Classically Homeschooling 2014-2015 Curriculum Choices

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2014-2015 Curriculum Choices

It appears to be that time of year, the time of year when homeschool bloggers everywhere post what their 2014-2015 curriculum choices are. I’m jumping on the bandwagon!

This year I have three high school students, one sixth grader, and two preschoolers… in other words, we cover the gamut from 12th grade to preschool.

Morning Time

The first change I’ve decided to make this year after reading Teaching from Rest and about the importance of morning time on the Ordo Armoris Blog is to add a morning time to our school day

Bible: Tapestry of Grace schedules a survey of the Bible for year 1. We will use family time to complete the survey.

Poetry: I’d like to add more poetry memorization to our homeschool. We’ve done some, but not nearly as much as I would have wished.

Grammar: After working through the Rod and Staff English books for the last several years, I’ve decided we need a change. We’ll wander our way through the first Harvey’s English Grammar book together.

Latin: While my oldest has done well with Latin: First Year (Henle Latin), the rest of us have sputtered to a stop with Latin. This year I’ve decided we’re going to inch our way along with the Big Book of Lively Latin 1. I doubt we’ll ever get to the point where we’re reading Virgil in the original Latin, but we’re going to keep up the good fight. Sometimes progress is measured by the mile. Sometimes it is measure by the inch.

Tapestry of Grace Year 1

Tapestry of Grace incorporates most of the subjects we study into one curriculum. I post the assignment sheets, the children do the work, and we hold discussions later in the week.

English: Literature & Writing: Tapestry of Grace, at the rhetoric level, has a wonderful and aggressive literature program. We study rhetoric as it appears in great literature. For the time being, I’ve chosen to use this as our rhetoric program. We’ll be reading and writing about the Bible, Illiad, the Odyssey, selections from Egypt and Mesopotamia, Aeneid, and some Greek plays. My 6th grader will read myths, retellings of great stories, and historical fiction.

History: Tapestry of Grace, by definition, is a history curriculum. Year 1 is ancient history. We will be reading about ancient Mesopotamia, China, India, the Americas, Africa, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Celts.

Geography: The children also complete the map work and other geography assignments Tapestry of Grace assigns. This is usually completed completely independently and is a favorite, or easy, part of the curriculum.

Fine Art: The children will read about ancient architecture and pieces of ancient art.

Story of the World: The Story of the World: Volume 1 is scheduled into Tapestry of Grace. Because I’m not certain how attentive my preschoolers will be, I decided to simply use Story of the World, which I already owned, rather than pick up a pile of books we may never read. It should keep the preschoolers happy and occupied while allowing them to tag along with their older siblings.

2014-2015 Curriculum Choices

Everything Else

Preschool: 3yo will either be doing Letter of the Week or HOD’s Little Hands to Heaven with me this year. I haven’t really decided, it depends on which is easier to get done.

My little girl will be using Saxon Phonics K and Saxon Math K for her preschool year.

Both children will be using Elemental Science’s Biology Lapbooks for Science. We’ll study a few animals, the human body, and plants.

6th Grade: He will be using Saxon Math, Elemental Science Physics, SPELLING WORKOUT LEVEL F, Pentime Penmanship 6, and doing informal logic this year.

High School: They are using Saxon Math and Apologia Science. All three wanted to study German with their father instead of French with me. I’m so happy to hand off a subject to my husband. German is not my problem!

So there you have it. Our 2014-2015 curriculum choices that span the gamut from preschool through 12th grade.

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22 Comments

  1. We’ll be adding a morning meeting time as well – I think it will be helpful to get our day started on the right foot and fit in all those little things that seem to be put on the back burner.

    Looking forward to reading about your year – the upper level homeschool bloggers seems to be a minority!

    1. Tonia, I have to admit your post on 5th grade inspired me to look into morning time and give it a try this year. I’m looking forward to hearing how morning time works for you as well. πŸ™‚

  2. I loved using Story of the World with different grade levels, it adapts very well to that situation. I would read, the older ones would notebook, the younger ones would color the worksheets…it is a super homeschooling resource. Good luck with your busy year. πŸ™‚

    1. Story of the World is an awesome resource. I have many fond memories of children coloring while I read. I’m not certain if the high school kids will stick around to listen to it, but I’m fairly certain my 6th grader will. Thank you for dropping by. πŸ™‚

  3. I have a daughter starting 11th grade and a daughter starting 1st grade. My oldest daughter is in year 4 of the history cycle and will be studying modern history. My youngest daughter will be in year 1 which is ancient history. We will be using Story of the World, too, with my youngest. I really like that series; and I have the activity guide to go with it. I used the series with my oldest when she was younger and she loved it!

    As far as the rest of our curriculum plans, I posted about my oldest daughter’s curriculum today on my blog and will be posting about my first grader’s curriculum tomorrow.

    Also, we will be having what is basically the same thing as the morning time. Right now I just call it our read-aloud time. πŸ™‚ Our read-aloud time is right after lunch.

    1. After lunch is a great time for read-alouds. My children often need a break right then. Mom told me she went to a friend’s house as a child, and the mother read to the children while they ate lunch. Mom said she thought it was a lovely tradition. If morning time doesn’t work, lunch time is my back-up plan. πŸ™‚

  4. I really enjoy our morning meeting time! If you haven’t picked anything for poetry might I suggest either IEW Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization which we love or Living Memory.In both books the work is already done for you so it’s just a matter of adding in literature/poetry you REALLY want them tackle.Sara it looks like you’re going to have an awesome year. πŸ˜€

    1. Thanks, Kyle, I do have Living Memory which I’ve been thumbing through looking for poetry I want them to memorize this year. It’s an awesome resource! πŸ™‚ Harp and Laurel Wreath is another poetry book I picked up years ago but never quite implemented properly. I thought I’d mix the two books and see what shook out this year. πŸ™‚

      1. So looks like I might need to track down a used copy of Harp & Laurel! Sara you really need to move to Texas so we can go have coffee and chat and laugh! Blessings K

  5. Oh learning German is especially great when their father can teach it. It also may be a really good reason to grab some time with their father. You have a great school year ahead. I’m visiting from Weekly Wrap Up.

  6. Looks like you have a great year planned. I’m curious to read more about your experience with the upper levels of Tapestry of Grace. It’s on my short list of possibilities for high school, especially since I’ll have a first grader at the same time.

    1. This is actually our 4th year with Tapestry of Grace. We started with year 2 when my oldest started high school. There was a learning curve, but the more we’ve used it, the more I’ve love it. I’ll probably rave about it throughout the year. πŸ˜‰ Thanks for dropping by, Paige. πŸ™‚

  7. What a great line-up! This is my first year to be done with homeschooling! My last child is starting college this fall πŸ™‚ I hope your year is wonderful and filled with blessings πŸ™‚ Thanks for linking up at Together on Tuesdays!

    1. It’s quite exciting your last child is starting college this fall. Next year my oldest will start college and the exodus begins. πŸ™‚ I hope you and your son have a wonderful year. πŸ™‚

  8. Sounds like you are all set for the school year!

    Thanks for posting on the #SHINEbloghop

  9. I love your bag of teddy bear counters and linking cubes in the middle of all those great books =) We did Saxon K last year and really enjoyed it. We will be moving on to grade 1 this year and I’m looking forward to it (we use it along with Ray’s Arithmetic). We do our “morning time” right at breakfast. I usually read aloud while the kids are eating and then we move to going through our memory box and doing a little bit of history or science together.

    1. My older 4 children loved Saxon 1! I asked the older 4 if they’d like morning time at breakfast, and everyone said they’d prefer lunch. We were doing a read-aloud during our lunch break a year or two ago, and it was a wonderful time for us all. I love the idea of morning time at breakfast though. πŸ™‚

  10. Hi Sara,

    Have you written a review on Elemental Science? I searched your site and didn’t find one. I’m considering their logic level Chemistry for next year. Would love some feedback on how it worked for you. Thanks.

    1. No, I haven’t written a review on Elemental Science yet. I love the program, so I really need to! We’ve used grammar stage chemistry and physics and the logic level biology and earth science/astronomy. Every program has worked wonderfully for my family. My kids were able to follow the instructions, the experiments worked, and it followed TWTM suggestions well. πŸ™‚

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