This Year's Curriculum (2nd and 6th grade)

This is the latest in the year I've ever posted about our curriculum choices. It is also the latest in the year that I've ever decided on, and then ordered our books. In fact, I am actually still awaiting one more box that was back-ordered until the first week of August. Any other year I had my decisions made and the girls' school books ordered in January and February. This year, on such a limited budget, I was unable to order it all at once, and had to order it piece by piece.

You will notice I have a much shorter list this year. This is partly due to financial restraints, and partly because a few of the girls' subjects are complete programs, with several subjects wrapped up into one particular program.

So....without further ado, the girls and I will be doing:

MATH: 6th grade-Saxon 76. C has already completed 1/3 of the book. She will be "beginning" 6th grade on Lesson 41. As seems to be the case every year, she has completed so much of the book already she will only need to do math 3 days a week.

2nd grade: Horizons 2 for E. I can not say enough wonderful things about this math program. E has already completed 25 lessons and 2 tests, and this is just the BEST math program for advanced children I've ever seen. Horizons Math is promoted as the most advanced math available for elementary students, and I have to agree that it is certainly advanced. This math program is very challenging, very fast faced, and it actually is a ton of work. (for both teacher and student)I think so highly of this math that I intend to do a full review of it soon.

ENGLISH: C chose (and I happily agreed) to do another year of BJUP English 6. 5th grade went so smoothly, and she learned so much, that neither of us saw any reason to change a good thing.

E will be doing McGruffy's full Language Arts program. This program actually consists of 5 subjects all tied together: SPELLING, PHONICS, READING, LANGUAGE, (grammar and writing), and HANDWRITING

SCIENCE / HEALTH: We are still reading through Apologia's Zoology series, and I ordered Apologia's ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY the second it was published. Being a nurse, I am impressed with this program for elementary students. It looks awesome, and I splurged and actually bought the accompanying student notebook, instead of being cheap and trying to run all the pages off in black and white. (ok, so my printer is broken and I CAN'T print pages off the internet, LOL) It looks to be a worthwhile expenditure. I've had these books now for 2 months, and I am as excited as a child on Christmas to actually begin this with C, and as always, E may sit in as she wishes.

SOCIAL STUDIES: C is reading "Story of the World" Volume 1 aloud to E this year. As some of you may recall, C liked this overview of Ancient History so much we actually did it twice...once for a grade, and once for fun, and if I have to read this book in it's entirety one more time I may just puke. I will be supervising the readings, and I will, of course, be doing most of the geographical aspects of this program, but I just can't sit and read it myself again this soon. LOL I also bought BJUP Heritage Studies 2, with the intention of working through it with E, but she fell in love with the textbook, absconded with it, and reads it herself.

C will be doing Heart of Dakota's "Resurrection to Reformation" with the optional Shakespeare literary study. This program is technically a "history and geography" study, but as Heart of Dakota is basically a Charlotte Mason style/ literature style unit study, it covers history, geography, cultures, art, Bible, and literature / writing. There is a TON of reading involved, a TON of notebooking, writing, mapwork, and hands-on activities. I am anticipating this to be the most time-consuming portion of C's day. This also happens to be the program in which a few books are on back-order, so I must wait to start it. I have all the other portions of the program; however I do NOT have the Teacher's Guide, the Student notebook, or the Student's Shakespeare notebook. In other words, I have all the reading, the main text, the CD's, but not the actual "workbooks" or Teacher's Manual, so it is impossible to begin until I have those.

Both girls will also be doing Thinking Skills daily. I bought "Building Critical Thinking Skills" at the age-appropriate level for each girl. E also has a Learning to Draw Animals book for Art.

That's it. A much shorter list than previous years, but very comprehensive, and I think they will both actually have to work a lot harder than in years past. C, for sure, will have much more "homework", and E's math alone take 60-90 minutes per day.I'll let you know how it goes.....

Where Have I Been?

My posts have really slipped this past year. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have been working hard this past year, but for several months I've let my schooling slide to the way side. I think I may have been going through a bout of depression, and for awhile I was being very self-centered. I spent more time worrying about money (I don't have to worry about THAT anymore, because I don't have any to worry about! LOL) and feeling sorry for myself for having to do "man" jobs, (don't have to worry about THOSE anymore either, because I'm getting proficient at figuring things out or, GASP! asking for help.) I also spent much of my time helping out my dear friend, and I don't have to worry about THAT anymore, because he and I seem to have gotten this scheduling thing down pat, for the most part.

So, where have I been for 2 months? Well, I've been mainly getting my daughters and I lives back on track. C completed her 5th year of softball, alternating between the positions of pitcher and first-base, and contributing to her team finishing 2nd place for the season, and 2nd place in the tournament. This year, I had the added fun of simultaneously watching TWO softball games on TWO different fields, as E completed her 1st year of softball. Her team ended up in 3rd place for season, and 3rd in tournaments, which was much better than I expected at the beginning of the season. Five years into this softball stuff, and all 3 of us still love it, still haven't missed a single game.

Ex-husband, D, is now living with his girlfriend, and that has helped with him seeing the girls more often. He now gets them for entire weekends, and the girls really enjoy getting to spend more time with him. He coached C's softball team this year, had them for many weekends this summer, and so far, things are working out pretty well.

I have also spent the last couple of months FINALLY not only deciding on curriculum for both girls, but ordering it, organizing it, and preparing for C's 6th grade year, and E's 2nd grade year. I normally begin back to full-time home-schooling the first week of August. With 2 yards to mow, being a single mother, and all the extra work that entails, I'm not sure if I will get the year off to as productive a start as normal, but I can't do any worse than LAST school year! LOL

I have everything planned out. I have everything ordered. I am only awaiting one last shipment that was back-ordered to arrive next week. The girls have intermittently been doing math through the summer, but other than that, we will start all other subjects fresh on the first day of school. All 3 of us have been very busy this summer, but it's really been a great few months, and I am actually excited (for the first time in a year) to start school. I hope to post once more before our actual start-date with the list of curriculum and plans for this upcoming year.

Hope everyone is doing well. We are!