Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2018-2019

Guys, I can not even believe we are planning the 2018-2019 homeschool year! I feel each year just flies by quicker and quicker. I am literally staring High School in the face and it seems like just last week I had princesses dressed up for a tea party to watch the William and Kate’s royal wedding….. craziness! And, a little bittersweet. I really thought I would have given in by now and sent my oldest to high school. I questioned my ability to homeschool past middle school, but now? Each year, I gain a little more confidence, I feel a little more sure of myself, and the calling God has placed on our lives. I’m not screwing up my kids. Instead, I see that they are growing in His word. His grace. His knowledge. And that they are embracing, and discovering His will for their lives. They are finding their gifts. Growing in their own ability. And, I couldn’t be prouder.

As this post publishes we will have just finished up our 2017-2018 school year. We will NOT be homeschooling year round next year. As my girls have gotten older our summers have become busier. We spend much of July at our local church camp, and we are also a 4h family. Between camp, the county fair, and my oldest working various summer ministries, we will be waiting until late August/early September to kick off the new school year. This means moving forward we will be following more of a traditional approach. Not ideal for breaks, and life, but it fits our summer needs. I may keep my youngest on a more year-round schedule though, as he needs more breaks and more consistent routine.

However, we already had our box days, and made our choices, so, I wanted to go ahead and share with you our choices for the 2018-2019 school year. You will see some old favorites, as well as some new choices. One thing you will notice is that each child will be studying different courses. As my kids have gotten older I have realized they all learn differently, have different interests, and even if a different curriculum is not the most economical choice, it is important that we focus on our children’s needs.

 

 So, here are our curriculum choices for 2018-2019! 

There are a few choices we will be using for all three kids. These are more supplemental programs, and some we will be using as a family.

• Skill Trek  (for Life Skills)
• Schoolhouse Teachers (for Art, Music, Health, and other interest led courses)
• Apologia Bible ~Who Am I

Curriculum Choices for 8th Grade 

I cannot believe high school is knocking on my front door. I have been surprised so far how well things have gone. And yes, this is our last year before HIGH SCHOOL. And some of her courses will count for high school credit. EEK. She is also greatly pursuing various areas of ministry. She will spend 2 weeks this summer at our local church camp working as a cabin leader, and one week on a mission trip with her youth group. Her youth group has been working on skits, and performing them at churches in our area. She has a desire to learn Spanish more fluently in preparation for a mission trip to Costa Rica next summer, so we will be working harder on that. She has also started back into studying the piano and learning more about becoming a pastry chef by baking as often as she can. We are praying about guidance for high school and a possible career path.  Curriculum wise she will be using the following resources.

• Apologia Physical Science
• Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
• Uncle Sam and You
• Essentials in Writing
• Physical Science Experiment Kit
• Schoolhouse Teachers Spanish
• Schoolhouse Teachers Elective choice

 

Our 6th Grade Curriculum Choices 

My animal lover will be spending the year studying Human Anatomy. She’s not thrilled about it, but, to encourage her, we purchased a dissection kit as well. She is interested in veterinary science and has expressed an interest in learning more about the inner workings of animals. We will continue volunteering at our local animal rescue and working with her horse, goat, and dogs.

She also started Beautiful Feet Books, History of Horses halfway through the current school year. So, she didn’t finish it completely. She will start of 6th grade finishing up that course, then she will move on to Greek Mythology. We perused the whole exhibit hall at the Great Homeschool Convention to find a history that interested her. We ended up settling on this course from Memoria Press. It will be new for both of us as we have never studied anything like this. To round out the school year we will spend some time focusing on Ohio History.

• Apologia Human Anatomy
• Human Anatomy Experiment Kit
• Dissection Kit
• Beautiful Feet Books History of the Horse
• Greek Myths
• Ohio History 
• Essentials in Writing
• Teaching Textbooks Math 7
• Schoolhouse Teachers Health
• Schoolhouse Teachers Art

Our 1st Grade Curriculum Choices

My boy. We made it through kindergarten! We started off this year not even knowing all of his letters, to reading! Nessy played a HUGE role in this success and I am so grateful for it. We will be starting off first grade focusing on 1st-grade sight words, and halfway through 1st-grade math. This past year we didn’t work much on science and history, instead opting for more of a unit study/interest-led approach. This upcoming year we will be attempting a real program in both subjects. I chose BFB picture books because it looks like a fun and gentle approach to history.  We are adding in some coloring books and other resources from Amazon to make it even more hands on. He also chose flying creatures from Apologia. If we find he is not ready for that, we will go back to the unit study/interest-led approach. He is so different from my girls, and we are taking a very gentle approach to school, mainly focusing on the basics.  Outside of school, his main interest is soccer and farm animals.

• Nessy Reading
• Christian Light Education Math
• Christian Light Education Language Arts
• Beautiful Feet Books Around the World in Picture Books
• Apologia Flying Creatures 
• Maps Book
• Maps Coloring Book  

And that is a peek into our curriculum choices for the 2018-2019 school year.  What will you be using next year? I’d love to hear from you.

Additional Links:

• Why We Switched to Teaching Textbooks
• Our Homeschool Curriculum Through the Years (Podcast)
• How We Homeschool with Schoolhouse Teachers
• 3 Reasons we Love Skill Trek
• History of the Horse
• Apologia Archives
• Notgrass Archives
• Our Curriculum Choices from Apologia (Unboxing Video)
• Uncle Sam and Us (Unboxing Video)
• 2017-2018 Choices
• 2016-2017 Choices
• Why We are Schooling Year Round