2013-2014 Curriculum

I'm linking up to "Not" Back-To-School Blog Hop at iHomeschoolNetwork!

It's that time of year again. I have spent the last couple of weeks with my nose in catalogs, online curriculum sites (Rainbow Resources, Christian Book, etc.) and scouring fellow homeschool blogs comparing SOOOOOO many different curriculums! The hubs even sucked it up and visited some local used book stores so we could look at things in person. I have to say going to our local store was the most useful thing. I thought I had my mind set on certain books, but after looking at them I realized that they wouldn't work for our family--at least not right now!

So here it is.......

Our 2013-2014 Curriculum

*Buddy (B) will be turning 10 years old in August and is going into the 5th Grade

*Jewla (J) will be turning 8 in a few weeks and is going into the 3rd Grade

*Little Man (LM) just turned 6. Little Man was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Autism Spectrum) and Dyspraxia. Due to some of his delays we are doing what I call "Kindergarten 2.0". Basically that means he will repeat some of his Kindergarten work and move onto 1st in other areas. 

Language Arts:

GRAMMAR 

B-First Language Lessons (FLL) Level 4
J-FLL Level 3

LM-FLL Level 1

Buddy and Jewla used First Language Lessons this past school year. I personally love that we move through it quickly and I know that the kiddos are retaining the information. At times both of them get a little pouty about repeating the definitions so many times, but I think without the repetition they wouldn't remember half of what they do. This will be out first year using it with Little Man. I'm not sure how it will go because he is resistant to new things, but since I already have the level 1 book it is not costing any extra to try it out.

READING

B&J-Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL)--Orange

This will be our first time using LLATL. I have heard so many amazing things about it and I can't wait to use it with my two "bigs". I chose the "Orange" books since it is the in-between level and I wanted to do this as a joint venture. *Crossing fingers that this is a hit*

LM-Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Little Man over the last few months has finally shown that he is ready and wanting to read. Up until now we have just done sight words and easy readers. I found this book at a used book store in the children's section. It costs $5 for a BOX (Yes, you read that right!) a book. When all was said and done, it only cost me $0.10 for it. I figured it is worth a shot!

WRITING

B&J- Morning Journals. I don't feel the need to have a set curriculum for handwriting as this time. Jewla's is finally printing her letters correctly (All facing the right directions), so I will probably pull some cursive worksheets for her to work on.

LM-Handwriting Without Tears (Kindergarten)

This will be our first year using Handwriting Without Tears at home. Little Man uses it occasionally during his occupational therapy appointments and it seems to be great for him. I did not buy the whole kit. I ordered the teacher's manual, the workbook, and the wood letters. We have so many other supplies already at our house that I thought it was a waste of money to order special ones to go with this curriculum.

SPELLING 

B- http://www.k12reader.com/fifth-grade-spelling-words/

I stumbled across this site while looking for some free reading comprehension worksheets. Buddy is an excellent speller and we always use free lists. Unfortunately the site we used the last two years now has a membership fee, so when I seen the FREE lists here I put the printer to work.

J-All About Spelling Level 1

Miss Jewla has used free lists up until now as well. I decided to purchase All About Spelling because things just don't seem to be clicking for her. I also think Little Man is going to need something more hands on when he gets to spelling work, so when that time comes I can reuse this with him!

VOCABULARY
B-Wordly Wise 3000 3rd Edition Grade 5
J-Wordly Wise 3000 3rd Edition Grade 3

Math:
B-Singapore Math (U.S. Primary) Finish 3B(Summer), then 4A/4B & Daily timed test
J-Singapore Math Finish 2A(summer), then 2B/3A & Daily timed test
LM-Singapore Math 1A

We started using Singapore Math this year. I started both Buddy and Jewla back a few levels to make sure they truly grasped everything before moving ahead. I think it was the right decision, especially for Jewla. She was not confident in her math skills at all, but she seems a lot more comfortable now. BONUS.... This program is so affordable! Since I am using it for all of the kiddos I only have to replace the workbooks each year (So about $22/kid for a year)

Science:
B-Real Science-4-Kids: Elementary Chemistry, Elementary Physics
J-Real Science-4-Kids: Elementary Chemistry, Elementary Biology
LM-Real Science-4-Kids: Elementary Chemistry (no workbook)

History:
All -Beautiful Feet Early American History (Intermediate)

EEEEEK! I am soooo excited about this one! When we first started looking into homeschooling I stumbled across Beautiful Feet books, but the price tag held me back. The hubby and I didn't want to spend that much money on certain subjects until I got into the swing of things and the kiddos were a bit older. I was prepared to pay full price for this, but after TONS of Ebay stalking I snagged the whole set for $100!

Foreign Language-
All-Rosetta Stone German

Another amazing deal!!! We actually started this program this year through the military library, but due to budget cuts they stopped offering it. My kiddos were so upset when they couldn't continue. After a lot of discussing we decided we would just buy it. Rosetta Stone has a summer special running for $329. I was about to order it, but decided to check out my favorite coupon site first (retailmenot) and found this amazing deal:

any 5-level rosetta stone course (mandarin, spanish, french, italian, german, english and russian) is only $199 for all five levels. thats $300 off! limited-time offer, and expiration date is not specified.
Coupon Code:

rslms617a

Our total came to $191.08! WOOOOT!

This year we have definitely invested more money into our curriculum than before, but I think every penny was well spent! I absolutely cannot wait until the rest of our books come in. We actually started school back up on July 1st. We are doing modified school for now. We spent the last 5.5 weeks of our school year in Michigan visiting family. Although we still "did" school while there, we didn't get nearly as much done as we normally would. So we are taking a few hours each morning and finishing up some of our books. I have to say that I am enjoying our summer school so far. I think this might be a new trend for us... Year round school here we come!