Subjects 2013-2014

We are getting ready for our 2nd year of homeschooling here at Teach Academy! As you probably saw on my last post, I have purchased Homeschool Tracker Online. I finally finished adding all my courses for all the kids and am SO excited about how much easier it will be to keep track of everything. Last year, I did Lesson Plans every Sunday afternoon :-(
I am very excited that my Lesson Plans are DONE for the whole year!!! YIPPEE!!!

Here is a look at what we are using this year. I still really recommend the Cathy Duffy book 101 Top Picks for Homeschooling Curriculum, as I had to change only a few things from last year. For the most part, the picks from her book I made based on the kids' learning styles were right on. My only real changes were in Math and Religion (not even chosen from her book).

For Math, we ran kicking and screaming from the Spiral-Style learning! Both Grace's Saxon and Cian's Horizon were spiral-style learning. This is where you learn a new concept, then it switches back to another, than something different yet, repeat, repeat, repeat. While doing that you see the new bit added into your review. We had two problems with this:
1. Grace got very frustrated with it. She thinks like me, "lets make a list of things and do it in order." This math was like skipping all over an ordered, sequential list in her (and my) mind(s)!
2. For Cian, the Math 1 from Horizon was very easy, and for him the constant review was not needed. He got very bored of doing the same thing over and over. He is a "do it and I know it" guy.
Both kids have been switched to a Mastery Style Math companies. I chose Math Mammoth for Grace. It has gotten great reviews, is very cost friendly, and seems to be right on track for the grade level. Most importantly, it starts with one topic, finishes it, THEN moves to another one. The tests throughout provide plenty of review without overkill. For Cian, I chose Singapore Math. I went to a HUGE homeschooling conference and my Homeschool Idol, Cathy Duffy, presented on learning styles using MATH as the example! Perfect! I attended it and was pleased to hear that Singapore is both Mastery style AND challenging. (As I type I am realizing I never did a post on what I learned at that conference! Will have to do that in August!)

For Religion, I wanted a series that was a little more challenging and incorporated more Scripture so I switched from the company I used when I taught High School, and am now going to try the "Image of God" series by Ignatius Press.

Okay, enough of that!

As I entered them into my HST Online I added them to this pile!

  Here are their subjects for 2013-2014:

Grace - 4th grade:

Religion - Image of God- Grade 4
Math-  Math Mammoth 4A and 4B
Grammar- Easy Grammar - Grade 4
Spelling - Building Spelling Skills - Book 4
Reading- Reading Detective & Book Report weekly

Writing- Spectrum Grade 4

Typing- Jump Start Typing
Science- Noeo Science - Chemistry II & Science Detective CD-ROM
History- Portraits of American Girlhood, American Girl Historical Series, (2/3 done from last year)
History- A Child's History of the World

Geography- World Geography; I am using a combination of Confession of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth AND Galloping the Globe book. They are actually VERY similar and cover almost the exact same things. I have merged the 2 curriculms into one that works for our family.
Spanish- La Clase Divertida
Critical Thinking- Building Thinking Skills Level 2; Mind Twisters Grade 4
Art- "How to Teach Art to Children" and an art class; will be using Global Art and Geography Through Art in our Geography courses also
PE- YMCA Classes and weekly Tumbling class
Music- Piano Is Easy series & "Boom-a-Tune" book 


Cian - 2nd grade:

Religion- Image of God- Grade 2
Math- Singapore Math 2A & 2B

Grammar- Easy Grammar - Grade 2

Phonics- Phonics for Young Catholics

Spelling- Building Spelling Skills - Book 2

Writing- Writing Grade 2 (Spectrum)

Handwriting- D'Nealian 2 - It starts with print, then moves to cursive.
Journaling- 1st writing prompts

Science - Noeo Science - Chemistry II
History- A Child's History of the World

Geography- World Geography; I am using a combination of Confession of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth AND Galloping the Globe book. They are actually VERY similar and cover almost the exact same things. I have merged the 2 curriculms into one that works for our family.
Spanish- La Clase Divertida

Critical Thinking- Mind Benders, Mind Twisters, Building Thinking Skills I

Art- "How to Teach Art to Children" and an art class; will be using Global Art and Geography Through Art in our Geography courses also
PE- YMCA Classes and weekly Tumbling class
Music- Piano Is Easy series & "Boom-a-Tune" book


Zoe - K4:

Religion- Image of God- Grade Pre-K - B 
K4 from Confessions of a Homeschooler (MOST of this is good, using over half of this and supplementing with challenging Preschool Packs. I found some I really like on 123Homeschool4me.com that have packs with pages from tot level all the way to 1st grade etc.. )
K4 Packs

My Preschool Learning Book Worksheets & other Supliments 

Let's Go Read - CD-ROM

Math- Jump Start Math CD for K

Critical Thinking- Mind Benders; Arthur's Thinking Skills CD-ROM

Handwriting- D'Nealian K 

Journaling- Journaling the Rebus Way
History- A Child's History of the World
Geography- World Geography; I am using a combination of Confession of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth AND Galloping the Globe book. They are actually VERY similar and cover almost the exact same things. I have merged the 2 curriculms into one that works for our family.
Spanish- La Clase Divertida
Art- "How to Teach Art to Children" and an art class; will be using Global Art and Geography Through Art in our Geography courses also
PE- YMCA Classes and weekly Tumbling class
Music- Piano Is Easy series & "Boom-a-Tune" book

Ellison - Tot School:

Tot School Tot Packs on the 1+1+1+1 website.