Well, the final decisions have been made and I am in complete planning mode. Here is what we have in the works for our 2010-2011 curriculum:
Spelling: KJ will be using Spell to Write and Read Core Kit
. We started it last year and once I dove in head first, it worked really well! There was a bit of a learning curve (for me) when we first started it, but things have been going great! I just love the way it approaches reading and spelling because it is a complete phonics based program. This is not the way that I learned to read as a child, but as an adult I have learned SOOO much since starting it!
Grammar: This is actually incorporated with the lessons in SWR
. However, this year I will also be using the My Wise Guide Grammar Books to go along with it. (Since I will have three kids in SWR this year, I figured it would save me some time having the pages pre-formatted for me.)
Reading: SWR covers this as well, but for reading comprehension we will use McCall Crabs: Standard Test Lessons in Reading. I am really excited to use this, because it addresses an issue that I had growing up. You remember the tests where you have to read a paragraph and then answer questions about what you read? Well, I ALWAYS had to look back in the paragraph to “check” my answers. McCall Crabs provides lots of practice so that you learn to retain what you read.
We will also be spending lots of time at the library so that KJ can pick out tons of books to read. For read-alouds, we will be using the books that are part of our Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum. I plan to add to this list of books, but I haven’t quite decided what exactly we will be adding yet.
Math: We will continue to use Singapore Math (Primary Mathematics Std Ed) We will finish up 1A/B and moving on to 2A/B. As a former math teacher, I am really enjoying Singapore Math. I think it really encourages mathematical thinking. Plus I will continue to integrate living math books from The Living Math Book List.
Science: Some of our topics will be on stars, weather, plants, animals, energy, gravity, friction, sound, computers, and magnets. We will be using materials from Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum:
History/Geography: The focus will be U.S. History and Geography. Along with our lessons from Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum, I plan to use the Liberty Lapbook. {Be sure to enter my giveaway to win one of these 130+ page resources for yourself!} Some of the other books we will be using are:
- American Pioneers and Patriots
- North American Indians
- Red, White, and Blue
- The Thanksgiving Story
- The Fourth of July Story
- plus some read-alouds (all from Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum)
Art: This year KJ will use I Can Do All Things
. I love that she will have her own art “portfolio” of sorts when she is all done! 
Music: KJ will start up her piano lessons again and we will be incorporating music from Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker. We will be using:
- The Story of Tchaikovsky in Words and Music
- Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker Highlights
- The Nutcracker Ballet (all from Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum)
(all from 
Typing: KJ currently only uses the computer for a few things. Since I am planning to incorporate a tiny bit more “screen time” for her, I figured she should learn proper typing technique. So, she will be starting up with Typing Instructor
.
Spelling/Reading: My 5 year olds We will be using My Father’s World from A to Z. Although it is a complete kindergarten curriculum, I do not use all of it. I love the hands-on aspect of it, the use of picture books, and the fun art and science activities. However, I omit their ENTIRE reading program and I use Spell to Write and Read instead.
Math: While I do do some of the the suggested math activities in My Father’s World from A to Z, I plan to start the big boys will start out with Singapore Essentials like I did with my daughter. It is very similar to Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten, but alot less expensive. I will also be integrating living math books from The Living Math Book List.
Science: Science in integrated into My Father’s World from A to Z. Some of our fun activities will include a Butterfly Garden
, an Ant Hill
, and learning about What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs
. 
Handwriting: KJ learned to write in cursive VERY quickly and I am hoping that the boys will be just as successful. I plan to use Cursive First, but if it proves to be too much, I will back off and wait until 1st grade.
For now my plan is to use bits and pieces from the following to come up with something for my 3 year olds.
- Itty Bitty Bookworm (Bo & Bailey)
- Hands on Homeschooling (Year 3)
- Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler
- Tot Books/Packs & Raising Rock Stars from 1+1+1=1
Bible: Although Bible is integrated in both Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum and My Father’s World from A to Z, I do not rely simply on them for our Bible lessons. In the past I have pulled from various different resources to make sure my kiddos are learning what we believe they need to know. I will continue to do that. However, I will also be using Polished Cornerstones
and Plants Grow Up
. I am REALLY excited about using these! I have wanted to get them for awhile and I finally broke down and made the purchase!! So glad I did!!
African American History: Much like my “Brown Like Me” Book Review, I want my kids to not only read books with characters that look like them, but I also want them to have a sense of their history. So, I plan to come up with lessons for them based on famous African Americans in history. And, yes, I do plan to post the lessons in case you want to use them as well! 🙂
Spanish: I so wanted to go with Rosetta Stone
, but I fear that it may be a bit too much for my kiddos right now. So, after MUCH searching and researching, I am super excited to try out La Clase Divertida. It incorporates lots of hands-on activities along with the Spanish lessons Plus, we will be watching lots of little Spanish videos from the library!
Life Skills: I am excited about this one too! I am planning to use Keepers at Home and Little Contenders for the Faith. I have had the books for awhile now…just haven’t used them yet. Well, that I all about to change! Yeah!!! I even may start our own little Keepers Club! Who knows!!!
PE: Believe or not, I am really bad in this area. I used to be a collegiate athlete, but I am just no longer interested in running around and doing PE type stuff…at all! But, I found The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book at the library and I am hoping it will kick start the kids {I mean me} into doing some sort of organized PE activities.
Nature Walks: I hope to be alot better about this one too! The plan is to take weekly nature walks (weather permitting) and document/illustrate our findings. I will be sharing my printable for this too!
Crafts: Well, if you have been following my blog for any time, you probably know that we love to do crafts. I will continue to share what we come up with!
Wow, I am tired just from typing all that out. I really have quite a bit on my plate, huh!?!?!? 🙂 We will see how it all goes. But for now, these are our 2010-2011 curriculum plans!
Be sure to head over to to Heart of the Matter to join in on the fun! Next week is School Room Week, which means I will now have some motivation to get our classroom all straightened up so that I can share some presentable photos! 🙂
Jenn
You are always prepared:-)!!
I bet your magnet kit is a lot of fun! Your American Pioneer History sounds looks like something we’d like too.
You have a jam packed curriculum that really does look like a blast, and I know it will be, because all that you post is always awesome:-)!
Sounds like a great year is ahead of you. Thank you for sharing on the NOT Back-to-School blog hop.
You are amazing and a wealth of information! We are doing Adventures in MFW this year too with my third grader. You have a lot of great choices. I hope you have a wonderful year! I don’t see how you couldn’t. 🙂 Thank you for ALL that you share.
I found my way here from the HOTM blog hop, and am following with Google Friend. It has been so nice to see what other families are doing. I’m especially impressed by you super moms with lots of littles. Two sets of twin boys, wow! My twin boys are ten now, and still a bit of a handful, so I’ll bet you’re busy! Have a blessed year!
I’m stopping by from the blog hop at HOTM, and following with Google friend. I love seeing what the other families are doing, and I especially admire you amazing moms with lots of littles. Two sets of twins, wow! I have one set of twin boys, but they are ten now. I wish you lots of fun and blessings this year!
I just wanted to stop by and say THANK YOU for all the links/creations on your blog for your Calender Time. They have helped me to rev up my Calender Time this year- YOU ROCK!!!
I mentioned your site here:
http://thefantasticfive-hockmana.blogspot.com/2010/08/not-back-to-school-blog-hop-curriculum.html
I love reading your blog! I thought I had all of my curriculum set but now I think I will also add “Plants Grow Up”.
Take care!
Amy
I love seeing your curriculum choices. We’re using SWR and Cursive First also. I will be doing MFW ECC this year with my 4th and 1st grader but just now realized that I really should do MFW 1st instead. My question to you is…did you do all of the MFW 1st or just the Bible portion? Since you used SWR I’m thinking you didn’t do the reading in 1st. I’m so appreciative of your Proverbs printables and will use those. I don’t have the 1st student sheets, just have the TM. Did you use the student sheets? Is your timeline from the 1st curriculum too? So many questions, sorry 🙂 I’m just worrying now because I think I made a mistake deciding to have my 1st grader tag along ECC. Thank you so much for your wonderful blog. It is such a blessing to me.
I agree with Kysha about Blessed Heritage. It is a great resource and we have shared with with lots of friends.
The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book was a great guide when we organized our PE co-op. It was small group of 10 kids from 4-8. We all knew it was an area we needed help with so we would decide on a section to work on (chalk games, ball games, hula hoops) and rotate each week so no one parent taught the entire class.
I love living books for math.
Be Blessed!
You have quite the year planned! 🙂 Wanted to pass along a website that we use for typing. The kids really enjoy doing it for free time (it is very cute):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/flash/stage1.shtml
Look forward to seeing you all soon! Blessings and Love!
Natural Homeschool Mama~
They revised Polished Cornerstones and added in more activities for the younger crowd. If you can get your hands on a copy, you may want to peek at it to see some of the revisions. I only have the newer version, so I don’t know specifically how it compares to the older one.
We really like MFW, though I do have to supplement it a bit. I really like the hands-on activities. We are a big “crafting” family! 🙂 Well…at least me and the kids are! 🙂
I will try to post the timeline. I am in the process of trying to decide where to move it b/c we are running out of space now that we will be adding the US History pieces to it this year in MFW Adventures.
Thank you for the awesome award!
You are AWESOME! I love your curriculum line up. I haven’t heard of some of these before but am especially interested in the Brown Like Me series. I will go look into that.
We started on our Polished Cornerstones a few years ago but I would like to at some point change a few of the activities for each lesson to fit our needs. Many of them I found were for older children…it definitely helps ME though! We are going to break our Polished Cornerstones back out again and go for another round with a fresh new set of ideas.
How do you enjoy My Father’s world? That was on my agenda for this year but I decided on a different path. I still find myself attracted to this curriculum for my children- I think it would suit them well.
Please post your timeline pics when you get a moment!
I left you an award at my blog- http://blog.start-homeschooling-easy.com/2010/07/first-bloggy-award/
Love your blog – wish I had some homeschool mom friends like you around. Even though I’ve already planned my curriculum for the year, this post has given me some new inspiration! Thanks!
We are starting with MFW kindergarten next year and I am considering Singapore as well…
do you find adding Singapore to be a big help??? This is my first year homeschooling 😉
thanks!
-Darlene
Enjoyed reading about your choices! Found you on the homeschool hop!
Hi, Jenn
I found you on the MFW Blog Roll, and I’m on the Not Back to School Blog Hop, too. We used Adventures, too, and loved it so I think you’ll have a great year. Hope you can stop by my place: http://tinahollenbeck.blogspot.com. :^)
Glad I’m not the only one combining Living Math with Singapore Math this year! I’d love to share experiences with Living Math with you this year if you’re up for it. I love emailing another homeschool mom who is using the same program as me as we both go along. I learn so much. Are you game? You have my email address…no pressure.
The brown like me books look awesome! We just recently adopted an African American baby, and I want to have books like these available to him. I came across a gem today visiting your blog!
Hi Heather!
Yes, it took awhile to get used to it, but we have been using the program since last school year. I am amazed at how well my daughter has learned!
As for cursive, yes, it is geared towards the phonogram approach b/c the practice sheets are the phonograms. Again, I was amazed at how fast my daughter caught on to cursive. She uses it exclusively now.
I will be starting my boys with SWR and Cursive First and I am interested to see how well the take to it. One of my boys does have issues with holding his pencil correctly and I have also heard that cursive helps with that. We shall see! 🙂
It’s not often that I see people using a phonogram, teaching spelling to read type of program. It does take a bit of work to get your mind around it, but I love how LOGICAL they are. I’m using a similar program and I just love how methodical the English language is. There really is a reason for ‘most’ of our words…
I am also thinking about making the switch to cursive. I’ll check out the link. Do you think this will mesh better with a phonogram based curriculum than other cursive programs would? My 1st grader is having the hardest time with the correct pencil grasp and I read that writing in cursive makes it easier to use a correct grip.
Looks like you have a great year ahead of you! We are using PowerGlide Spanish for Children. We love it and it was very affordable on ebay.
Sounds like a great year is ahead of you. Thank you for sharing on the NOT Back-to-School blog hop.
I love all your doing. I can’t wait to see more about the Polished Cornerstones and Growing Up Plants. And I so want to get the Keepers and Defenders books. Just haven’t broken down and bought them yet.
I can tell a LOT of research went into this school year! Have a great time teaching it. 🙂
These look like great items. The Spell to Read and Write sounds cool, but I know I would have a hard time adjusting to it. We have Rocket Phonics and I just can’t get used to it. I did not learn to read by phonics, so it was making me nuts!
Golly you have some good stuff here. I see a lot of folks are using MFW. If my shelves weren’t loaded with other programs already, I would have that there too (we did the K program with my youngest and like it a lot).
I am definitely entering the lapbook giveaway. Thanks!
Wow! Your list is just packed with all kinds of great, inspiring stuff!
I can’t wait to hear how you like La Class Divertida… or to read your African-American history lessons… and to read about your crafts and nature walks and P.E. games and everything else.
Have a wonderful year!
Jenn, Thanks for sharing your curriculum choices. I have an award for you. See http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/08/thank-you-thank-you.html
WOW!!! Just love reading all that you are planning on doing. I have done MFW before and loved it. Thanks so much for sharing, have a blessed school year.
Hi Monica! I am in the process of trying to change up the location of our timeline since we will be adding to it with ADV. For now, I have a long thin piece of ribbon with both ends tacked to the wall. I use little mini clothespins to attached each of the pieces. I hope to post a pic next week…hopefully that will motivate me to go ahead and figure out how I am going to adjust our timeline for this year!
Jenn
I’m hoppin’ over 🙂 Wow! I don’t know where to begin. You are very prepared, and have so many fun things going on, I love it! I’ve been thinking about typing for my oldest too. And we are a craftin’ family as well! 🙂
Looks like a great line up!I have never heard of My Wise before I want to look into that one.
Have you used the US edition to Singapore?
Do you know if there is a big difference between the two (Std vs US)?
Hi
Thanks for sharing your curriculum choices. I’m using MFW Adventures this year also. I will have to check out your Bible supplements too. How do you set up your timeline? I follow your blog.
Monica
discovertheirgifts.blogspot.com
Love your line up! Put Blessed Heritage on your list of African American Literature Based History Curriuculum. Belinda Bullard is the author and she has an elementary and junior high level. We loved it in elem and plan on incorporating it into our junior high lessons next year. Looking forward to reading about your year. I know it will be great!
You are always prepared:-)!!
I bet your magnet kit is a lot of fun! Your American Pioneer History sounds looks like something we’d like too.
You have a jam packed curriculum that really does look like a blast, and I know it will be, because all that you post is always awesome:-)!