2015-2016 Homeschool Curriculum

We’ve already got 3 weeks of our new school year behind us, despite taking a 3-week break so my homeschooled kids could spend some time with their older brother while he’s off from public school for the summer.  So I figured other homeschoolers are likely beginning to plan their new school year that starts in the fall, and perhaps this would be a good time to outline the curriculum we’re using this school year.

SUBJECT	HAYLEE, 6TH GRADE	HOLDEN, 2ND GRADE
Math	Mastering Essential Math Skills, Book 2 with DVD	Saxon Math 3
Language Arts	McGraw-Hill Language Arts 6	McGraw-Hill Language Arts 2
Phonics	N/A	Saxon Phonics & Spelling 3
Explode the Code	N/A	Explode the Code Online
Spelling	Houghton Mifflin Spelling & Vocabulary 7	Houghton Mifflin Spelling & Vocabulary 3
Vocabulary	Wordly Wise 3000 Online, Level 7	Wordly Wise C
Daily Review	Evan-Moor Daily Language Review 6	Evan-Moor Daily Language Review 2
Handwriting	N/A	New American Cursive (worksheets made in StartWrite)
Foreign Language	Switched On Schoolhouse Elementary Spanish (2nd half)	Song School Spanish
Social Studies	McGraw-Hill Our World	McGraw-Hill Our Community
Geography	Evan-Moor Daily Geography Review 6	Evan-Moor Daily Geography Review 2
History	Sonlight Core G	Sonlight Core C with Grade 4-5 Readers
Science	Sonlight Science G	Sonlight Science C
Supplemental Science	McGraw-Hill Science 6	Science Fusion 2
Health & Fitness	N/A	Harcourt Health & Fitness 2
Bible	Sonlight Bible G	Sonlight Bible C
Art	ARTistic Pursuits, K-3, Book 3	Abeka Art Projects 2
Supplemental Art	Abeka Art C	N/A
Music	N/A	Silver Burdett Music 2
Supplemental Music	N/A	Abeka Songs We Enjoy 2

Things are going pretty well so far.  Haylee really likes her new math program, which is always the biggest hurdle for her, so I’m thankful for that.  If she does well with this format, then I plan to stick with it when we move on to Pre-Algebra next year and then on to No-Nonsense Algebra in 8th grade.  Then she should be well-prepared to go on to public high school.  I’m really hoping all of the kids will have the good fortune of getting into Hayden’s charter school when the time comes. 
Holden absolutely loves Song School Spanish!  I’m so glad I had that tucked away from a review I did with Haylee a few years ago.  He really loves singing the songs.  And he also really likes Science Fusion, because I found some of the online components we can access for free by linking from a Florida public school page.  He enjoys the interactive lessons and quizzes.  With his reading, he’s doing the Grade 4-5 Readers from Sonlight.  I’ve found it to be a huge leap from the Grade 2 Readers he had last year, but the alternative would have been to do the Grade 3 Readers, in which case he would never had gotten to read all the wonderful stories in the Grade 4-5 Readers, because the readers are tied to the history program starting with Core D.  The kids told Holden he would love the stories more in the advanced readers, so he decided to go with that.  The length of the reading is pretty tiring for him, though, so the compromise we’ve reached is to have him read half of the reading assignment, and I read the other half.  So if it’s 4 chapters, then he reads two, and I read two.  And frankly, as long as he reads at least one whole chapter himself, I’m fine with that.  He’s fully capable of reading the material, it’s just that the length of the assignments are a bit much for his level of concentration and attention.  I can work with that.
I think it’s going to be a good school year!