Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 2015-2016

Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Elementary School – a Grade 2/3 Split

Molly will be eight this summer, and while she’s extremely bright, we held off giving her formal schoolwork to do until last year. We just wanted her to enjoy playing with her sister. She’s kind of unstoppable, though, as academically gifted kids can be, so she taught herself to read, and jumped to chapter books right away.

She’s now comfortably reading at a fourth grade level, and probably could read at a much higher level if given the chance. She’s enjoying the books I’ve pulled for her too much right now to make another jump, though. And that’s okay.

I think a love of reading is more important than a super-high reading level. My biggest goal for reading, once kids get past the learning to read stage is that they learn to read to learn. She’ll continue reading through the Beverly Cleary boxed set we picked up for her – and we’ll chat about the stories so I can gauge her comprehension.

I’d like to improve her research skills, so we’ll use the Classically Catholic Memory themes from co-op to guide her notebooking. She can choose books and do notebooking pages about different animals from the science portion, and about Australia and Asia from the geography portion.

 

Molly is almost done with Singapore Math 2B, so she’ll move onto 3a and 3b this year. Math is definitely not her favorite subject, so we’ll supplement with lots of games like fact war and 24 – one of my all-time favorite math games.

She will be working through Song School Latin with Logan since we dropped the ball on that one with her last year. She’ll also be working through the You Are an Artist! Chalk Pastel Curriculum Bundle and Call to Faith Catholic religious education workbook through our church’s homeschool program.

Finally, we’re adding the IEW writing course – Level B – to Molly’s curriculum. Up until now, she’s written to me through journal entries, and has worked on letter writing through a variety of pen pal arrangements. She’ll be taking the writing course as an add-on to our new co-op. On Monday afternoons, she’ll take her writing class, and finish assignments throughout the week to be turned in the following Monday. I’m looking forward to giving that subject up to another teacher, and watching her rise to the occasion.

It seems like a lot when it’s all written out, but one of the things I love best about homeschooling is that all of this can be integrated together. Reading, writing, research, spelling, handwriting, and study skills are all integrated together with science, history, and geography…leaving plenty of room for creativity and fun.

Are you ready to see what we’re planning for Middle School? Simply click next below: