Sunday, April 17, 2011

2011-2012 Planning...In Progress

After going to our Homeschool Curriculum Fair yesterday I changed my mind on some of my plans for the 2011-2012 school year.  I was able to get my hands on a few things that I was interested in to reconfirm some of my choices and find some new things as well.

I am debating on whether or not to do Sonlight's Core D+E Condensed for history and reading.  Probably the main thing holding me back is the cost.  It would be between $433-$443 new, from Sonlight.  I crunched some numbers and went to half.com to see if I could save some money.  I put all of the books that we would need into my shopping cart (then added the cost for the Instructor's Guide).  My total came to $276, and that included shipping.  Much better, but still high. That's one option.  I'm torn because right now we are utilizing the library for our reading- for free.  If I relied on the library next year it would be a bit of a hassle and a little stressful trying to track down the books as we needed them since it would be our history curriculum as well.  So, that's the one thing I'm trying to figure out.  Even $276 is a lot (to me) to spend on history & reading.

Aside from that, here are my plans thus far:

                     Jared (5th Grade)                                               Jenna (7th Grade)
Math        Teaching Textbooks 5                                    Teaching Textbooks 7
L.A.          Excellence in Writing-All Things Fun               Excellence in Writing-                                                                                       Explorer's to Gold Rush
                 English from the Roots Up                              English from the Roots Up
Science    Answers in Genesis-Our Planet                       Answers in Genesis-Our Planet
                Christian Kids Explore-Chemistry                    Christian Kids Explore-Chemistry
Bible       An Honorable Boy-Queen Publishing               A Virtuous Girl- Queen Publishing
Art          Artistic Pursuits                                                Artistic Pursuits
History   US History-(Sonlight Core D+E)                     US History (Sonlight Core D+E,      
                                                                                      plus supplements from Core 100)
Reading    "  "                                                                                        "  "
Music     Meet the Great Composers Kit 1                     Meet the Great Composers Kit 1
                Clarinet                                                           Saxophone
Language                                                                      Spanish 1
Geography-
Since we are doing US History it is my goal to do as much traveling as I can to different places in the US! I'm dreaming, I know. If we can't travel like I want to, and even if we can, I want to do a study on all of US National Parks and do our traveling that way.

Things are coming together, I'm starting to get excited.  I can't believe our first year is already coming to a close in the next month!  To sum up our year so far- WOW! I have seen my kids change and blossom in ways I never knew I would. It is so rewarding to see a transformation taking place from the inside out.  We have had some great discussions and experiences.  I feel SO BLESSED to be able to do this, and I'm so thankful I made the decision!!!

6 comments:

  1. Looking good, Momma! I'm surprised you are going with Teaching Textbooks again, just because you were wavering some on them earlier. For Artistic Pursuits, check http://www.millerpadsandpaper.com/. They had some good prices on the book and supply kit - maybe around $100 or so for each of your kids- at the fair. Not ideal, but better than full price. I need to write down what I've chosen/got so far. I'll have 5 curricula for each subject if I don't watch it. Ha!

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  2. Looks like fun! I'm SO excited about doing Sonlight next year too! Just a thought but is there a used book store around there somewhere? Most of the books are really popular so I bet they'd be somewhat easy to find at a used book store? I found a couple at this bookstore at our outlet mall for $1.99 a piece!! We've been planning on using the library for most of ours but I've also been thinking if I get the books with our BN discount card (go get one!!) and get them one 9-week period at a time it won't be such sticker shock. Still debating there. :)

    Oh and THANK YOUUUUU for blogging! I've been stalking the blogs for yeeeears (ok, days) waiting for new entries because I miss my mama friends so much!! Can you get Mo and Kelly on the ball too please? Haha! ;)

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  3. Kelly- TT is working well now. She got stuck on a few things but I helped her through it- and now she's sailing through the lessons. I am still deciding for Jared, though, if I want to do TT or Saxon, he's on a roll now too. It's like they both got over a hump at the same time :) We will see!

    Tiff- great idea. I will check the used book store. Going 9 weeks at a time is a great idea. Once I have the IG it will probably help me to plan better. I forget that I don't have to have EVERYTHING in the beginning! Thanks!

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  4. Lol, Tiff! I plan on posting 3x this week. Try to contain your excitement.

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  5. Your plans for the new year look great. I have changed my plans already three times, but I think we are on target now. We love the products from Queen Homeschool. Hoping to purchase some nature study items from her at our convention in a couple of weeks.
    Blessings
    Diane

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  6. Diane- hopefully I won't change mind between now and then! This will be the first time I have ordered from Queen, although I've always wanted to. I love the Charlotte Mason method :)

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