New School Year

We began our year a couple of weeks ago.  Since Ellie has joined us, we have children from kindergarten up to eighth grade!  I've been staying quite busy!  Ellie thinks that she should be able to do all of her books every day (I bought books like cutting, thinking we would cover that once a week, rotating it with other books, like our reading skills, community helpers, and etiquette books).

Here are our books:

For Katie's 8th grade, we are continuing with Tapestry of Grace for literature and history.  We borrow many of the books from the library, but three of the books I purchased because of their on going use are here: Abraham Lincoln's World, From Sea to Shining Sea, and In the Days of Queen Victoria.  She is also covering Teaching Textbooks: Algebra I.  For Grammar, we are using Grammar for the Well Trained Mind, for both her and Gabby.  They find it challenging, but I do think it is a good challenge.  They are both also doing a Chemistry book.  We've not done much with textbooks in science before, usually using experimentally based or living books, but we are trying this, as we are heading into high school next year.  I also found the Just for Teen Girls: Bible Journal for the older two.  These will only last for the first semester.  I have a pile of books I'm going to choose from in the spring term, but I haven't settled on one yet.

For 6th grade, we are again using Tapestry of Grace, with a mix of the Upper Grammar and the Dialectic level.  I'm especially excited about Les Miserables (it is very abridged, but it is one of my very favorite books).  We also love Story of the World, which we are using with the Tapestry curriculum.  She is also using Christian Kids Explore: Chemistry, Just for Teen Girls: Bible Journal, and Grammar for the Well Trained Mind.  Keeping my students together whenever possible makes it much easier to keep up with everyone!  She is continuing with Spelling Power--we think she will be able to complete the entire book next year.  She is in Teaching Textbooks: Pre-Algebra.  Lastly, she loves Latin, and is going on with Once Upon a Time, in Latin.

 Nate is in 3rd grade this year.  Again we use Tapestry of Grace for literature and history.  He is in the lower grammar level, but I may choose some upper grammar assignments as the year goes on.  He is learning cursive with Handwriting Without Tears, which I used previously, since it is a simple introduction to cursive, without any extra flourishes.  He is in Singapore's Primary Mathematics 3B.  He too is using Spelling Power (though several units behind Gabby).  He has showed a great interest in astronomy, so while I intended to have him join the older two with the chemistry, we are letting him explorer his area of interest instead with Exploring Creation with Astronomy.  We used the text with Katie a number of years ago, but they have since updated it, making it hard to find the workbook.  Thankfully, someone local was selling an unused copy of the workbook.  We didn't quite finish the first Song School Latin last year, so we'll finish it this year before switching over to year two.  His Bible study is My Bible Journal.  It is much less a journal, and more a way to read through sections of the Bible and search for answers, highlighting key verses.  This seemed much more appealing to him than the coloring based journals I had been finding for his age.

Somehow our littlest is ready for kindergarten!  It is hard to believe this is our last trip through these books.  I didn't discover Five in a Row in time for Katie, but they are very much one of my favorites.  So far we have rowed The Story of Ping and Papa Piccolo.  I used the D'Nealian Handwriting with Nate, and thought it was a very good way to teach handwriting, starting with just lines and curves and moving on.  We are using Miquon: The Orange Book for the very first time, for math.  It is very hands on, which I felt would be a good way to start her.  Too bad for the others I hadn't found this one before!  So while Ellie must share me with more people, she does get a more experienced teacher!  Cutting has been one of the things she wanted to do the very most, so I got her a book just for that.  Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, is such a great way to teach reading.  She's read a few words with the set sounds she's learned.  The Bob Books are for practice a little later.  My rule for getting a library card, is that the child has to read me a book.  These are perfect for that.  We are having Ellie watch What's in the Bible for her Bible, along with reading The Storybook Bible.  The video was an effort to give her something to do while I gave the older children some undivided instruction, but they all like it too, so sometimes they come out to see it when it is on.

So that's our plan for the year!  So far so good!
Kristy