2018-2019 (4th, 3rd, & K)

This is our 6th year of homeschooling! I can’t believe it! It has gone by so fast and I have learned a ton. It takes time to learn your children’s learning styles and what works for you as a homeschool family. Each year, my children grow and change. And so do I! I feel like we have finally found our groove and are sticking with curriculums that work for us (at the moment at least).

I want to share with you what we are using this 2018-2019 School Year. I have a 4th Grader, 3rd Grader, Kindergartener, and 3 year old.

If you are looking for a great place to purchase Homeschool Curriculum, ChristianBook.com has great prices and a bunch of free resources to help you. They are one of my top places to purchase from!

Group Subjects

Together as a family, we will be doing My Fathers World Exploring Countries and Cultures

This will be my 4th year using My Father’s World Curriculum. My second child is very sensitive and needed a curriculum that would be gentle and fun. That was when I found and started using My Father’s World Kindergarten Program God’s Creation From A to Z. It was a perfect fit for her! I have stuck with them ever since. I love that bible studies are the center of the program and science, geography, history, and reading books all tie into the bible study theme. This curriculum includes instruction for Bible Study, Geography, Science, Art, Music, and several read alouds focusing on missionaries from around the World. My Father’s World gives curriculum recommendations for Math, Language Arts, Spelling, and Writing. We have chosen to use a different curriculum based on the individual needs of my children, which I will list under their particular grade level.

And since I also have a Kindergartener this year, we will also be doing God’s Creation From A to Z again with my children. I know my older kids will participate in all the yummy snacks, fun hands-on science projects, and some of the crafts. We will also add in some youtube videos (such as the StoryBots ABC Songs because I love them!).

Nature Study

Another Curriculum I am super excited to use this year as a group is Exploring Nature with Children by Raising Little Shoots. This is a year-long, Charlotte Mason inspired nature study. The book is sorted by months and weeks. Each week there is a new seasonal nature study topic. The weekly Nature Walk Activity section tells you exactly what to say and is worded in an easy to understand way for those of us who may not be too sciency (like me). In addition to your nature walk activity, it also includes references to the ever-popular Handbook of Nature Study, a themed booklist of fiction and non-fiction books, a weekly poem, a corresponding piece of artwork, and extension activities that include things such as story writing, math connections, science experiments, and nature displays. When you go on your nature walk, you are encouraged to collect your findings and put them on your nature table or tray and observe them for the week or month. We are going to use a small basket for collecting our findings and I plan to keep it in the center of our table when it is not covered with books or meals.

Our backyard has so many wonderful nature opportunities and I am lucky that I do not have to go far to find them. However, in the last 2 years, I have failed to get out and explore them enough. We have a pond, creek, field, and some woods on our property (not that you need these things in your backyard to use this curriculum). I really have NO EXCUSE not to get outside and explore. Let’s get our Nature Journals, colored pencils, field guides, and magnifying glass ready and GO!

Brave Writer

For language, we follow the Brave Writer Lifestyle as much as we can. For those of you who may not be familiar with Brave Writer, it is a natural way to bring language into your family and homeschool. They also have a series of programs that help you to create a language-rich lifestyle in your home. We will be doing a few Arrow Book Guides where you will be reading books aloud, pulling copy work straight from the text, and then discussing writing components that are included in the book copy work (these are from the Arrow Book Guides). Some even including a party school ideas for the book. Brave Writer also encourages Poetry Tea Times, Friday Freewrites, movie watching, playing games and so much more. Julie Bogart has an AMAZING Podcast and many Youtube videos to get you motivated and started in this new way of language learning. This year I plan to do a few writing activities from Partnership Writing, 3-4 Arrow Book Guides, a few writing activities from The Writer’s Jungle, Poetry Tea Times, and Friday Free writes.

In addition to Brave Writer Activities, I also like to use First Language Lessons. We are slowly going through these books as a family. I like their memorization techniques for parts of speech, poetry, and stories.

For my independent readers, I like to follow the book recommendations from Drawn Into The Heart Of Reading. This curriculum is sorted by genre. I have my kids read a specific book from that genre and then work on a few worksheets from the student book throughout the month. The student book has worksheets that go over character traits, story elements, and reading comprehension too. I do not always have them do the student book but the Book Recommendations are fabulous! I love the book list!

Math Facts

I have been slacking on teaching math facts. I do not like to drill math facts to my children from a poster. I do not like flashcards. Of course, we do them on occasion but I prefer a more visually fun way to learn your math facts. Enter Subtraction Facts that Stick. Over the summer we worked through Addition Facts that Stick and really enjoyed it.

Skip Count + Addition Facts Songbook (with Music CD and Coloring Pages)

I also LOVE this Math-U-See Skip COunting CD. We listen to this one in the car when I feel like we need more school. I bought this one even before we used Math U See as our math curriculum.

Grade 4 Curriculum Choices

Math:~~Primary Math Standards Edition 3A and 3B~~

New Math: Math-U-See Gamma

In October we changed our math program. Primary Math was no longer working for us. I felt like we needed a change last year but thought that it was the end of the year and I was just feeling worn out by it. We decided to try and continue with the program. We gave it a shot. I even tried extra hard to do the additional hands-on activities but it just left us both confused and upset. I do not want to learn or teach 10 different ways to add and subtract. I am sorry if you do but it did not work for us. We switched over to Math-U-See Gamma. My daughter started using Math- U- See Beta over the summer and I really love it! I like their no-nonsense approach. At the beginning of the week, we watch Mr. Demme who explains the concepts in an easy to understand way, we work on a few activities together, then my child has to teach me the concept, and off we go to the worksheet. Each day they do a worksheet or sometimes two depending on the day. They get review questions at the end of their assignment and there are usually 2 fun worksheets for them to do at the end of the week too. It has been a math lifesaver for me!

We also will supplement with Beast Academy 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D. After my son completed Singapore Primary Math 2A and 2B last year, I had him use Beast Academy. I was so confident that this was going to be a great fit for him. This math is completely different than any other math I have used. My son loved reading the comic book style textbook but he could not do it independently and would get frustrated with not understanding how to answer the questions. They are higher-order thinking math questions and I struggled to get the answers too. At that time. I was focusing on helping a different child with a subject they were struggling in and I did not have the time to figure out a new math program. We stopped using Beast Academy in the Spring and I had him do other math books and games that we had on hand. Over the summer, we decided to dabble with doing Beast Academy again and I learned that I need to be more hands-on with this curriculum and that it is okay to work on 1 math problem only for a math session. My son asks to do this math, but I also want him to be able to do and understand math independently. I plan to use Beast Academy as a fun math break when we can.

I also picked up the Usborne Times Tables Activity Book for fun.

And this Flash Master to help the kids master those important math facts. A fun alternative to flashcards and a great on the go tool. There are certain times during the year that we find ourselves in the car a lot. I think this will be great!

For Grammar, my two oldest kids use this Easy Grammar book independently. It is so easy to follow and straight to the point. No teacher manual needed for this one.

My son uses Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary by Jack Kris Publishing for spelling. I start the week by having him study his spelling list and then test him when he is ready. The rest of the week he works on fun activities, such as crossword puzzles and word jumbles of his spelling words. On the last day of the week I give him his test. If he misses any then he will be tested them the following week. We previously used this company’s Grammar and Writing Curriculum but it did not fit our homeschool style.

Cursive Success is what we use for handwriting. My kids work at their own speed and typically do 1 page a day.

Extra Curricula: Piano Lessons at home using Hoffman Academy. This is my 2nd year doing this and this year I can see great improvements. The video lessons are fun, engaging, and free. All you need is an account. If you buy the premium version of this, your child works through lessons and it includes printable worksheets and games. Best of all, I don’t have to leave the house. I LOVE IT!

3rd Grade Curriculum Choices

As I mentioned before, we started using Math-U-See Beta with my daughter over the summer. Last year was a hard year for her in math and I felt that we were behind. She LOVES Math-U-See and is thriving in it.

She is also going to work on this fun Usborne Times Tables Activity Book.

For spelling my daughter enjoys Spelling You See. We will be finishing up Level B and then moving onto Level C.

She is also independently working through Easy Grammar Grade 2.

And Handwriting Without Tears’ Cursive Handwriting Book. She really enjoys having nice handwriting and is almost ready to move onto Cursive Success.

This year for fun I got her My First Fun-Schooling Journal For Princesses & Ballerinas. I have been eyeing these up for a few years now and thought it would be perfect for her. So far it is a hit. She loves doodling.

Kindergarten

Besides using My Fathers World Kindergarten Program, I like to add in a few extras. It is not needed but my young learner loves to do school. If I had enough time to focus on just her she would do school ALL day.

For math my little Kindergartener is doing Essential Math A and B. These are great! So simple and to the point. No teacher’s manual needed. Extra activities are listed on the bottom of the page. Another open and go program. Are you beginning to see that if it is easy I typically like it?

This year we are working through All About Reading Level 1. This is a highly recommended reading curriculum that I wanted to try out since I heard such wonderful things about it. Last year, my daughter used All About Reading Pre-Reading and she enjoyed it. She loved Ziggy and the alphabet worksheets. It was great for me because I enjoy doing letter of the week crafts with my preschooler’s but did not have the time to print and cut everything up. This was open and go. When she completed her worksheets she then would put them in her 3 ring binder to show off to her siblings. Trying a different reading curriculum was a hard decision for me because our 2 older children used Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and had great success with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not so easy. But in the end, they were reading at a 3rd-grade level. I am looking forward to seeing how All About Reading Level 1 compares to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

I do not get an additional set of student sheets for my Kindergarten daughter to follow along with My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures. Instead, I picked up this Around The World Coloring Book that she can work on while we learn about a particular Country.

Another fun extra she enjoys is Reading Eggs & Math Seeds on the iPad for fun. I found that the best place to buy these is through Homeschool Buyers Co-op.