It’s time for the annual “Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop” hosted by the iHomeschoolnetwork. This week it’s curriculum week!
I keep a page updated with our curriculum choices, so if you are finding this post later in the year you can check there to see if we continued with these choices!
Here’s a few highlights of what we’ll be using this year:
Family Subjects (everyone participates as they are able, at their own level):
History: United States History Year 1 (Beginnings to 1850-ish) — Using my own outline/plans
Science: Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU) — Finishing Volume 1, Starting Volume 2 (Read here to find out a bit more about BFSU and about a resource you might find helpful Collaborative Pinterest Boards!). We’ll also be reading some science biographies.
Bible Study and Character Building: Various resources from Doorposts books, Hero Tales book series, Leading Little Ones to God, and possibly other resources
Art Appreciation: Artistic Pursuits (Book 2 for Grades K-3)
Miss M, Age 8 (3rd grade, turning 9 in May 2013):
Math: RightStart Math Level C (Read here about why we like RightStart Math!)
Spelling/Writing/Grammar: Logic of English Essentials (Read some of my initial thought about LOE in this post)
Bible Study: Proverbs: A Bible Study for Kids by Kids (from BtoZ Publishing) + daily Bible reading
Handwriting: Cursive practice using copywork related to Bible, History and Science
Literature: Various read-alouds (projected list here) and assigned or free choice individual reading
Mr. E, age 5 (Kindergarten, turning 6 in March, 2013):
Phonics/Reading: Phonics Pathways + Easy readers for practice
Spelling: Learning Phonograms as presented in Logic of English Essentials, Possibly starting spelling lessons in LOE-E as the year progresses
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting Book A
Math: RightStart Math Level B
Literature: Assorted chapter book and picture book read-alouds
Fun Printables, Themes and Interest-Led studies as desired!
Mr K, age 3 (Preschool, turning 4 in February 2013)
Lots of Picture books (we’ll have a “classic picture book” of the week)
Letter of the Week Activities (Animal ABCs from 1plus1plus1Equals1, and other letter activities as desired)
Gentle intro to number concepts inspired by RightStart Math A
Fun Printables, Themes and Interest-Led studies as desired! Possibly a “theme of the month” and a Holiday or Season of the month!
Baby J (Turning One on October 30th, 2012!)
Looking cute, listening to stories, having fun! 🙂
Don’t forget to visit the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop page to find out what other homeschoolers are using this year for their curriculum!
Homeschool Discoveries 
How do you home school kids of different ages. I need to know. I am starting preschool with my soon to be four year old and I also have a two year old. Thanks!
I have four kiddos 2nd, k, preschool, and a 2yr old. I take it one day at a time. My 2yr old will tag along with my preschooler and also have a few of her own activities in tot trays. A key at that age is just to remember to relax and keep it fun.
Hi Amy! I have a few thoughts for you. At first, homeschooling with different ages looks like keeping the younger one “busy” while you work with the older one(s). If you google “busy bags” or “activity bags” you’ll see some neat activity ideas. There are also a lot great tot/preschool printables out there for free if your younger one wants to “do school.” I’ve also at times set aside special toys or activities for the younger ones to do while I was working with my oldest.
As the kids get a bit older, the advice I have typically heard is to combine as much as possible. Subjects like science and history are ideal for this. The younger ones may not catch quite as much, but I have been amazed at how much, for example, my current rising K’er learned from science lessons we aimed at our oldest.
Then for the subjects you can’t combine together (probably things like phonics/reading, spelling, math and handwriting), it is again a matter of trying to make sure one has something to do while you work with the other one. Even last year as a second grader my daughter was able to do quite a few things independently — I could assign her a sheet of math practice, 20 minutes of reading, a handwriting page, etc. Then while she was working on those things I could do something with my younger kids.
It might be a little trickier for me this year keeping a K’er busy while I work with my 3rd grader. I may have a few “worksheet” type things on hand for him to do if he really wants more school while I am busy. But I think at least in our case while I am working with DD, the middle boys will play together and the baby will be playing with us (and we may try and do some of our most intense subjects while the baby naps).
I am also not beyond using an occaisional video or our iPad to entertain younger ones. Sometimes that is just what we need because even them PLAYING is too distracting if what they really want to play is something loud!
Hope that helps!
Looks like your year will be as fun and full as mine! Hope you guys have a great year!
I love that time period! We’ll be focusing on the 1800s with my 7 kiddos this year. You can peek at our plans here: http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/curriculum-for-seven-kids-2012-2013.html
Have a lovely year!