Curriculum Dessert

Finally, here is a post dedicated to our curriculum dessert choices! Most of these electives are only at most 2 days a week, so it is not as much as it may seem. We are so excited to study all these fun electives!

Since our Luke is such a science enthusiast, we will be diving into Apologia's Elementary Science Series with their study of Astronomy.

I had heard such rave reviews about the Apologia Elementary series, but was at first not thrilled with the idea of studying one topic of science all year.  This article changed my mind! Luke keeps eying the book begging to start. The included experiments look fun, but not so challenging and time consuming to overwhelm. We are planning our science experiment days for when Daddy is not
working so he can help out!

 In addition to our regular math curriculum previously mentioned, we will also be enjoying the first few books of the Life of Fred Elementary Math Series. This is mostly just to add a fun element to our math curriculum. The books are hilarious, but in a funny way show that math is indeed relevant and not just boring facts to memorize. I think we will have "Fun Fred Fridays" as something to look forward to in our week.

Another elective we have chosen to add to our year is music appreciation. I have found some really fun books to introduce Luke and Ben to classical music and all the different types of instruments. Eventually I would like to have the kids in music lessons of some sort, but for this year we will just focus on the basics and have fun learning about music.

Here are the books we will be enjoying:

 
Finally, we will also be diving into some art lessons and art appreciation. Both boys enjoyed our limited art studies last year and can't wait to break open our new art supplies. Artistic Pursuits curriculum will be our primary lessons.

 

This amazing curriculum includes art lessons in very easy to understand detail with art history and art appreciation. Since I am not a very "artsy" person as a general rule, I was thrilled to find this curriculum to assist me in teaching art!

That concludes our curriculum choices for 2012-2013. We are really excited to start. We will take all of this at a pace that fits our family, and have as much fun in the process as we can. We look forward to sharing our year with our friends and family. Each year is a learning process for me as a teacher, we pray that these choices will fit our family and provide a rich learning experience.