Back to School- Curriculum Time

It's that time of the year again! 

Back to Homeschool

2015-2016

A is 8 years old and would be entering 3rd grade if placed chronologically. 

She is doing mostly middle school work this year.

We had our first day Monday, but it was a short week as Dh took A camping Thursday morning for a long weekend. So we are stretching our first week out over two weeks. 

It's actually a good thing and gives us time to find our rhythm now that we have a walking, into everything, toddler tagging along with us,

I am super excited about the curriculum we have chosen this year and A is too.

It seems to be working well if 3 days can tell us anything.

For the main base of our year, we will be using Oak Meadow once again.

A and I decided to go back to this because she loves the creative and hands on project choices that it gives in each lesson. I love that Oak Meadow seems to have a very gentle approach while still being rigorous and challenging. Since we are accelerating several grades, this is super important to me. It seems to meet A on all levels.

6th grade Oak Meadow focuses on Ancient Civilizations and combines English, Grammar, Literature, and History all in an integrated curriculum.

We are trying something new for spelling this year. 

Spelling Workout Level D

For the first half of the year we will be using two units from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop.

We are starting off with Botany in 8 Lessons. I love these units as each lesson has two levels and allows you to take learning even deeper. These basically have the information of high school and college level courses presented in a format for upper elementary and middle school learners. 

After Botany we will focusing on Chemistry using The Elements unit.

I am unsure what we will chose after that.

For math we are sticking with Teaching Textbooks but we are skipping 6th grade and diving headfirst into 7th with plans to continue with Pre-Algebra when she finishes this.

We are continuing to work on both cursive and typing this year, and continuing with the curriculums we started last year.

We love the gentleness of Print to Cursive Proverbs from Simply Charlotte Mason

and are about half way through Type to Learn 4 which remains one of A's favorite parts of our day.

A is also taking an online course this semester from OnlineG3.

They offer online, interactive course for gifted children. A will be taking a course on the Horrible Histories of Egypt and Rome which fits perfectly with our study on Ancient Civilizations.

A chose Spanish for her foreign language, and I found a great online course for her to take. We have only completed one session but she is very pleased with it.

We are using Middlebury Interactive Languages which uses and immersive approach and has courses through the high school level.

And finally for her electives this year, A has picked up the violin again and is doing great. We will also being doing a clay animation movie course that I picked up in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble. This of course has A very excited.

Stay tuned for a look into our first week of homeschooling in our new home of Montana.