My oldest needs a balance of interaction and independent work. She is a self-starter, but is still developing confidence in writing and art. I surprised myself with some of my choices for her this year. I’m sharing because many have asked, but these are VERY tailored for my family. We love to read, so they have assigned reading and we do family read alouds. Yet, I do have a 7 month old and a 3 year old, so I took that into account when picking curriculum. I can only read so many lessons to each kid. Many of my choices reflect trying to find a balance of interaction, one-on-one instruction, and for all 4 kiddos and naptime.
So, let’s start…
•Math- We started with Masterbooks in kindergarten (using level 1) and she loved it. After 2 wonderful years, I decided to get her on Saxon like my 2nd daughter… not our favorite for her. Too much repetition (which felt like busy work to her). Last year, we went back to Masterbooks (using level 3, which if we would have kept going she would have been a level 4, so note that there is a MAJOR jump from MB level 2 to 3). While it went well, I noticed that some of the harder concepts she was skimming over the lesson and getting confused. I knew I could only do so much one-on-one interaction, so we picked Teaching Textbooks. As of now (6 lessons in), she is engaged and asking to do more every single day.
•Language arts- We have previously done The Well Trained Mind’s First Language Lessons, books 1-3. It’s a great program, but interaction heavy. I also had to add a spelling, which we loved Spelling Plus the past two years. Initially, we had a separate phonics program as well. Then, there’s writing. So this year, I wanted something more all-in-one. I’ve been doing The Good and the Beautiful with my 2nd born since she was 4 and it’s worked beautifully for her. I initially had reservations about the LDS background of the creator of the program, but we have encountered zero issues through our 3 years of using it. They recently updated level 4 and it flows much more nicely than it did when I looked a year or so ago. She practices phonics principles each day, reading comprehension, vocabulary that’s linked to her reading, as well as documenting her personal reading time. She then alternated between spelling and writing every other day. This is really why I picked it. I need to give her confidence in writing before we can more to something more rigorous for 5th grade. So far, this has her learning that writing is a way to express her God-given uniqueness, and I love it. It’s not about writing the correct paragraph, but about expressing herself well and with proper usage.
The assigned reading she does each day was hand-selected by me. I read A LOT of lists and formed my own. As she reads each book, we log it and every so often she will write a super simple book report from a template I found on Pinterest.
I’m undecided on if we will need to add Spelling Plus back in, but it’s a great program if you need one. I’ve shared in previous years as to why.
We are also memorizing a poem a month from our Morning Time selections. More on that later.
•Science- We are doing a mash of Christian Liberty Readers and Apologia’s Botany. The CL readers aren’t enough, in my opinion, so she will read them on Tuesdays, research the animal/insect on Thursdays while writing a small presentation, and present it to me on Fridays. We will incorporate Apologia as it fits in our schedule. Honestly, I am focusing most on adding a new history curriculum this year, so science will happen, but it’s taking a back seat to history’s time slot.
•History- We did CC for 2 years and I loved the timeline. We also love learning history through living books, which is why I loved The Peaceful Press’s Playful Pioneers last year. So this year, I picked Mystery of History I. We are starting back at Ancient History and while I read the brief lesson aloud to them, they then have supplemental reading they can do on their own that really makes it come alive. She suggests an activity for each day, but I am picking one a week. The biggest time investment for this curriculum is the timeline that you add figures to each Friday, but it’s so cool and thorough that I committed anyway. We also do map work and review quizzes on Fridays. It’s 3 lessons per week, plus the Friday work.
•Morning Time- We do this as a family and here is where we incorporate MANY things.
-First, we do Bible. This year, I chose Catherine Vos’s Child’s Story Bible because we have a 3 year old listening, but also because it’s rich in catechism and doctrine in its very approachable, detailed storytelling of Scripture. I’ve tried many story Bibles and while I do love The Biggest Story Bible that we tried 2 years ago by Kevin DeYoung, this one takes the prize.
-I also went back to Truth and Grace from Founder’s Ministries. We are using it for catechism, hymns, memory verses, and creeds. Instead of bouncing back and forth between so many tools, we are going to knock this one out. I did add some hymns to makeup enough for the year.
-Loop of art, composer, Shakespeare, virtues, and Christian heroes. We only do this on Fridays and it’s a 4 week loop.
Loop week one- Art AND Composer. I selected different paintings to discuss and then use as we paint our memory verses. We also listen to history on a composer through Classics for Kids and listen to a different piece while we paint.
Loop week two- Shakespeare. We are alternating comedy/tragedy and using Usborne’s Complete Shakespeare and Tales from Shakespeare by the Lambs, depending on which my theater degree self likes best. :)
Loop week three- I picked selections from William Bennet’s adult version of The Book of Virtues. We will loop each virtue twice, so I jotted down 8-10 selections for each week. This is also where I picked one for our poetry memorization for each month.
Loop week four- Trial and Triumph. Learning about different Christian heroes and martyrs.
-Read aloud- I am alternating between a work of literature, historical fiction that aligns with our history, and a biography. Here’s our current book lineup for morning time.
-The last part of morning time. Defining words and setting expectations in our home. Whether we are talking about what love means biblically or breaking down our list of 10 “rules” for our home, this is a chance for me to address current events, apologetics, and home habits. For instance, the first “rule” is to speak respectfully to one another. Well, I decided to ask them what that meant. Let’s just say they didn’t understand it as well as I would hope, so I busted out a dictionary and we went from respect, to honor, to value, etc. Then we spoke about ways we could do that in different situations we commonly see in our home. This is done imperfectly and whenever it comes up, but I pray this opens doors for larger conversations as they grow up.
Some other tidbits I’m doing for my 4th grader. Every Thursday we have a written narration from our read aloud. When we finish a book, she will write a simple book report. When we finish our 3 loops of a composer, she will write a short biography. Otherwise, she can work on sketching, coloring, or painting narrations.
I am also using different resources to help with Scripture memory. Songs, hand motions, videos.
I bought a watercolor class that we will be trying for 6 weeks.
We have some sign language videos we are all interested in doing on Tuesday afternoons to help us converse with baby brother.
Here’s everything, but math.
Oh and I almost forgot… we joined Bible Study Fellowship to study the book of Revelation. This will be our weekly outside class. What I love about BSF is that what I’m learning in Bible study, each kid will be studying the same thing in age appropriate ways. I really wanted my bigs to start learning the fundamentals of Bible study.
For extra curriculars, she does ballet twice a week. When she stretches and practices at home are on her daily schedule. As well as chores, playtime, alone time, etc.
I probably left a few things out, but important notes are that we don’t do everything every day. I left Fridays for presentations, a longer morning time with our loop, history activities and maps, as well as time to paint our memory verse for the week. This also allows us to catch up on anything we may have gotten stuck on during the week.
I hope this gives you some ideas that you can apply (or know you don’t want to do) for your family.
My goals for her this year are:
Confidence in writing
Application of Scripture
Retaining math
Ability to express herself with writing, not just speech (she’s great at that)
Lead herself through lessons
More belief in her ability to overcome
In Him,
Natalie
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