Tag Archives: Curriculum

History, Homeschooling

Blessed Heritage History Curriculum

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I love Belinda’s description of her curriculum, “A Literature-Based history featuring African-American presence and contribution”.

It is exactly what I was looking for and I have really enjoyed getting another point of view on the history of America.

My boys are on week 9 of the Intermediate Level Volume one book.

It is geared towards more middle school aged kids and I have her highschool curriculum as well but after looking at it I decided(although I loved it) that my boys were not ready for the content yet.

But I am really looking forward to them doing it in another two years.

Because this is geared for a lower grade then the boys, I have needed to add a lot more reading to it.

One of the things I loved about her curriculum was starting with the first people to come to America.

I added as many books as I could on native american history and was happy to find this list on books by native american authors.

I also struggled a bit with keeping track of what they were doing from the curriculum and came up with these spreadsheets that I can easily see.

I think I will grade them based on completion.

They have one sheet for the reading and one for the activities.

She recommends The History of US books to go along with her curriculum.

I was not sure about them based on reviews so I got Masterbooks “America’s Story 1” to try also but my boys ended up liking the History of US a lot better and it covered the history of America before Columbus a lot more. Especially the first book “The First Americans”.

I am also trying to use her Primary Level with my three girls.

They do better with projects and documentaries than sitting for reading but I finally worked out how to get more reading done this month.

Before this month I just got every kids book I could on Native American folklore and culture for them to look at and read.

Although we have not done them on the same schedule as suggested, we did make two of the projects she has in her curriculum.

Tipi’s and corn husk dolls.

The tipi’s we made because of this book “Storm Maker’s Tipi”. It was a nice easy craft that they enjoyed.

I actually did the corn husk dolls because of another book I got “A Kid’s Guide to Native American History“.

It is a really interesting resource but I have not used it as much as I have wanted to yet.

So far we are really enjoying her recommended reading!

Homeschooling

Curriculum 2020-2021 ~for 9th, 4th, & 1st grade

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Both my boys are doing 9th grade this year and here is what they are doing.

Science –Masterbooks General Science 2 (except for the Archaeology book, they did that with the Biblical Archaeology study)

History-Masterbooks The World’s Story 2 & 3 (trying out just having them read the chapters and taking notes, I quiz them at the end of the week instead of doing the teachers guide.)

Language Arts –Masterbooks Writing Strands Advanced 1 & Cursive Handwriting Practice for Teens

Math-Teaching Textbooks (for part of the year, they are almost done with the Geometry)

Spanish –Duo Lingo

Literature -Wulf the Saxon, Tennyson, Shakespeare, and other authors and books that go with our history study.

Electives -My oldest is doing a Python course with Udemy and my second oldest is taking a Blender for beginners class with Udemy.

Both do extra programming and math on Khan Academy as well.

 

My twin girls are in the 4th grade and here is what they will be doing.

Math –McRuffy Color Math 4

Spelling –All About Spelling Level 3

Reading –Christian Liberty Readers Book 2

Grammar –Brave Writer Wand Level 2

Handwriting –Prescripts Cursive and Letters

Science –Exploring Geology with Mr. Hibb (this will only cover part of the year. I have not figured out the next part yet. Although I am hoping to have them learn something similar to the boys.)

History&Geography –I am just getting resources that go along with the time period the boys are learning about.

 

My youngest is starting 1st Grade and this is what she is using.

Since taking this picture I have already dropped the Singapore Math, it just did not work well for us right now.

Math –RightStart B (I have to add this every year, right? Ha! I have been doing it with her though for the last two weeks and it is going well)

Language Arts –A Reason for Handwriting K, First Language Lessons for a Well Trained Mind Level 1, All About Spelling Level 1, and lots of readers.

Science, History, & Geography -same as twins.

 

 

 

Homeschooling

What did we use and what did we drop? ~2019-2020 Curriculum RECAP

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I thought I would give an update on what curriculum worked well for us last year. This is the original post with my thoughts on the curriculum added in bold. Let me know if this was helpful to you.For Kindergarten this year I am trying out Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

*I dropped this right away, way too complicated. I ended up subscribing to Reading Eggs and Math Seeds to make my day easier. It worked! She is now reading easy three letter words.

I am still using Handwriting Without Tears for now but might start using something else.

*We did not use this much. She was just not ready for it.

I went back and forth between RightStart and McRuffy Color Math for her math but in the end RightStart won.

McRuffy is a lot easier for me to teach but RightStart just teaches number sense so well!

So she is doing RightStart Level A this year and it will be my third time teaching it!

*Nope, dropped this also. She did Math Seeds until I got fed up with all the counting and then I tried Singapore Math to finish the year out but did not end up loving that either.

I got God’s Design for Science Plants for Beginners for both my Kindergartener and my 3rd grade twins this year.

*We loved this science! It was easy to understand and all three of mine enjoyed it! We did end up finishing the year with Super Charged Science’s free facebook classes though and they loved those as well.

3rd Grade

I am going to continue using The Good and the Beautiful Level One for reading for the twins.

*This did seem to help my twins progress in their reading. We continued it through the year but pretty slowly.

I printed out my own practice pages for writing and might be using PreScripts Cursive Letters and Coloring World History if I decide to teach them cursive this year.

*We did not tackle cursive last year. I instead bought “Print Handwriting Workbook for Teens” on amazon and loved all the extra print practice it gave them. I ended up getting several of their books.

They are also doing All About Spelling Level 2 this year.

I love how All About Spelling teaches spelling.

*We continued through this program but I slowed way down with it when I realized they kept forgetting older words.
We switched from RightStart to McRuffy Color Math halfway through the year last year so we still need to finish up the Second Grade book this fall.

I think RightStart does some stuff better but McRuffy is a lot easier for me to teach and the girls have been doing better with it so we will stick with this for now.

*They made it through the second grade book and the third grade book! 

I have not been real happy with 1st Language Lessons for a while and have been keeping an eye out for an alternative.

The Winston Grammar Program is supposed to be hands on and less teacher intensive.

I also got a hands on grammar book that I might take from during the year.

*We did not end up using either of these. I just decided it was not a priority to push grammar hard in the third grade.

8th Grade

The boys are doing Masterbooks General Science 1 this year!

*The boys did well with this curriculum and learned a lot!

We started Masterbooks Biblical Archaeology later in the year last year so they still have a ways to go on that.

That will put us at the time of Jesus and I am still deciding what we will use next.

I have enjoyed Masterbooks though.

So far Biblical Archaeology has had a lot of geography included also.

*This was a bit repetitive and the boys were very ready to move on when we finally finished this. I made my own unit for the early church history and we tried several things after that. Not really loving any of them. I will share what we landed on in my new curriculum post.

We are using these Spencerian Penmanship books for the boys handwriting to try to improve their cursive.

*Nope, ended up not finishing this.

The rest of their curriculum is online.

Grammar is Brave Writer

*Ended up not continuing the full year with this. I just needed a break.

Math is VideoText although I am really looking forward to moving on. We are going to try Teaching Textbooks Geometry next I think.

*They have been using Teaching Textbooks for a while and seem to enjoy it.

I need something with more help for them and less checking work for me.

*It gives me this! No more constant test checking!

They will be continuing Duolingo for Spanish and Khan Academy for programming.

*We pushed Spanish back a year.

I am trying to keep it simple this year but might add more as the year goes on!

*We added Intro to Logic through Masterbooks and they really enjoyed it. Especially my oldest!