AKA the curriculum plan round up for the 2026-2017 school year, as it stands in August.

I highly anticipate changes as the year progresses. Life will happen.The children will respond well or not so well to the texts. I’m trying to strike that balance between structure and flexibility. After reading Teaching From Rest by Sarah McKensie, I’m trying to maintain that peace, vision and leisure in our school time in order to assist in God’s work of forming the character and person of each child. That’s what education is, after all, more than learning the facts and reasoning skills, it’s character formation.

In light of that I chose a sort-of theme verse for the year. Something to set the tone and come back to in prayer as we evaluate and re-evaluate these choices. And something to serve as a rubric for all our studies (character and academic). The verse for the year is:

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Google helped me find this pretty little graphic from French Press Mornings that I’ve printed and will frame to hang in the school room!

Now for the list! For this year at the start these are the resources we’re going with:

Phonics

All About Reading Level 3 (JStar)

All About Reading Level 4 (Little Miss)

These have been the backbone of our homeschool curriculum since Little Miss started Pre-K. This year will be here last with All About Reading. I can hardly believe it! And what’s next????

Spelling

All About Spelling Level 1 (JStar)

All About Spelling LEvel 2 (Little Miss)

Jstar is about halfway through Level 1, he started last year during Kindergarten. He’ll begin level 2 as soon as he finishes 1, and they’ll work through the books at their own paces.

 

Language Arts

Language Lessons for the Very Young (Little Miss)

Copywork, dictation (JStar)

The text for Little Miss is a Charlotte Mason style compilation that uses narration, copywork, and picture study to teach elements of the English Language.

For JStar I’ll have him do copy work and work on short dictation to help him learn structure and basic grammar.

Math

Saxon 2 (Little Miss)

Singapore 1A and 1B (Jstar)

After using Singapore since the beginning of elementary I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that it is just not a right fit for Little Miss at this point. It took a while for me to switch gears, I’m not one that switches gears easily. But I’m super excited to get into Saxon math with Little Miss. My hope is that it’s structure and style will be a better approach for her.

JStar, on the other hand, is powering through Singapore with little instruction from me! That will change soon as he’s almost through 1A. I’m interested to see if his learning style will keep up with the presentation style of Singapore.

 

History

Connecting with History Unit 1: Old Testament and Ancient History.

This is one I’m excited to incorporate into our school year! It’s something we can learn with all together. This text, published by RC History, is really more of a compilation of living books, both fiction and non-fiction, that presents history in a story-rich way. It’s not just a listing of facts and dates as is the case in many textbooks. I’m excited for the books and stories, the Catholic perspective, the activities and the way it sets up the lessons.

Over the course of each section we go through their CONnECT system of learning. First we consider–what do we already know or think about what we’re beginning to look at? Then we get an Overview of the material. Then we spend a few days Notebooking, doing some more hands-on activities and reading materials do go into a little more depth. Next it’s Explore–this is the chance for the students to dig even deeper into an aspect of the material that ignites their curiosity. Then they Concentrate on that one aspect, preparing a presentation or project on it. And finally they Tell–present their work and knowledge.

It’s gonna be awesome!

Latin

Song School Latin 1

This is just for fun. An introduction to a subject I hope we’ll continue to study throughout!

Music

Recorder: Hands on Recorder

Ideally I’d love to have the children take piano lessons. That’s just not in the cards for right now. So, instead, I’m hoping to teach the children recorder. It’s pretty basic music reading lessons along with learning to play the instrument. So far they’re enjoying it! I may need to buy some earplugs until we can get a consistent sound 😉

Hymns:

We’ll learn a new hymn every few weeks, choosing one for the season or by what sounds good. The first one we’re doing is Come My Way, My Truth, My Life. Because we sang it at Mass yesterday, and it sounded nice. 🙂

Science

Nature study.

For now we’ll do nature study both on our field trip days and in co-op.

Religion

We have enrolled the kiddos in CCE at our parish, so will do the homework at home.

I plan to supplement with feast day celebrations, and reading excerpts from First Communion Catechism and Angel Food for Boys and Girls, and other texts!

Memorization

 

We’ll do poetry and scripture during Morning Time.

Other

The kids will also get Composer Study, Picture Study, chess, PE, and handicrafts at Co-op this year.

We’ll also be able to do field trips once or twice a month to museums or state parks or the zoo!

 

 

And that’s what we’ve planned. Now it’s time to offer it up and see where the good Lord take us!