Konos.  For those of you that haven't heard of Konos, they are the granddaddy of unit studies (according to their site).  It is a unit study curriculum that uses character traits as their topic and as their site states, they cover....

elementary science, literature, history, Bible, arts/crafts, music, writing, drama, geography, social studies, health/safety, character, critical thinking, and practical living. ** excluding math, spelling, upper grammar.

I had the chance to buy all 3 original volumes, the timeline characters, timeline wallchart, the Compass Book (this is like the How to use Konos Book) and the Index used, so I did.  Don't you just love getting new curriculum, it feels like the Holiday!

My only hang up so far, is that Konos is not done chronologically for Bible and History.  I have read that the timeline really helps solve this problem but I just haven't settled it in my mind,  Know what I'm sayin'.

After opening up our new curriculum for NEXT year, I decided to do the unthinkable.  If you are thinking, No she didn't, I have to tell ya, yes she did!  We started Konos.  Yes sir ree, with about a month left of school I am starting something totally new, pretty crazy right.  : )

Part of me just wanted to try Konos, as is, to see what I thought.  I have been wondering if I still want to follow the MFW's Rome to Reformation timeline next year and just pull in from Konos or do just Konos alone.  Not really sure yet, still mulling all the over.

Here is what I do know, we had a great week.  We started a new chore system this week, called Children's Miracle Music (I will be reviewing this shortly and have a coupon code for ya'll).  My house has been CLEAN, all week and it has been WONDERFUL!  Usually our living areas are kept up pretty well, but the girl's room generally looks like a tornado has gone thru it, twice!  I always tell the girls that for my health I do not like to even look in their room, looking in there makes my blood pressure rise 50 points.  Really!

As far as school goes, we started Konos.  For the next few weeks we plan to study Attentiveness.  Here are some of the highlights of our week and the Attentiveness Study :

• For Bible we studied Elijah and Elisha (per MFW) and read in the Victor's Journey Through the Bible (love this books BTW)
• The kids and I studied the ear.  We read about the ear and then the kids made model of the ear out of my kitchen table, they had a great time!
• We read about Helen Keller and Louis Braille.  
• We read the biblical account of Samuel and saw how he was attentive to God's voice.
• We learned the meaning of Attentiveness.
• We talked about 15 different jobs that require people to be attentive, like a babysitter, a surgeon, firefighter, etc...
• We listened to some classical music, included Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs.
• We talked about ways that we can be Attentive to the Lord and how Christ was attentive to the Father.
• The girls both finished their spelling books for the year and started memorizing poems.
• We finished up our memory work on Psalm 1.
• For PE they rode bikes, and jumped and jumped and jumped on the trampoline 
• For independent reading one of the girls is reading about Corrie Ten Boom and the other is reading a Boxcar Children Book, I have them tell me about (narrate).
• As a fun book we also read The Cat in the Hat's book about money - 1 Cent, 2 Cent, Old Cent, New Cent which was a very cute yet informative little book that the kids and I enjoyed.
• We also read about instruments and an orchestra.   
• To finish out the week, tomorrow we are going to play Simon Says , watch The Miracle Worker which is about Helen Keller's life and hang up our new timeline wall chart.  I think that we are even going to put up all the Bible people that we have studied this year and review them as we hang them.

Like I said, we had a really good week.  Next week we are going to continue with our attentiveness study and focus more on musicians and sight.

Here are the books that we read from this week...

Did anyone else decide to switch up their curriculum at the end of the school year, just wondering ?

Weekly Wrap Up

This was our first week back after our winter break.  Things went pretty well, considering. 

I started a new routine with the kids (and self) this week and I am thinking that is going to take some getting used to, for all of us.  Things really do run much smoother and I am much happier if we have a plan and focus on completing it each day.  Our routine includes chores, reading time, school times, quiet/nap times, computer times and the like.   We had a few snags since I am doing physical therapy (for my neck) 3 mornings a week, but we accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish. 

I haven't talked much about our curriculum for a while but we are still using MFW, along with a few supplements, and loving it.  We are doing Creation to Greeks this year and I am really diggin' all of the old testament studies.  This week we studied the plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt when the Pharaoh would not let God's people go.  As I was read scripture in Exodus the children and I would talk about what we were reading, well, everyone except Little Bits, he would usually just pelt Joe O's at us.  The kids keep a Bible/History notebook so they would draw a picture of each plague to go into their notebook. 

We have been using some of Diana Waring's Ancient Civilization curriculum, mostly the workbook and the audio cd's, and this week we sung her song about the plagues to the tunes of Camptown Races.  That was AWESOME!  I gave the girls 2 challenges, one to do this week and one for next.  I told them that I wanted them to write their own song about the Egyptian plagues, this should be no problem and lots of fun for them because they are ALWAYS writing songs about something.  They also need to put on a news broadcast about the plagues for their daddy and I.  The only requirements that I gave them were to do one this week and one next and I also told them they had to include their brothers.  The boys could be frogs or locust or something : )

I have been wanting to start incorporating character traits into our studies and this week I FINALLY did!!  Yay!  This week we talked about loyalty.  We talked about what it means to be loyal and ways that we can show loyalty to others.

We studied comparative and superlative words, worked on fractions, and had spelling words with a french origin.  We have been enjoying some really cool online games that we are reviewing for the TOS Crew, which I will be telling you all about real soon. 

For Health and Science we studied blood and the immune system.  We are working on a book about blood and we learned alot about the different types of blood cells and what they do.  We learned some pretty amazing facts about the body which the Lord has so miraculously created!  Then we followed that us with a Moody Science video that taught us about the immune system, this was by far the coolest science video I have seen so far (more about this later).  After watching the video and reading from our book, the girls draw pictures of blood cells and viruses for their health notebook. 

Friday is our day off so we are going to be doing a little house cleaning and we will probably make gingerbread houses because we just never got to them.  At least we are doing better them last year when we didn't get to them until MARCH.  Yes, MARCH! 

I also believe we might get a little snow tomorrow and if we do we will be making these really neat 3D snowflakes. 

What We've Been Up To

This was our first week back.  To be honest on day I started to get a little fussy because the kids weren't falling into line as I thought they should. THEN, the Lord really checked me.  I was reminded that we had been off school for several months and that I really needed to relax my standards.  I realized that I needed to just enjoy our schooling together.  Once I had the right mind set, it was like heavenly angels lifting a huge weight off my shoulders.  After that the week (we only school M-Th) went quite well. 

This year I decided to take everyone outside for "school pictures," I really wish I had been doing this all along but never thought too! 

The Lil' Chef now in 5th Grade.  WOW!  Where does time go!

My 2nd Grader, Computer Girl.

Alpha Boy our little Pre K'er.  Excuse the poison ivy.

Little Bits is only 2 and not schooling yet but he is still right in the middle of everything.  And besides I just love his picture face!

The Whole Class

We did our first week of MFW- Creation to Greeks.  We studied creation in Genesis Ch. 1, dinosaurs in Dinosaurs of Eden and we are planning on having a Sabbath Dinner this evening.

While I was reading the creation account in Genesis and about the dinosaurs living with Adam and Eve, the kids made a model of what I was reading.....

See, the dinosaurs (or dragons as they used to call them) really did live with people.

Not sure if the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was really made from Mega Blocks or not.  But this is LSG's version of the Garden of Eden.

The kids also used our Usborne Dinosaur Stencil Book  to make dinosaur pictures for their history notebooks.

We made homemade butter and buttermilk.  More on this next next week, it will be exciting I promise!

My very 1st attempt at making yogurt.  At first I didn't think it had set up right, but after it was in the fridge a few hours it was great.  I added it to some fruit smoothies today, Yum-Me!!! 

We also had a hamster funeral : (  When we had came home from camping the rebel hamster that had was sick.  We had someone staying at the house watching the critters when we were gone, so I am not real sure what happened.  I tried to help her to get better and was going to take her to the vet but she died the evening before our appointment.   She is now buried outback by the cat. 

Today (Friday) we just kinda chilled and had a movie day.  I had picked up some more movies (all on sale and I had a coupon) from the Christian Bookstore for us to watch.  We watched Soldier Love Story, Mandie and the Secret Tunnel and Hachi.   They were all really great, I cried at the end of Hachi. 

That is about it.   How did your week go?

2010 - 2011 Curriculum Choices

I finally have all my books for this coming school year in hand or on the way.  Thank you Lord!   Here is what I am planning on using this coming school year:

These are the subjects that we do together as a family:
Bible/History
This will be our 3rd year with My Father's World (MFW).  Bible and History are pretty much woven  together.  We are doing Creation to Greeks this year, which means that we are going to be starting the actual history part of MFW's 5 Year Cycle (last year we did Exploring Countries and Cultures). I am very excited about this because I LOVE HISTORY!  Unfortunately, I did not have this same enthusiasm when I was in school, otherwise I would probably not have spent most of my summer in summer school studying US History.   Aren't you just so thankful for the ways God grows us.  Ok, moving right along....We will be studying the Old Testament, using our Bible and Victor Journey Through the Bible.  We will also be using Ancient World and Streams of Civilization: Volume I for our history resources.  MFW also gives a WONDERFUL list of books to read each week to go along with our weekly topic  They suggest that you allow the kids to read these alone, BUT I have to admit I kinda get my little feelings hurt when they read them with out me.  I really enjoy reading these with them! 

Keys for Kids is little devotional that the kids and I have been enjoying for a few months, I think we will continue this even if we just listen to the audio version during lunch time. 

We are also going to be trying out Mystery of History I - Creation to Christ and the 1st Quarter Folder book that goes with it. 

MFW & MOH are both stand alone curriculum for history, but I am hoping to kinda of intertwine the two.

Science
MFW has us studying creation and the pyramids for science.  We will be using Genesis for Kids for experiments, Dinosaurs of Eden for creation studies, Pyramids to study the science aspects of the pyramids and Archimedes and the Door of Science for ancient Greek sciences.

  

Health
For Health we are going to be reading Prudence with the Miller and working thru the workbook that goes with it.  We are also going to be reading thru a great set of Health readers called How Your Body Works,  Gareth Stevens Publishing.

Music
We will be studying music from Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel. 

Learning hymns and Lord willing, Lil Chef, Computer Girl, and Alpha Boy will all be joining the children's choir at church this year.

PE
This is very non stress for us.  When it is nice out, the kids go run play, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes, race, play tag, etc.  When it is too cold or just not nice outside  I have a few exercise videos they do like
Denise Austin's Fit Kids, Walk the Walk and we even have a really old Tae Bo by Billy Blanks

We also have a Smart Fitness CD by Kimbo that the kids really enjoy.  You will be hearing more about this soon as a review.

Foreign Language
You may remember that we reviewed Olivita Oink's Bilingual Barnyard, well the kids really can't get enough of this SO we are going to be working on this again this year.

We are also going to be starting English from the Roots Up along with MFW.

Art
For art the kids each have a workbook from Abeka, because they really like them. 

I also am going to have the girls work thru Draw & Write Through History. They will be drawing for art and making their own pictures for their history notebooks.

We will of course be doing lots of other fun artsie crafty things too!

Family Read alouds
This could probably be a post all by its little self.  I love books, possibly more than I love crock pots!  I have a weakness for them to be honest.  I have "planned" several books for us to read this coming year, hopefully we will get thru them.  Here they are:

• Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John
• Star of Light by Patricia St. John
• The Tanglewoods' Secret by Patricia St. John
• Summer with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell - this the 1st in the series,  we are currently reading it.  the kids LOVE it!
• Autumn with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Winter with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Spring with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Grandpa's Box by Starr Meade
• Pearables Vol 1-3
• Hero Tales Vol 2 by Dave and Neta Jackson - we read Vol 1 last year and really liked so I hope to read Vol  2 this year.

These are things that the kids do separately from each other:
Math
Still thinking and praying about Lil Chef's math this year.  We have Math U See's Delta program which focuses on division and we have Mathematical Reasoning Level E from the Critical Thinking Company that we have been reviewing.  Not sure which we will stick with this coming year.  I think I am leaning towards the Critical Thinking math book

Computer Girl is going to be doing Arithmetic 2 and Math Drills from Abeka. 

I will be having the girls using different things to practice their math facts like, Hot Dots Flash Cards, Learning Wrap Ups, Time Tales and online math games.

Language, Phonics & Spelling
The Lil' Chef is going to be using Language B from Abeka, which I found at a used curriculum fair for only $2!!!  I was super excited about this one!  She is continuing with Abeka Spelling for grade 5.

Computer Girl will be using Letter & Sounds 2, Spelling 2 and Language 2 all from Abeka.

I know that alot of people dislike Abeka BUT I feel Abeka has a very strong Language Arts program and produces excellent readers.  I do not however do everything in the teacher manuals, we generally just use the workbooks and sound charts.

Handwriting
Normally, I use Abeka for handwriting but I am reviewing Peterson Directed Handwriting for Cursive for the TOS Crew so we may stick with that.

Reading
I go back and forth  with reading.  Sometimes we do the Abeka readers and sometimes I let the girls pick books that interest them.  This year I am going to do the same.  I really want Lil Chef to read the Noah Webster reader from Abeka and Wisdom and the Millers but other than that I plan to be flexible. 

For Computer girl, she will work in the 2nd grade Abeka readers plus she is going to work on these Bible Phonetic Readers that I ordered her.

Pre K Stuff
Last but not least Alpha Boy, he is going to be working on Hot Dots Jr Cards, Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler and ABC & 123 from Abeka.  I am really just going to focus on our letter sounds this year.  He will also follow along for Bible, PE, Music and Art.  He also hangs a bit with us for Science and History. 

Workboxes
We are definitely sticking with our workboxes this year.  They have really helped us to stay on top of things and be more orderly.  We do it a little differently than the Workbox System book.  She has lots of great ideas in the book but we pretty much just work thru our boxes 1-10.