This Year's Books
With 3 weeks until we officially begin 'school', I thought I'd share what we're using this year.
One of our main subjects of study will be Canadian History and Geography.
About half way through last year, I felt the need to cover it. My oldest is 12 and in all of our History studies, we'd never covered our own country.
I was fortunate to find books from Northwoods Press on sale(as is my usual confirmation from God that He is leading in the decisions I make for our curriculum) that I will use as a backbone and I've been collecting books to add to our studies,(used & new) for the last few months.
Here is what our Canadian History & Geography collection looks like so far:
(I still hope to add to it. There a some historical fiction novels that I'm hunting for.)
These are the books we're using for Science:
One of our main subjects of study will be Canadian History and Geography.
About half way through last year, I felt the need to cover it. My oldest is 12 and in all of our History studies, we'd never covered our own country.
I was fortunate to find books from Northwoods Press on sale(as is my usual confirmation from God that He is leading in the decisions I make for our curriculum) that I will use as a backbone and I've been collecting books to add to our studies,(used & new) for the last few months.
Here is what our Canadian History & Geography collection looks like so far:
(I still hope to add to it. There a some historical fiction novels that I'm hunting for.)These are the books we're using for Science:
For the first time the kids will be doing different subjects in Science.
Chickadee wanted to study birds and so we are using Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day by Apologia. I found a lapbook(on sale!) from Knowledge Box Central to go along with her studies.
I ordered Science 6 from Sonlight for Raven(and miracle of miracles, found 4 of the books I needed, cheaper used!!
). It's the Introduction to Biology, Chemistry and Physics and includes lots of experiments, which is right up his alley. His younger brother(Kingfisher) is going to 'audit' this course with him and they will do the experiments together. My hope is that by Raven explaining the experiments to someone else(who will be excited to learn this stuff!) it will cement the concepts in his own mind.Kingfisher will also study dinosaurs with his younger brother(Skylark) who is just beginning Kindergarten.
Here are our Language Arts books:
I bought something new for Language Arts this year; Learning Language Arts Through Literature I wanted something that would appeal to my son(Raven) who gets very overwhelmed by workbooks. Most of the novels that are covered we have read or at least own and there are little mini projects to go along with them that keep the interest up. From what I've heard, this is a 'gentle' language arts program, which is exactly what I wanted!
Another new endeavor is that we're switching to Getty-Dubay italic handwriting. Over the course of last year I really noticed that my children's penmanship needed improvement. I had looked at Getty-Dubay when we first began homeschooling, but for some reason I thought printing should be taught the way I learned(ball & stick).
This program makes so much more sense for us, especially with a daughter whi is interested in calligraphy and a son who struggles with 'loopy' handwriting.
These are our Math books(most of them, some are still on order):
Again we're trying a new curriculum; Teaching Textbooks I totally hadn't planned on something different for Math, but I saw this booth at our homeschool convention in June. It appealed to me because the kids get a CD Rom tutorial and it keeps track of their progress. With six kids, I need that!
I found this little series for Spanish:
I have another one from the same publisher on order for French called Ecoutez Parlez. My kids often change their minds about what language they'd like to persue(German & Mandarin have been mentioned in the past), but French & Spanish seem to be the common decision.
And last, but definitely not least here are some of our Bible resources:
I found a New Testament lapbook at Homeschool in the Woods that I though would make a neat project this year.
Also, I plan to use Harmony Art Mom, Art Projects for Kids & Handbook of Nature Study as inspiration for our fine arts and nature study.
Phew! Thanks for sticking with me during this extra long post!
I like to keep most of our new books out of sight until we start school.
Somehow, I think it makes it more exciting!
September 8th is our projected day to dig into all of these books.
Until then we have a few more parks & beaches to see!
