Tomorrow we will be beginning our school year. And this is a whole new adventure for us! In the past we’ve stayed within the comforts of one curriculum. It began with A.C.E. and then went onto Abeka. Both are stellar curriculums. But I was feeling left out. We weren’t as hands on as other homeschoolers I knew were. We were ready to cut through our safety net and try something new! So tomorrow, with lots of prayer and a fun filled, jam packed schedule, I present our new curriculums!

Math

This was the easiest subject to choose. My girls begged to continue using Abeka for math. They have enjoyed the storyproblems and just the way they are taught in general. It is workbook based so not a whole lot of hands on, worldly experience there. However, they love it and they are learning! So I couldn’t argue with them on this one. Abeka it is!

Writing

This one I had never heard of but when I came across it online it looked like a lot of fun and had high reviews – WriteShop. Very hands on and lots of creativity needed on this. With the stories my girls are constantly coming us with WriteShop seemed like a great use of all those creative buds that are just waiting to be nurtured.

Reading

This was definitely more difficult to find. The last subject I finally chose for. After lots of online review comparisons and speaking with fellow homeschoolers we decided to try Rod & Staff for their reading curriculum. Honestly, I don’t have much to say about this one just yet since I have yet to really dive into it, but the reviews were glowing!

History

This subject I was most scared to do. But after choosing it it’s one that I’m very excited to watch the girls learn from. We chose World-Changers of American History. I had some of these books growing up and never considered they could be used as the basis of a history curriculum. We will be reading and giving reports on all the famous Americans this next year.

Science

Ok, this is hands down, the one I am most excited for! We chose Botany from Apologia. I was blessed to hear the beautiful Jeannie Fulbright speak at the Teach Them Diligently conference this past spring and my kids instantly caught on to the idea of notebooking. This curriculum is extremely hands on! Being an artist and a musician I never had an interest in science. However, Mrs. Fulbright has even gotten my stubborn attention with how beautifully and engaging this curriculum is. {I can’t wait to post more about this throughout the year!}

Foreign Languages

We couldn’t just pick one. I took four years of sign language and, although, I could teach my children ASL I really wanted them to know spanish in case we choose to go on a family mission trip. So we chose Rosetta Stone. We were contemplating doing Latin through Rosetta Stone as well but heard better reviews for English from the Roots Up. So this year we will be diving into spanish and latin as a family.

Bible

I hesitate to put Bible as a subject in school only because we will be learning from the Bible all day long. At breakfast we will be teaching Character Qualities. One a month. And encouraging the family to take action on what they’ve learned.

At lunch we will be grabbing our notebooks and notebooking using the Abeka Bible flashcards.

At dinner we plan on listening to a sermon while we all help each other to clean the dining and kitchen areas.

And at bedtime we will be using our Jesus Storybook Bible or our Ruth Graham’s Step Into the Bible devotional.

So there you go! We are so excited for our first day of school! I tried to give these sweet youngin’s a month of summer vacation but all they wanted to do was learn the entire time. They taught themselves ASL and the piano. Speaking of, there will be music lessons this year also. Taught by mom for now. They were begging me to start a couple weeks ago but as you can imagine a detailed schedule had to be made up. What I just showed you here is only for two of the children. One of them will be doing A.C.E. this year. The others are still busy learning how to talk and their colors and letters.

Have a great time preparing for your new school year! Whether that means buying a new curriculum or meeting teachers or buying that brand new box of crayons! It’s time for a new season!

Blessings!

We’re gearing up to start another year of homeschooling next week and wanted to share with you our favorite curriculum for young children. During the early years we enjoy using A.C.E. {Accelerated Christian Education}. They use wonderful animal stories to teach kindergarteners letter sounds. In each story is a hidden character lesson. Your child will be learning more than just letters and numbers. What we’ve found to be most beneficial is the biblical lessons sewn into each subject. They will be learning Bible stories as its own subject also.

I won’t lie, there are parts that can be construed as politically incorrect. You have to remember that, depending on which edition you get, some of these were written back in the 1970’s. But that in no way makes them any less engaging and enjoyable. Our children have always been eager to read more of each story. A letter sound is given an entire week on it’s own. So for example ā is for āpe. The story talks about aging ape and how he is greedy and not considerate of others. Aging Ape learns a big lesson by the end of the week on how to share. The long letter ā sound is used throughout the entire week.

Throughout the Bible stories the children are taught, in an easy to understand way, about the gospel. They learn about creation, David, Jesus, Paul, etc. There are stories that were made more memorable for me in the A.C.E. curriculum because of how it is written. And there have been plenty of times my kids have remembered Bible stories that I had to think about.

Now we do change up curriculums when we get to second and third grade. But we’ve already had three of our kids go through A.C.E. for kindergarten and we plan on having the rest of them do it as well. The character lessons are worth every penny. It’s just a side benefit that they learn letters, math, history and science.

Before I finish this post I want to add that we chose A.C.E. because I wasn’t confident in my ability to educate my children on my own. A.C.E. is a full curriculum that guides you through the teaching process. It helped so much that I’ve gained the confidence and am now reaching out into other ways of teaching our children. A more hands on approach. But that’s a whole other post for another day. For now, if you’re curious about homeschooling and you’re a follower of Christ. I strongly encourage you to try A.C.E. with your young ones. Build a good, strong, biblical foundation.

Blessings!

Some people get excited about Disney World. I do. But even more so I get psyched about the Teach Them Diligently Convention! It’s a gathering of hundreds of friends that you’ve never met! The speakers are all inspiring and have changed the way I homeschool. I’ve done a complete 180 since the convention this past March 2012. And the people I’ve met have become lifelong friends. It’s like this encouragement to continue living in the world but not of the world.

Today we received an email with the locations of the TTDC 2013. Three locations next year!

I hope you prayerfully considering attending next year. Plenty of time to plan! We went for one day this past spring, due to circumstances beyond our control, but we are definitely looking forward to spending three wonderful days with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!

Hope to see you there!

Blessings!