2016-2017 Curriculum Choices!

Here is the line up for school this year:

All together:

This year we are returning to the Ancient World and Tapestry of Grace (Year 1) for our history, geography, literature, and Bible history. Luke and Ben will be involved in the Upper Grammar level reading,  mapping, vocabulary, notebooking and timeline assignments. Gracie and Jacob will join in with the family read alouds, crafts, and appropriate lower grammar assignments. As a family we are listening to the Story of the World Volume 1 on audio CD. Even Daddy loves listening to this with the kids!

Bible: We are reading through the Psalms as a family, and memorizing verses out of Psalms. We will also work through the second book of Apologia's worldview curriculum, Who Am I? We found this to be a really solid foundation last year with the first book, meatier than most Bible studies.

Science: New to our family this year, Dr. Wile's Science in the Beginning, and Science in the Ancient World. We have absolutely loved our Apologia science over the last couple of years. We decided to make a change this year because I thought it would be fun to have our science line up with what we were learning in history. Also, this curriculum is a little better suited to multiple age ranges. The readings are short, easy to understand for the entire family, and each lesson has questions or notebook prompts for the different age levels. Also, an added bonus, every lesson has an experiment! We may not get through the entire two books, but we LOVE science in this family. Even the littlest Morgans love participating in these science experiments!

Extracurricular include our Meet the Masters art curriculum, Spanish, typing, and critical thinking activities.

Luke and Ben:

Language Arts include: All About Spelling, finishing up level 4, starting level 5. Cursive practice with writing and notebooking assignments. Vocabulary: Word Roots Grammar: Daily Grams Level 4, and IEW Fix It. Writing: IEW- Ancient History Based Writing Lessons. Lots of library books and reading too!

Last year was our first year with the older level of IEW. (We had used some of their material for K.) I was blown away with the quality of writing from Luke and Ben by the end of the year. It can be a bit teacher intensive, but totally worth it! We are excited to dive into this theme based writing lessons for this year.

For math Luke and Ben will be diving into Teaching Textbooks Level 5. To supplement TT, they will drill math facts with xtramath.com and work through a Fourth Grade Word Problems workbook for extra practical application.

The boys will also continue with Royal Ambassadors at church and swim team this fall.

Gracie this year will somewhat bounce between the big and little kids depending on the activity and assignment. On her own she will be working through level 2 and possibly level 3 of All about Spelling (this girl loves spelling!) She will also finish level 2 of All About Reading and work through level 3. (She also loves reading!) She will have A Reason for Handwriting Level A, Math-U-See Alpha/Beta, and IEW Bible Heroes writing lessons.

 She will participate in the GEMS girls' club at church, ballet, and swim team. To be honest I usually have to do quite a bit of supplementation with Gracie because she devours school work, keeping this Mommy/Teacher on my toes!

Last, but not least, Jacob. Jacob will participate with Gracie, Caleb and Isaac in fun unit study read alouds, activities, and field trips with a monthly theme. He will be working through MUS Primer, All about Reading Level 1, and Handwriting Without Tears K. We are working on also getting Jacob started with guitar/ukulele lessons this fall! Of course he will also have lots of time to build forts, play outside in the dirt, and cuddle while reading good books with Mommy!

All in all we have a few new items to try, and lots of fall back favorites!