Our 2013-2014 homeschool year started in August, but I'm just now getting around to uploading photos. This is our third year of homeschooling and we are doing things a little different this year. For one thing, we've joined Classical Conversations! I did a lot of reading about this program and then we prayerfully decided to pursue it. God provided financially to make it happen for our children and we are all loving it. Classical Conversations has transformed our homeschool, but I will share more about that in a later post.
For now, I wanted to post an overview of our 2013-2014 curriculum along with a picture and their first day of school "interview". These are mostly for my own record keeping, but I figured some of our far away friends might enjoy seeing the updated photos too.
Allyson - 3rd Grade
This year, the majority of Ally's curriculum is coming from Classical Conversations. We added in Houghton Miffin math and we're reading our way through lots of literary classics this year (adapted for young readers). Here was her first day of school interview answers:
Age - 8
Favorite Color - yellow, pink, purple, and green
Favorite Animal - cat and dog
Favorite Food - Daddy's hamburgers and Nutella
When I Grow Up - I want to be an artist, singer, and sell lemonade at festivals.
Best Friend - Lily and Sarah. We have a club called BFFCB.
Favorite Toy - HopHop my bunny, Snuggles, and my pogo stick
Favorite Book - The Babysitter's Club series
What do you want to learn this year? Lots of art!
Walker - 1st Grade
Walker's first grade is my first ever "repeat" in homeschooling. We started homeschooling when Ally was in first grade. Where has the time gone?! I started the year in hopes of basically reusing the same curriculum I had from Ally's first grade year. However, after just a month, I'm quickly seeing that their learning styles are just too different and that might not work. He is also doing Classical Conversations (and loving it!), but we are supplementing that with math and language arts curriculums.
For Math, we are using Math Made Easy as our workbook, but the majority of his math work is on the floor with blocks and manipulatives. Walker is my "sizzler" and he likes to move, move, move! For reading, we started with the Scholastic Early Reader's program and it was a major FAIL. It worked beautifully for Ally, but not for Walker. Too many bright colors, too many distracting pictures, and too many words crammed on a little page. So we've changed direction and now we are using some very old reading primers and it is working beautifully! Here are the answers from Walker's first day of school interview:
Age - 6
Favorite Color - I have several. Blue, orange, green, and sometimes I like brown.
Favorite Animal - Cows, but I don't know about milking one.
Favorite Food - Watermelon
When I Grow Up - I want to be a carpenter and a baseball player and a Daddy.
Best Friend - Lily and Sarah and Riley
Favorite Toy - Remote Control Motorcycle
Favorite Book - The Foot Book (Dr. Seuss)
What do you want to learn this year? Where do clouds come from? Where do boogers come from?
