Can't believe my oldest is half way though school. That's a scary thought. It seems just like yesterday we sat down in front of our white board and he was learning about the rainbow using our Sonlight K. Now my youngest is five years old

We are gearing up for another year of home education. Very exciting as well as overwhelming. I'm excited about getting ready for a new school year but you know those homeschooling mom thoughts "Are we doing the right thing." or "Maybe we should put them in school." or "Are they learning."

 Okay back to gearing up. Here is what I plan to use. I am getting better with sticking to our curriculum.

Joshua 6th grade year:

• Josh, enjoyed using R&S Bible last year but we decided to use Foundations in Romans. It seems every year he is always studying the Old Testaments.
• Since I still think his penmanship can improve he will use Presidential Penmanship DN Style. I like the fact that he will be copying quotes and speeches as well as famous documents from America.
• For math we settled on Math Mammoth. He will use the Light Blue Complete Math Curriculum. He is not at grade level so we are going to start him in 3B. Our goal is for him to complete 3B, 4A & 4B. Work through the summer and hopefully start start 5B for his 7th grade year.
• For Grammar, Josh, used Growing with Grammar last year and it worked well but I thought I would try a whole Language Art's program for him this year. I wanted to have grammar, writing & spelling combined. We chose Character Quality Language Arts Level A the Red series. I like how character quality is woven in with the lessons. QCLA has everything I'm looking for. It has copywork (something we have neglected). The writing is exactly what I was looking for. They have the child learn to work with A Key Word Outline. The spelling goes over all the rules (not too sure how this will work out with Joshua. You know how his brain goes into overload)
•   Our reading program; we will continue with Christian Light Education. He will finish level 5 and start level 6 hopefully sometime in January.
• He will use CLE for Science also.
• Social Studies again will be CLE God's World His-Story. When I purchase this last year it was actually for 6th grade. Since then they have have pushed it up the the 7th grade and now have a Latin America study for 6th.
• The Bridge to the Latin Road. I would really like to start this sometime this school year. I talked with the author Mrs. Beers and she recommended that Joshua first complete levels 1 & 2 of her Phonics Road series at an accelerated pace. He can do a weeks worth in one day. We were suppose to work on this over the summer but it didn't happen. Since this post I have decided to use Phonics Tutor's Frequent Words, along with The Phonics Road. Joshua, can review all the Phonetic sounds and rules without me. This really frees me up to help the four younger ones in this area.
•  I'm a bad mama, I still haven't figured out what to do for art & music. I REALLY would like Lupe to teach them how to play the guitar. I do have Rod & Staff music that I purchased several years ago. Maybe I'll find it and use it.

Edited to add After much thought I am not going to do Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading for Josh. I plan to have him only do Phonics Tutor Frequent Words. Once he completes PTFW then I might have him go through Phonics Road level 2 at a faster pace. Hopefully by the end of this year he can start The Bridge. My prayer is that PTFW will help Josh to be a better speller and at the same time get some phonics review. Phonics Tutor Frequent Word is for age 7-adult.

Annette 5th grade;

• Annette, REALLY needs to work on her penmanship. She also will use Presidential Penmanship but hers will be Bob Jones style.
• Spelling this year I chose to go with Spelling Wisdom Book 1. I'm more of a textbook homeschooler but I still would like to see some copywork.
• Grammar we chose Christian Light Language Arts 4. She will only use the grammar portion. I don't really care for the spelling part and I need more instruction on the writing portion of this program.
• Writing we will use two programs this year, Writing Tales Level 1 and Meaningful Composition 4. I thought we would start with Meaningful Composition and every few weeks do a lesson from Writing Tales. Both are wonderful writing programs. We don't have to finish both in one year. It's not like they are grade level specific.
• Annette, will also use Math Mammoth the Light Blue Series 3A/B.
• Bible she will use Christian Light Bible 4. She really doesn't care for it too much, so we'll see how it goes.
• The Bridge . Would like to have both Annette & Josh do this together. Hopefully we can start this in January. Before starting the Latin Road Annette, will also do Phonic Tutor's Frequent Words.

Edited to add:Since I want to keep Annette & Josh together regarding The Bridge to the Latin Road we'll wait until Joshua completes what I stated above. Not sure if she will do The Phonics Road level 1. I might just have her do PTFW to review the rules of spelling.

I am also debating between Christian Light Education or Time4Learning for Grammar instruction. I am really liking that T4L will grade everything and there is no paper trail. It's still up-in-the air right now but I'll decide when we get back from our vacation

Well, I ran out of time. I will have to add the rest of my dear children's' curriculum later

I'm back to finish with what we'll use (actually finished on Sat. but my computer froze)

Caleb 3rd Grade:

• Phonics, Reading, Grammar & Writing he will use The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading Level 1. I was going to have Caleb also use Character Quality Language Arts Pre A, but I think that will be too much. Since The Phonics Road seems to be a whole Language Arts program. If we need to add more than I can later. As the other children Caleb, will review with Phonics Tutor.
• Math; Christian Light Math 3
• Social Studies CLE
• Science CLE
• Presidential Penmanship BJ Style
• Bible will be AWANA and discussing things from his curriculum which is all centered around Christ.

Brent 2nd Grade;

• Brent, is also going to start The Phonics Road along with Caleb. I was going to have him use Christian Light Language Arts along with it but I'm not sure now. I already own CLE LA 2. Maybe I'll take a look at it again and see. Also use Phonics Tutor Frequent Words
• Math he will use Math Mammoth 2A and 2B. In my very humble opinion after all the math curricula I have tried I really think CLE & MM are the two best so it's hard deciding between the two for Brent. I don't want to combine but these two math programs sure is making it hard.
• Social Studies he will use CLE
• Science CLE
• Bible, same as the others AWANA and expanding what he learns from his other subjects.

Ethan 1st grade  (can't believe he is in the FIRST grade)

• Phonics, grammar, copywork, spelling, reading he will use Christ-Centered Curriculum,
• I know school is suppose to start soon and I should have everything in order, but I don't. Ethan, will finish Christ Centered Math A but I'm not sure if I'll have him to CCM B. I might have him switch to MM. Again I'm not sure.
• Sonlight P3/4. I know he is on the older side but I still think he will enjoy the books and I'm in nooo hurry.

Lance Sr. Pre-K:

• Christ Centered Phonics A:1 & A:2
• Christ Centered Math A
• Sonlight P3/4
• Kumon Workbooks for cutting, pasting & tracing.

With all of them I would like to start some poetry memorization. If we do add that in it probably won't be until winter.

For music we are pretty relaxed. We listen to a composer or memorize a hymn. Art, all we have really done is us books like Draw & Write and others similar

Edited to add that we are going to use The Lambs Book of Art 1 and the younger ones will use Little Annies' Art Book of Etiquette. All children and I will go through Manners Made Easy for the Family.