Getting Ready

We are *almost* ready for school!  I say almost, but really, that means a lot of the planning is done, now I gotta get to the ordering part.    Patrick hates this part, but this year, he's been REALLY wonderful about everything.  We should be ordering the majority of our curriculum this week, and picking up the rest in the next couple of paychecks.

I like to keep my two olders on the same page.  They're only 18 months apart, and it's SO much easier than seperating them.  Besides which, they're both doing really well, so why shake things up?

This will be our first year doing textbooks.  This will only be our second year of "formally" homeschooling, and I swore I wouldn't use the things when I started, but here I am.  With the babies, and Sean running around, it's just too much for me right now to try to plan unit studies or CM studies.  I get overwhelmed, so this works for us.  I'm hoping to get Teri Maxwell's Managers of Their Schools soon, to help me out with scheduling and ideas and things.

We've decided on Rod and Staff, because I REALLY like how Scripture and Bible is incorporated into EVERYTHING.  (Patrick likes the price, so it all works out well!!)  So here's what we're using:


Reading, Reading Comprehension, and Phonics:  Rod and Staff Grade 2 Bible Nurture and Reader Series,Bible Nurture and Reader Series, plus we'll be supplementing with CLE and Pathway Publisher's series, if we need to.

English:  Rod and Staff Grade 2 Preparing to Build, and Climbing to Good English, Grade 1.   We didn't do a whole lot of English or Grammer last year, so I figure a refresher is in order.

Math:  We're finishing up Basic Math Grade 1 in Rod and Staff, then moving on to Working Arithmetic Grade 2.

Spelling:  Rod and Staff Spelling by Sound and Sequence, Grade 2

Handwriting:  Danny is finishing up Grade 1 Penmanship for Christian Writing, and Katie is finishing up  Grade 2.   They'll both be advancing when they're ready... Handwriting is a real pain for us.

Health:  Proper Manners and Health by Rod and Staff

Social Studies/Civics:  Our Father's World by Rod and Staff

Music:  Beginning in Music for Grade 1, since this is our first year doing music, by Rod and Staff

Art:  Katie is working on Artpac 1, and Danny is working on Bible Pictures to Color, where I read him a Bible story every week, and he colors the matching page, every week.  Art is not my strong front.  LOL

Home Ec:  We're starting off withFuture Christian Homemakers (you can download their handbook for free at their site!) for both of them, and then (eventually) moving on to Pearable's Home Economics Level 1.Home Economics Level 1.  We want them both to have a good, solid foundation for when they have their own homes.

Bible:  We'll be doing a bunch of different things here.  We're starting off with a Fruits of the Spirit Lapbook, and we'll be sort of starting our own Adventurer's club (which is run through our church, although our local church doesn't have one), and that will teach some church history and such.  We'll also be doing a doctrinal study, called God Loves Me 28 Ways, which we started and never finished, so we need to do that.  Eventually, we'll also be adding the Pearable's The Narrow Way curriculum for character building.

Science:  Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy


History:  Mystery of History Volume 1

Other stuff:  We're working on our Adventurer's honors, and Katie is going to begin a study in Beautiful Girlhood.   We'll probably start Danny on a study with the Pearable's The Christian Gentleman's Series:  Lessons in Responsibility for Boys, Level 1. 

We're also looking for projects for them to do, something to keep their hands busy.  We fully believe it's very important to keep them industrious, but we're at a loss on how to do that.  So, we're looking.  (Any ideas for age appropriate, semi-long term projects would be GREATLY appriciated!  We live in a small town, but still in town, in a single-wide trailer in a court, so space isn't exactly in abundance, but we'd still like to figure out *something!*) 

So, I think that's our year in a nutshell, as far as books and curriculum goes.  Hopefully I can get to where I can show you some of our organization this evening, if we ever find our camera cord.

In His Love,
Kristi