Final Curriculum Choices 2015-2016

Wow, I can't believe our summer break is over. We start our new school year today. It took me a while to finally decide our curriculum this year.

Up first, my 8th grader. He is taking a few high school credit classes this year. He will be studying the following:

~ Abeka Algebra I (High school course)
~ Visual Latin (High school course)
~ Apologia Biology (High school course)
~ Fix It Grammar: Book 3
~ Abeka Literature
~ Abeka US History
~ Abeka Spelling
~ Jump In Writing

Next, for my 7th grader, I chose the following:

~ Saxon Algebra 1/2
~ Abeka World History
~ Fix It Grammar: Book 3
~ Abeka Literature
~ Abeka Spelling
~ Apologia General Science
~ Jump In Writing

For my 5th grader I chose:

~ CTC Math
~ Abeka World History
~ Fix It Grammar: Book 1
~ Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology
~ A Reason for Handwriting
~ Abeka Reading
~ Home Spelling Words


















My 4 year old is using Alpha Omega Horizons curriculum for preschool. She will be done in December and move on to Abeka K5 in January. We bagan the Horizons curriculum in the spring and have worked through the summer 3-4 days a week on it.

Resources

I am always looking for resources to use in my homeschool. I have found several free printables for the curriculum I am using. One thing I have not found is the phonics charts for special sounds for Abeka. I decided to just make some plain black and white printable phonics charts to help others.

Click here (or the pinnable image) for the phonics chart printable.

Some other Abeka resources I found are:

Blend Ladders

Addition Flashcards

Alphabet Flashcards

Number Concept Cards

ABC Bible Memory Verses

Curriculum Planning for 2014/2015

Since we have recently received our tax refund, it's time for me to start thinking about what curriculum to purchase for next school year. I will have a 7th grader, a 6th grader, a 4th grader, and a 3 year old.

We have been using mainly Abeka curriculum along with Schoolhouse Crew review items.

I do plan on purchasing for my 7th grader, the Abeka 7th grade curriculum. He is a year ahead in math and will be using Pre- Algebra for his math. He will continue to use Mango (review coming this weekend) for his foreign language.

My 6th grader will also use mostly Abeka with whatever Schoolhouse Crew reviews we get chosen for. he will continue to use mango for his foreign language.

My 4th grader has made me rethink (from this year while she has been doing 3rd grade) what curriculum fits best with her learning style. while I will use Abeka for cursive, history, science, and language; I now know she needs something different for math and spelling. I'm not sure what I will end up purchasing for those two subjects, but I have been researching and have a few possibilities. For spelling, I am waiting to read my fellow crewmates reviews about Spelling You See. I am also looking into Math U See for her math curriculum.

My 3 year old will be learning her ABC's, learning to read, and learning to write. She already knows how to count and knows some of her colors. She does know her alphabet, but can't recognize the letters yet.

I hope to have my choices finalized in a few weeks.

Using a Box Curriculum ~ Abeka

There are many different types of homeschool families. You have your classical, eclectic, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, traditional, and many more. For my family, we found that a traditional approach works best.

I will admit that when I first started out almost 8 years ago with my first son, I thought I needed to do everything the curriculum called for. This soon led to burnout for both me and my son. He was only doing K-4, but it was taking a lot longer than it should.

The reason I did choose the Abeka curriculum is because I was familiar with it. I attended a private, Christian school from age 3 to 12th grade and Abeka is what the school used. I even went to Pensacola Christian College, the home of Abeka. 

After getting through the K-4 year with my son, I decided to take a different approach. I still wanted to use Abeka and knew that it was the best choice for us, but I needed to tweak it to accommodate our needs. It is very easy to do that with a box curriculum. There is a lot of seat work because a box curriculum is designed to be used by schools. First thing I did was to cut out all of the extra seat (busy) work. My son really enjoyed that. He would do much better on the lesson pages knowing he didn't have all of that extra work at the end of the learning time. 

As we have gone from year to year, I just take a look at what I think my children need from this curriculum. Do they need to write their spelling words 5 times each every day? Probably not. Do they need to write their multiplication tables 5 times every day? Again, probably not. Adjusting the box curriculum to fit your needs will save your sanity. I may have them write their spelling list every other day, one time a day for the week. Other weeks, I just have them say-spell-say the words for the week. They are still learning. And we don't burn out from all of the busy work.

We have more time to do other things like go on field trips. We have less whining when they don't have so much work to do. It is a win-win situation. I do love homeschooling with Abeka, but I have certainly found some other material that works great from my time on the Schoolhouse Review Crew. 

That brings us to our current year, well our 2013-2014 year. We are finished up with this year next week. I will still use Abeka for all of our subjects with some reviews from a lot of other great companies thrown in from the crew!