Tag Archives: homeschool

2020-2021 Recap ~What did we use and what did we drop?

*I really liked giving a curriculum recap last year so I thought I would do it again! All the updates on what we thought are in bold with an asterisk before it.

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)

*They have enjoyed both Science 1&2 from Masterbooks and we were even able to go see a cave during their cave 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.)

*They went through this set really fast and went into American History with Blessed Heritage, more about that here.

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

*As I thought, Writing Strands was not a hit. ha. But my oldest’s insisted he wanted to do it. They are struggling to finish it. 

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

*They did really well with this program and moved on to College Algebra with a local college and did really well with it!

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

*They did well with this program again. It has aspects that I don’t love but it is the best I have found so far for them.

Spelling –All About Spelling Level 3

*After realizing they were forgetting all the spelling rules, we backed off for the year. I did the spelling that was in The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts level we did.

Reading –Christian Liberty Readers Book 2

*They finished this and book 3! They like reading true stories and facts more than fictional stories so these are great.

Grammar –Brave Writer Wand Level 2

*dropped this for The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. We went at our own pace and it worked for us this past year. Just started using Khan Academy grammar to supplement also. I love Brave Writer but it has just not been a good fit for my twins so far.

Handwriting –Prescripts Cursive and Letters

*They begged to learn cursive but were hating it pretty quickly. We did finish it though but went back to the Print Handwriting workbook for Adults on amazon afterwards.

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.)

*This was hard to get through at first but I ended up skimming and that worked better. Now we are doing God’s Design for Beginners Animals. I am seeing a big difference in from last year in my twins level for this science. They are definitely above it this time around. It is good to see that. We supplement with a lot of youtube videos about the animal groups we are learning about and that is working really well!

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

*I bought Masterbooks My Story 2 for them to work through and we are mostly using it to use as a starting point to find youtube videos about different countries. I am finding that watching documentaries during lunch is working great for us. We are also doing Blessed Heritage and I love the people we are being introduced to but we are going through it REALLY slowly.

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)

*Yeah, that did not last. We dropped it again, poor RightStart. Switched to Masterbooks Math Lessons for a Living Education Level 1 and it seems like a better fit. Hoping to get my hands on some Life of Fred also though because she loves stories so much.

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

*Dropped all of these. Switched to The Good and the Beautiful and it has worked well.

Science, History, & Geography -same as twins.

 

Blessed Heritage History Curriculum

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!

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

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 1and lots of readers.

Science, History, & Geography -same as twins.