Wow! I cannot believe that we are already starting our second official year of homeschooling and our first year filing with our state for our oldest son. 2014-2015 was so much fun for our family and we all learned so much not only academically but also about our faith and growing closer as a family. Going into this school year our oldest son is 5 1/2 years old (6 in December), our middle son is 3 1/2 years old (4 in October) our youngest son is 2 years old (3 in June 2016) and we are expecting our newest little blessing in November!
We have been schooling over the summer because homeschooling has truly become a way of life for us but also because we are planning on taking a nice break once the baby comes in November through the end of the year. We are looking forward to that time to slow down celebrate Advent and Christmas and enjoy family! The only thing that we have on our "school schedule" during that time is using Christmas Mosaic for the activities and book list!
First, we are enrolled with Seton Home Study School which provides us with an amazing accredited Catholic home education program. We have used Seton for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten so far and simply love it for our family. Also, although it may look like we have a lot on our plates for this year we do not use each book every day or even every week. Our formal school time usually takes 1-2 hours 4-5 days per week at this point in time. With the rest of our time we add in a lot of read-aloud time, life learning and fun! Our Religion book list with Catholic Mosaic, History with RC History and Phonics with Before Five in a Row for the little ones is all mostly great read aloud literature which takes up most of our time and is also super flexible!
Here is what we have planned for our school year:
Daily Circle Time with Everyone
- Calendar (Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Weather, Seasons)
- Daily Rosary -Decade or Entire Rosary (With Holy Heroes Rosary CDs)
- Saint of the Day
- Morning Offering Prayer
- Pledge of Allegiance
Ryan (5 - 6 years old) Kindergarten/1st Grade:
English/Phonics:
- English 1 for Young Catholics (Seton)
- Phonics 1 for Young Catholics Part 1 (Seton)
- Phonics 1 for Young Catholics Part 2 (Seton)
- Here We Come/This is our Home/Here we Are Again Readers (Seton)
- Little Stories for Little Folks: Catholic Phonics Readers (Catholic Heritage Curricula) - Has already finished Levels 1-3; will complete Level 4
- What Do You Like to Do - Catholic Easy Reader (Catholic Heritage Curricula)
- What Can You Do - Catholic Easy Reader (Catholic Heritage Curricula)
Handwriting / Spelling:
- Catholic Heritage Handwriting: Level 1 (Catholic Heritage Curricula)
- My Very First Catholic Speller (Catholic Heritage Curricula)
- Finishing Mathematics K for Young Catholics (Seton) - He has about 4 weeks left
- Mathematics 1 for Young Catholics (Seton)
- Religion 1 for Young Catholics (Seton)
- Catholic Mosaic Activities and Book List
- Saint Mail (Monthly Learning about a Saint)
- Behold and See 1: On the Farm with Josh and Hanna (Catholic Heritage Curricula) - Started this in Spring 2015 and will be completing early Fall 2015
- Science 1 For Young Catholics (Seton) - Completed over the Summer 2015
- Since he FLEW through both Seton and Catholic Heritage Curricula's 1st grade Science texts, when "technically" he is just entering Kindergarten we are looking for something to add to continue. These are what we are currently considering:
- Zoology 1 Junior Notebooking Journal (Apologia)
- Science Kits from our Library. Our library has elementary science kits with books and experiments that you can check out for 6 weeks at a time. We are definitely going to check these out!
History
- American History 1 for Young Catholics (Seton) - Completed over the Summer 2015
- Maps, Charts, Graphs Level A (Seton)
- Connecting with History American History Volume 4A / Beginner Level (RC History)
- Beginner Level American History Book List (RC History)
Art/Music
- Art 1 for Young Catholics (Seton) - These art activities amazingly go along with Catholic Mosaic which will also be using for Religion
- Art Masterpieces - A Liturgical Collection (Catholic Heritage Curricula)
- Making Music Praying Twice
- Piano / Violin Lessons
Physical Education
- Soccer with Parish School (Fall & Spring)
- Tae-Kwon-Do (Weekly with Homeschool Learning Center)
- Yearly Pass to Go Kids' Gym
Connor (3-4 years old) Pre - Kindergarten
Early Literacy / Phonics:
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (Started Summer 2015; on about lesson 20)
- Early Literacy for Young Catholics (Seton)
- Adventures with Books (Seton)
- Do It Carefully (Seton)
- Before Five in a Row Books and Activities (He did this 2 years ago with his older brother (we did not use it all in 2014-2015, and will now complete the activities again this year with he and his younger brother. His older brother can join in if he wants as well!)
- Counting with Numbers (Seton)
- Religion for Young Catholics - Pre - Kindergarten (Seton)
- New Catholic Picture Bible (Seton)
- St Joseph Coloring Books: Coloring Book about Jesus, Coloring Book about the Saints, Christmas Coloring Book, Miracles of Jesus Coloring Book, Animals of the Bible, God's Rules for Me (Seton)
- Catholic Mosaic Activities and Book List
- Saint Mail (Monthly Learning about a Saint)
- Magic School Bus Books, Videos and Experiments
- Life Experiences and Fun!
- Listening to Book List Books from:
- Connecting with History American History Volume 4A / Beginner Level (RC History)
- Beginner Level American History Book List (RC History)
- Art Masterpieces - A Liturgical Collection (Catholic Heritage Curricula)
- Catholic Icing - Catholic ABC's Crafts
- Making Music Praying Twice
- Piano Lessons
- Soccer with Parish School (Fall & Spring)
- Tae-Kwon-Do (Weekly with Homeschool Learning Center)
- Yearly Pass to Go Kids' Gym
Early Literacy / Phonics:
- Before Five in a Row Books and Activities (He will complete these with his 4 year old brother)
Mathematics:
Religion (Following along with his big brothers):
- Catholic Mosaic Activities and Book List
- Saint Mail (Monthly Learning about a Saint)
- Yearly Pass to Go Kids' Gym
Loved this! We are starting our first official day today and we are using a mix of chc and other materials. I'm excited to keep up with your blog and loved seeing your curriculum.
ReplyDeleteBecca, many prayers to you and your family on your first day today! I hope that it is a beautiful experience for your family. I hope to "see" you around! Thanks for commenting!
DeleteLooks great! I am looking forward to seeing how Apologia (if you use it) and RC history go! Both of these curriculum I was interested in.
ReplyDeleteI will let you know Valerie!! I'm excited to try a few new things this year! I hope your family has a great year homeschooling! Prayers!
DeleteWe use Seton, but with the Little Readers from CHC too! My second son turns 6 in December also, but he is definitely doing Kindergarten work, and we only do the three Rs at that age, plus read alouds from the Charlotte Mason list. Um, now I'm feeling like a slacker! ;) I do love seeing everybody's plans though. I need to order our books! We are planning on starting the first week in August to accomodate our November birth. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are not a slacker AT ALL Holly!! We started Pre-K and then K last year and he just flew through. We intend to slow it down and enjoy some great read-alouds, etc and just have lots of fun! Prayers for you and your family on this journey!
DeleteWhat have you been using for Science? And are you enrolled in Seton still ..? I need to pick your brain ;)
ReplyDeleteCongrats again on the new baby!!!
:) I have an entire post sitting in my draft folder for answering that exact question! We got a bunch of Apologia stuff from friends and I love it, but it just didn't seem to "fit" what I was looking for. We are doing Behold and See 2 from CHC and loving it! I just had to get over the idea that using a book that was aimed for 2nd grade would be too "hard". It has been working perfectly! We enrolled in Kindergarten for Seton last year for our oldest (which technically you have 2 years to finish). We bought a ton of 1st grade books of Seton's separately but have not yet enrolled in 1st grade. My son "technically" by the state is only doing Kindergarten, but we have finished all of Seton's K. Since August honestly we have been doing a lot of combination from CHC, Seton and other fun stuff. You can totally e-mail me so we can chat more, since I feel like we are always kind of looking toward the same types of things! I learn so much from you as well! :)
DeleteAnd thanks for the congrats! We are loving our new little guy!
Thanks for sharing! I miss chatting with you. I deleted facebook permanently so I feel like I am out of the homeschooling loop. Is your email listed on the blog somewhere?
ReplyDeleteOh and we started using "Little Stories for Little Folks" this week and we are loving it. Seton's K phonics was way to much of a review. We plan to just complete it as a review/handwriting pratice. I was really hoping Seton would "teach" reading in K. And after the Christmas season we plan to start on "Exploring the Continents" from CHC that you recommended.
ReplyDeleteAs for Science I am still up in the air. We have been kind of "unschooling" science so far by just doing a mix of living books, experiments, and some wild Kratts and magic school bus. I have been looking at the science curriculum called "Sassafras". I will be on the look out for your post on Apologia since that was the one that I thought I would end up using.
ReplyDelete