The Start of a New School Year

Our new school year will begin Monday, August 13th. I love the beginning of a new school year. Everything feels so fresh and new and exciting!



This year we will be using the Time Travelers History Study Series by Homeschool in the Woods, who also make the History Through The Ages timeline figures, which we will also be using. I am SO EXCITED about diving into the Time Travelers series... it looks like SO much fun! What a great way to learn about early American history!



As a go-along with our Time Travelers studies and our American history timeline we will also be using TruthQuest History-American History for Young Students I and II and good, living book suggestions from All Through The Ages. I can't wait!!



As with every year that we've homeschooled (we're going on 6!), we'll be using Five in a Row as well as Beyond Five in a Row. We LOVE FIAR and can't imagine ever schooling without it! I'm so excited to visit some of our favorites again with our youngest while moving on to new ones with our oldest!



For math we have always used Math U See and will continue to do so. Again, love it, love it, love it.



For English we use Rod & Staff. We just started using this last year with Baby Girl and we really like it, so we'll be sticking with it.



We only have one more non-reader left, and with her I will be using the same thing I did with the others, Reading Made Easy. The name speaks for itself. It really is very easy to use and has turned out some great readers here.



Also for our youngest we will be using Handwriting Without Tears just like we have with all the others. And since the older three know how to write, I'm planning on just having them do some copywork to practice and fine-tune their writing skills. If anyone knows of some good copywork sites or books, please let me know.



And for science, well, I've never really found exactly what I feel 'fits' for our family, so for our three youngest I'm going to do what I should have done a LONG time ago and just go with the science that's in Five in a Row! There's so much there, and it's fun stuff too! My only concern is our oldest who has never really done a whole lot of science (my fault). I have somewhat of a plan I'd like to try to stick to just to make sure Baby Girl has a general knowledge of things before she hits high school in a few short years (GASP!). I'm using the 'God's Design' curriculum from Answers in Genesis as a sort of guideline. I'd like to take a bit from the curriculum while checking out books from the library that go along with the topic we're learning about and maybe find some fun experiments for some hands-on learning to go along with it too. For example, we'll start with God's Design for Heaven and Earth-Our Planet Earth, which covers origins and glaciers, rocks and minerals, mountains and movement, and water and erosion. Instead of following the curriculm exactly, I'd like to find a bunch of books about, say, glaciers and read all we can about them, do an experiment or two and then move on to rocks and minerals and do the same. Sounds fun and fairly easy, aye?



EDITING TO ADD: We'll also be using this book for some science fun this year!

The three oldest will be learning how to type using Typing Tutor 10, but that's more 'fun' for them than actualy learning, and we play lots of games that have 'hidden learning' in them, so we'll be doing that as well. Geography is learned through books and maps and whatever else may come up throughout the year.



And that's pretty much our year. I'd love to hear about your plans for the upcoming school year. If you've blogged about it, please leave me a comment so I can go check it out. That's how I've found so many wonderful things we have used in our homeschooling journey.