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.....
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