Mood:  a-ok

I decided to participate in Heart of the Matters - Not Back-to-School Blog Hop! Every is talking about what curriculum they're using and then posting the link to their blog on the Heart of the Matter Blog Hop page. Click on the button above to get to the Heart of the Matter page and then start clicking, reading, and dreaming about all of the great homeschool curriculum that everyone is using! It's a lot of fun. Happy Homeschooling!

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I've never been one to write about all of the curriculum we use. Every year, at the beginning of the school year, I always see a bunch of posts about what curriculum all of the other homeschool bloggers are using with their children but I've never decided to participate. Well, this year I thought I would. I don't know why...I'm certainly not more organized...but for some reason I just want to. Maybe its to keep me on task this year. Who knows? But here goes.

Jacob

This is Jacob's first year of homeschooling. In fact, we didn't even register him under our umbrella group this year...SHHHH!Actually we did the same with Joshua. This way, if Jacob doesn't advance much this year, then we can always just register him as a kindergärtner next year. If he does well, then we can just advance him to first grade. A lot of homeschoolers do that. This year Jacob is using...

All About Reading - A great reading program we found at the Midwest Homeschool Conference last year. I've reviewed All About Spelling before, which is from the same company, and liked it, and we really liked what we saw at the convention. Sure enough, he loves it. He's really excelling!

Before Five in a Row - Before Five in a Row is supposed to be a pre-school program, but it is a review item for the TOS Homeschool Crew, and, since we weren't sure how Jacob would do, we thought it would be perfect to try him out with. I'll be reviewing it in a couple of weeks, so we'll let you know how it goes.

Any other TOS Homeschool Crew stuff that comes along - as I hinted before, we are kind of playing this year by ear. With all of the therapies that Jacob goes to, we weren't sure we could commit to a full load anyway, so our goal is a good introduction to reading this year and sprinkle in some science, social studies, and math as it comes along.

Joshua

Joshua is registered for third grade this year, but his curriculum is really kind of all over the board. He's ahead in reading, on grade level with social studies and science, but about a year below on math and grammar. His handwriting is also still lacking, so we really need to concentrate on that this year. Here's a list of what we are using this year. Since it's a long list, I'll try to keep my comments to a minimum .

Considering God's Creation - a great hands-on science curriculum that we reviewed at the end of last year and are just continuing to use this year. 

Math Mammoth - we are about half way through the 2nd grade year on this one but progressing well.

Expedition Earth - another great book that one of last year's TOS Homeschool Crew members wrote and we bought at the homeschool convention. If you read my post about Joshua and flags from different countries a couple of weeks ago, you know why we are using this .

Language Smarts - again, we are about half way through his second grade book but he is learning and doing well. 

Song School Latin - see below

Speekee Spanish - see below

Yes, my 10 year old asperger's child is actually studying two languages at once. Both of them were reviews for the homeschool crew last year, and he really loved them. So, we are continuing with them this year. We are going to alternate them - probably one one week and the other the next week.

Crew Stuff - as usual, we will have a lot of crew stuff to use and review as well. That's really a blessing. I have found a lot of great curriculum that I would have never tried out or never even have heard of without the crew. The crew has been a real blessing for our family. 

John Allen

I can't believe my little baby is going into high school this year. But it will be good for him. No more fooling around (not that we did much of that any way - mind you ). This year we have to stay on schedule. There are certain things that he must cover! Here's the list of what he's doing and what we are using.

Apologia Biology - last year's apologia science didn't go too well, and I thought it was me. Until I talked to a couple of other homeschoolers who said that if the student hasn't had Algebra 1 yet, then the eight grade science can be difficult. *Breath huge sigh of relief*! So, we are moving ahead with Biology, which, thankfully, doesn't have a lot of math in it. I think he'll do well with this.

TenMark Algebra 1 - another review item from last year that John Allen loved. We are continuing with it this year.

Sonlight American History in Depth - Last year we deviated from Sonlight and I will never do it again. John Allen begged to get back with it this year and we did.

Learning Language ArtsThrough Literature/Institute for Excellence in Writing/Vocabulary Cartoons - Why three things listed. Well, LLATL is great for grammar and John Allen loves it. IEW is great for writing and John Allen loves it. And VC is great for vocabulary and John Allen loves it. If John Allen likes something that's good for him then we are all four it.

First Form Latin - This was a hard one. John Allen loves Latin, but he really wants to try Spanish. But, since we bought this last year and never used it, I opted for saving the money and using this first. Next year we may attempt Spanish.

Competition Air Rifle Shooting for PE - He needs a PE credit, and he loves to shoot. This counts so we are all for it.

Computer Programming as an elective - We started using this last year until John Allen's computer broke down. So, since he needs so many electives anyway, we decided to start all over with it and use it as an elective credit.

So, that's our curriculum for this year. As you can see we are very eclectic. We add in chores and devotions every morning, and Community Bible Study on Thursday's and therapies for Joshua and Jacob, and it makes for quite a full week. It's going to be a fun year!

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Haven't seen this in years. I'm glad it's back. Maybe I can take the kids to see it soon. Until then, I'll enjoy it along with you all here on the blog.

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Summer is always a fun time for us. We love to go to the lake and picnic or cook out at home. One of our favorite stops is at the local farmers market to pick up some fresh vegetables to throw on the grill or cook up in a stir fry.

Unfortunately, there are some summer foods that you just can't grow in your garden or pick up at the farmers market. Of course, in the summer you have to have something cold to drink like

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Mood:  a-ok

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Summer 2011 - Free Gift Issue

You've all heard me talk about The Old Schoolhouse before. They are a great company! So great that I even kind of work for them on the TOS Homeschool Crew. Not only are they a great company but they have a great magazine as well. If you're like me, you hate to spend money on something that you don't really know anything about. I like to look over things before I pay out the cash, especially in this economy (don't get me started ). Anyway, TOS has just announced a promotion where you can get a digital copy of their summer issue for FREE ! Just click on the link above to find out all about it. I know you'll like it! Happy Reading!

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