Curriculum for 2013/2014

First Grade Curriculum for Sebastian (2013-2014)

Language Arts:

• Primary Arts of Language: Reading and Writing (IEW)
• We did about half of this curriculum last year, so I hope to finish it this year. His goal is to read a Magic Treehouse chapter book by himself by the end of this school year, and finishing this curriculum should get him there easily.
• I should also say I LOVE LOVE LOVE this program and would recommend it to everyone. I am so glad we bought this last year. It is awesome.
•  Magic Tree House Books 

• Sebastian is eating up this book series. For now they are read aloud books, but he wants to be able to read them by himself, and I am hoping he gets there by the end of this school year.
• The great thing about this, is that we can continue to do read aloud books when we take our baby break in February. Reading is one of the easiest things I can do

• All About Spelling
• We will be finishing up level one this year, and begin level two at some point. I think I am learning as much as he is using this program. Why was I never told these rules? Life would have been so much easier...

Math:

• Math-U-See
• We are finishing up Alpha for the first part of the year (mostly review on things he already knows, but I want to make sure he has it mastered) and we should get into Beta sometime in October.

History/Geography/Art:

• The Story of the World (Volume I) by Susan Wise Bauer
• This is a gem I found at the homeschool convention I went to in May. There are so many projects to do!  This is easily a history/geography AND art curriculum in one because of all the craft projects we will be doing. I don't even know if we will get halfway through this book in a year.

Science:

• REAL Science Odyssey Life Science
• This is another gem I found at the homeschool convention. There is one day of easy reading and then usually two science labs. There are also plenty of ideas for writing a science journal for each different season. Sebastian is going to love this.

Religion:

• Faith and Life: Our Heavenly Father
  
  
• This came highly recommended by many Catholic families as the best religious program out there. I want something structured since we are working for sacraments. This will also easily be used for the other children down the line with minimal extra purchases.

Music:

• Viola lessons
• We are continuing viola lessons. I am not sure how much he wants to do it some days, but for now it is a good way to get music in.
• Choir 
• In September Sebastian will be joining the children's choir at church. This is get him in a group setting and learning how to work with kids his age (and older)

Phys Ed:

•  Family Time Fitness
• I won this curriculum in a drawing online, and I haven't read much of it, but I think this will be a good way to get the family involved (and maybe in better shape) together. The lessons look easy enough to follow and that is good since I have no athletic ability, and even less now that I am pregnant.

Other:

• We are continuing to go to our homeschool co-op. They will be doing some fun things with them this year, and it is nice to give him a "day off" of doing the normal school things. He also gets to hang out with his friends, which is always fun to do.

 Pre-School Curriculum for Kaelyn (2013-2014)

I bit the bullet this year, and I am glad I did. I decided to purchase Ready Made Preschool for Kaelyn this year. I thought it would be good since I hardly have

time to do fun things with her. I didn't know I would be pregnant!  This is going to be fantastic. Everything is cut up and ready to go for us. All I have to do is get the book from the library. I think I can handle that. ;) I look forward to giving Kaelyn some school time with her big brother.

If you want to see what curriculum I chose other years, go to my curriculum page (previous years are at the bottom of the page).