Curricula Fair!

I am excited about this year of homeschooling and feel pretty settled about our choices. 

 We will be delving into The Story of the World, Vol. 3: Late Renaissance and Early Modern Times. 

 History is Emily Anne's favorite subject, and we have loved Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World. Will will be officially joining us this year on our journey of history. Both kids are really excited about making their own tartan in Chapter 2!

 Susan Wise Bauer will also be making an appearance in Seven Pillars Academy through Writing with Ease, Level 3. We have really enjoyed the thorough but gentle approach of writing in this curriculum. She is narrating well (although we often have to prune details) and is doing dictation well. Last year, IEW was offered in co-op, and we did it along with Writing with Ease, Level 2 at home. Emily Anne really did not enjoy IEW, and she enjoys writing and goes through reams of paper writing unassigned stories every day. I did not want her to get a bad attitude about writing this year and think that since she is strong in the humanities that she will pick up on organization well without IEW (which I do think is a strong program for those children whose talents are in areas other than writing). A bonus feature of the Writing with Ease books are the selections that Susan chooses for narration; they have piqued Emily Anne's curiosity and led us to books we might not have read on our own. I am excited to hear that Susan's writing program for logic-age children will be available soon!

 After reading through The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos for two years, we did topic studies last year, using For Instruction in Righteousness by Pam Forster. This year I felt led to do a study of Psalms and Proverbs and will be studying a different psalm or proverb each week. Emily Anne's cursive copywork will come from these psalms and proverbs. I made my own with a free cursive font.

 Emily Anne will be starting Saxon Math 5/4 this year. The format is different from the earlier Saxon volumes, and I had a little trepidation about this change. I have sat down with it, though, and have seen that it is not really different in practice that how we were doing Saxon 3. It helps to know that I can always fall back on the Dive teaching videos if this humanities mama needs help!

 Emily Anne is working through the rest of Spelling Workout C and D this year. She was not too enthused about the alien grasshopper on the cover of C! I have to say that at first, I was not very impressed with Spelling Workout A & B, but now that I've reread The Well-Trained Mind and have been writing the Spelling Tips in our Spelling section of the Language Arts notebook, it is going much better.

 Emily Anne will be taking Prima Latina through our co-op this year. Joel took Latin in high school, but I've never had the opportunity to learn it. I am exicted to learn along with Emily Anne!

 Science will also be taken through co-op. I am so thankful that I do not have to teach science! I would not enjoy setting up those experiments! This physics class will be using God's Design for the Physical World.

 Grammar will be learned through First Language Lessons, Level 3, another offering by Peace Hill Press. We will be starting diagramming this year, and I know how nerdy this sounds, but I can't wait!

 Will is starting off math with Saxon Math 1. He is so excited to start math and says it is his favorite subject.

 Phonics will be accomplished with Jessie Wise's Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and Bob Books. OPGTR worked so well for Emily Anne, and I am eager to start reading with Will!

I've decided to use Zaner-Bloser Kindergarten for Will's handwriting. I had tried various things with Emily Anne before hitting upon Zaner-Bloser with her cursive learning last year, and it seemed to work best with us.

Emily Anne and Will will also be taking Art at co-op; it will be Emily Anne's third year and Will's first. Emily Anne will be taking her second year of piano lessons, as well.

We are looking forward to a wonderful year!