Homeschool Curriculum Changes

Back in July when I blogged about my curriculum plans for the school year, I put in a disclaimer. It basically said I may get part way through the school year and change my mind about certain curriculum. Well, we are officially 10 weeks into the school year and I've changed a few things up! Here are my blog posts from July where I detailed the companies/curriculum we would be using: Language Arts, Math, History, Science, and Miscellaneous. And here are the additions and changes we have made as of now! (Subject to change again. Ha!)

Language Arts

This is perhaps one of the biggest changes. We began with Masterbooks' Language Lessons for a Living Education for everyone. Lucas is enjoying it, so I'm sticking with it for him. Jenna is still working her way through their Foundations Phonics book, although we only do it twice a week. On the other days, we use The Primer K Language Arts from The Good and the Beautiful. Even though this company is Christian in nature, they do offer some curriculum that does not contain religious content. And that means I can order it using charter school funds! So I basically ordered everything from the "non-religious" list to try out risk-free. Jenna and I ended up really loving their Primer K book, so now we are using that along with Masterbooks. I went ahead and bought the Level K course book and reader from the Good and the Beautiful.....and it is absolutely beautiful! I anticipate she will continue with this company's language arts curriculum once she finishes her current level.

For Ryan, I just wasn't loving Masterbooks Language Lessons for a Living Education. It may be because I bought level 4 for him and it was just too simple. But honestly, both of us were getting bored with it. I chose it because it was known for being straightforward and to the point. I assumed that would serve him well, since he doesn't enjoy writing. But we just didn't love it and it felt very repetitive. Enter The Good and the Beautiful.....again. Every time I look at their language arts curriculum I am just drawn in. There's something about it that is SO wholesome and beautiful. So I printed out the first 10 lessons of Level 3 online and Ryan tested it out for a couple weeks. I was hoping he would like it.....and he did! I believe he is kind of in between level 3 and 4 (their levels don't necessarily correspond to grade level).....so when their Level 4 was updated and released last week, I jumped on the free shipping they were offering and bought it! And you guys.....it looks amazing. The coursebook comes with 2 amazing readers, as well as a spelling and writing workshop book. It incorporates art, geography, picture study, poetry, and of course a lot of reading, grammar and writing. I'm praying he really enjoys this program.

Math

I'm so grateful that my Dad comes over every day to do math with my boys. And so far Horizons math is working out really well for them! They're going through their lessons really quickly and everything seems to be "clicking". Jenna, on the other hand, isn't exactly loving Horizons Kindergarten math. To me, it just feels a little dry. I'm beginning to think she needs something more hands-on for her age. I'm open to trying different curriculums, and I'm considering a few different companies. For now, I went ahead and used charter school funds to buy the Math Activity Box and 2nd coursebook for The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten math. We haven't started it yet, but it looks incredibly cute and fun.

History

We are still using Notgrass Our Star-Spangled Story for American History, and really enjoying it! However, I do find myself adding in a LOT of living book read-alouds to supplement. So while we love this book, we are going through it pretty slowly. We'll read a lesson, and then spend an entire week reading another book. For example, we are currently in the late 1700s, and we've spent the entire week reading The Sign of the Beaver. I feel like reading a "living book" or story, really brings the time period to life for us. Yes, we can read facts about what life was like for the early colonists, but when we read a story from that time period and we get connected to the characters, I feel like the information is more likely to stick. And just to be clear, this history curriculum is really amazing. There are just so many other amazing books out there, and I want to read them all!  

We've also got a pretty awesome historical timeline going, and I feel like this is great for my visual learners.

Science

For science, I decided to do unit studies from The Good and the Beautiful. We finished Marine Biology last week, and while we enjoyed it, we weren't in love with it. We absolutely enjoyed the hands-on experiments. But sometimes I felt like I was just reading off random information and it was hard for my kids to retain much of it. I have no idea if this was just marine biology, or if all their science curriculum is like this. We are anxiously waiting for their Space Science unit to come back in stock, and plan to use that in early 2021. In the meantime, I went ahead and got the Water and Our World science unit, and it looks pretty great. I'm hoping my kids enjoy it!

Just like history, we discovered that we love reading "living books" for science. We read this book for an entire month every morning and I feel like it really brought marine biology to life. (Along with an actual trip to the beach and a squid dissection!) So I just ordered this book by the same author and I'm excited to read this with the kids along with our water science unit. 

I got a few other supplemental water books, including this one that looks terrific.

And bonus!! I ordered a book using charter funds with the word "mammals" in the title. And they accidentally sent me their actual Mammals science unit!! So we now have our next science unit that we will likely do in the spring. (Although I was thinking botany or arthropods would be perfect for that time of year)

Miscellaneous

In addition to our core subjects, there are many other things we cover, although not on a daily basis. For example, Lucas does online piano lessons, Jenna does a lot of handwriting practice, both boys play soccer and baseball, and Jenna has done a few Outschool classes online. I appreciate having a variety of supplemental workbooks and activites available around the house. Sometimes I'm helping one child with a difficult subject, and I need something worthwhile to occupy another child. That's when I will often have them grab one of the following activities to do.

I recently picked up these map/geography books online for Ryan and Lucas, and they do a couple pages in them each week. I realized Lucas knows next to nothing about geography, so these have been a fun little supplement to introduce the subject. (We also have giant maps on our wall) 

Ryan and Lucas began doing Fix It! Grammar this week and so far I really love it! I also ordered the entire IEW writing program, but we haven't dived into that yet. This level of Fix It! Grammar is recommended for grades 3-5, so I'm having my boys do it together. Each day they have 1 sentence to fix and then rewrite in their notebooks. At the end of the book they will have corrected and written out an entire story! Just today Lucas told me that he's really liking this grammar program. Score!

Explode the Code is another language arts workbook that is very simple, fun, and requires basically no hands-on teacher attention. I'll have them grab their book and do a page or 2 once or twice a week.

Logic is another miscellaneous subject that I've added into our weeks. I love these Mind Benders books! Each child has their own level that they work on and all 3 of them really enjoy them.

Other topics we have added in are composer study (we've done Bach, and next up is Chopin) and art. I love using our Art Treasury book for Friday art time! We are also doing one Five in a Row mini unit per month, and that's a really fun addition.

And there you have it.....the additions and changes I've made to our homeschool curriculum. Are you using any of these books in your home?