What we're using this year for 4th, 2nd, and pre-K

Darcy is hosting a NOT Back to School Blog Hop during the month of August.

Each week it will focus on one area of preparing your homeschool for NOT Back to School. This week I get to share with you what we are planning to use for our "curriculum."

As with my decorating, crafts, sewing, and reading, my curriculum is very eclectic.

The Artist is in 4th grade this year, The Nature Man will be in 2nd, Dash is pre-K, and Little Lad is 2-years old.

We do many subjects together; short versions for the little ones and more expanded & detailed for the older kids.

1. Bible

• First and foremost, we use the actual Bible.
  
• Leading Little Ones to God
  
• We'll be making some lapbooks to go along with these lessons. For free lapbooks and templates, you can visit Homeschool Helper Online.

2. Copywork

• Same books they used last year. I'll dig them out of their desks and look later. ;-)
  
• They each also copy their memory verse.

3. Grammar & Phonics

• Artist will continue Easy Grammar
  
• Nature Man is still going through Phonics Pathways & Daily Guided Teaching And Review Grade 2-3
• Dash will start Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
  

4. Spelling

• Both of the older kids use Spelling Power
• They regularly do crosswords and other games which help, too.
  

5. History

• Timeline projects
  
• Lapbooks
• In past years, our history has consisted of the Bible, Story of the World, and biographies. I plan to keep this up, but I want to add more context, & in-depth studies. Cultural Literacy has influenced my thinking!
  

6. Math

• Teaching Textbooks. I'm excited about this!
• Quartermile Math game and Calculadder for review/ drills
  

7. Memory Work

• Goes along with the Bible portions that we are reading that week. Dash memorizes short sections, and we add more on for the older kids.

8. Science

• We love the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
• Christian Liberty Nature Readers
• Considering God's Creation

• The Artist will also be participating in the science co-op classes every Wednesday.

9. Geography
Honestly, I'm not sure which route we'll take this year. It's a decision I should have made weeks (months?) ago. I have several resources to choose from, thankfully.

10. Mind Benders, Analogies and more. These were books from the K12 academy.

Extracurricular, some might say:

Chess

• The Artist and Nature Man both play very well, thanks to my Dad!! The kids even taught my husband to play!
  

Art Studies

• We do art every day. I love it. How can we live without art? Every late afternoon, to relax, we draw, paint, modge podge, sew, or whatever else might be "in the air" for the day. They also brainstorm and sketch out ideas for the shop (I'd count this as sewing, business, and math... they help with measurements, fees, etc.)
• I'll be helping with the Homeschool co-op art appreciation class. It's for older kids, but I intend to bring the ideas and lessons home to use!
• Come Look with Me books
  

Music Studies

• The Artist and Nature Man are both starting piano this year.
  
• We'll continue doing Hymns for a Kid's Heart. I have both books + cds, and we work through them every year. Love 'em!

Ballet

• First year to be part of a homeschool ballet group.

Boy Scouts

• Nature Man can't live without it.
  

Creative Writing

• My Mom is an English major. My youngest sister is also an English major (with an emphasis in Creative Writing.) Mom and Amy give art and writing lessons to the kids. Writing is in our blood, just like art.
  
• We do notebooking, with prompts.
  

Typing

• The Artist already types faster (and with better accuracy) than I do. Nature Man will start typing sometime this year. We use Typing Web, which is completely free.
  

Field Trips

• Silver Dollar City, Gilcrease Art Museum, rafting, camping & caving, battlefields, and plays... all the usual stuff we do...

Classics

• Daddy reads these, at night before bed.
• I read the Little House books during quiet afternoon time.

Young Authors

• We've loved this in the past. We fumbled at the end of our last year, but we'll get them completed this time around!!

*We also recently bought Explode the Code, but I'm not sure how I plan to work this in yet...

**We may be the only homeschoolers ever that are NOT studying Latin. Ahem. In due time.

***edit: We also do occasional Spanish lessons!! Sorry, Mom, I just forgot! Soon they'll be speaking Spanish to October and Nancy (and maybe they'll even teach me some!)

It may seem like a lot, but we're really very laid back. We often take all of our books outside to work at the picnic table, when the cooler weather settles in. We don't do all of this every day either. It's going to be an adjustment this year to have co-op classes, piano, boy scouts, and ballet every week. In fact, the mere idea of that already stresses me a bit. The biggest hindrance to our schedule last year was OVERactivity.

Oh, these poor over-socialized homeschoolers!

I've also been very blessed with lots of resources. Frankly, we're poor. I'm not going to moan and groan about finances on here, but let's just say that we make it by the grace of God. I'm so grateful to be home with my kids. Our fabulous books have come almost entirely from family and friends. When we do buy *new* things, we get them used from a homeschool loop. When we are finished with something, we resell it to purchase new supplies. It's entirely possible to have amazing resources, if you purchase carefully. And use your libraries!