Decisions, Decisions

After talking with other moms last night, we thought it would be fun to share our curriculum choices here and on our group list. I must say I have been lax in keeping our blog up to date and will try to be better with it. Like most Home school moms, we tend to school year round, learning never really stops. In the summertime we are not so worried about counting our hours and attendance and following a schedule. We read, go on trips, play, swim, take time to examine little critters we find along the way and look up information about them. Playing games and keeping score keeps our math skills sharp. The control freak part of me sneaks in two days a week and we do a page in our summer bridge activities book. I DO count this time, it's not much but I have found that it can save me during our "regular" year when something unexpected comes up. I also spend a lot of summer hours pondering curriculum for our coming school year. We talk to other moms, find out what has worked for their kids, what hasn't. We exchange curriculum at park days, spend untold hours on the internet researching everything. I am moving away from SAXON math this year which I have used for three years. It is a wonderful program but we were getting tired and bored, learning wasn't FUN anymore. Realizing that, I had narrowed our curriculum choices down and decided Walker needed a voice in choosing, after all it is for HIS education not mine. Luckily many choices have demos to try on their sites. I decided on our Math and Science curriculum this year when he was asking to do more. We used Story Of The World vol. 2 for History last year, he loved it, we will continue with it. In fact, we bought vol.1 used form a friend and have been reading it this summer - just for fun.
I have to admit something here. Most of you know me. You know my penchant for going with the flow and using teachable moments. You know in my heart the theories of unschooling resonate loudly. However, we know my head. I LOVE planning, I thrive on having our course work laid out before us. I am this way with other things in my life as well. For us, having these things done and planned allow me to have more peaceful time, to see that we are indeed getting things accomplished and to allow ourselves to slow down and really enjoy our lives and learn.
I hope listing curriculum choices and links will help with some of your choices this year as well. I look forward to hearing about your home school styles, we can learn so much just by sharing.
Rachel

Walker's curriculum 2010-11 (grade equivalent 4)
Language Arts - LessonPathways year 4 - http://www.lessonpathways.com/Pathways/Detail/53825/year-4-language-arts-guided-journey
Reading list - http://www.amblesideonline.org/04bks.shtml
*Ambleside Online is a free curriculum using the Charlotte Mason method. If you are looking for a whole planned out curriculum guide you may find it useful.
Lesson Pathways is also free but only goes to grade 5. full curriculum

Math - Teaching Textbooks 4 -
http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/v/vspfiles/tt/Math4.htm

History - The Story Of The World vol. 3
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/history-and-geography/story-of-the-world/volume-3-early-modern-times.html

Science - The Lab Of Mr.Q
http://www.eequalsmcq.com/
* I really went back and forth on this one, luckily I was able to let Walker try demos on the ones I was choosing from, he enjoyed this one the most. the other I was looking at is http://explorationeducation.com/intermediate/overview.html - but the lessons were somewhat dry and boring for his age when we tried the demo.

Foreign Language - Mango, free online program available through Scott Count Public Library, Walker will be doing Greek (yes along with continuing Spanish)
http://libraries.mangolanguages.com/scott-county/login?u=156308

Civics - The Complete Book Of Presidents and States
http://teacher-supplies.carsondellosa.com/search?w=the%20complete%20book%20of%20presidents%20and%20states

Extra:
Gym and Swim, Scott Co. Parks and rec.
K.E.E.N Co-Op, Creative Arts
Field trips galore