Homeschool Fair and Curriculum Choices

On Tuesday evening, my husband and I set up our used homeschool and christian books at a local ministry site. It is a wonderful service to us homeschoolers who gather and might have a more difficult time having an outlet to sell our used material. I am sure if Jon had more time, we would have gone through his books and had many more to add, he loves books, but time got away from him as he faithfully needed to work his real job! There must have been at least 150 people there to sell books not counting the people coming in and shopping. It was great that some friends from church came and shared our table.

With Jon being there, I was able to be freed up a bit and we took turns walking around seeing what others had. It helped me come to some decisions on what we will be using this coming year. Our conversation with our friends was encouraging as we talked about schooling and the purpose of serving our children withthe gospel as we homeschool. She was a great encouragement in getting me to see how we can be flexible with the “grade level”. Even though we will have kids entering K, 2, and 5, I don’t have to be set on getting everything for them at their suggested grade level or everything from a set curriculum. I have been piecing from many great resources these past years, like Tapestry of Grace which is a great curriculum, but with an added baby I really need to have something that we all can work with and have the kids more self-directed then me giving assignments out everyday.

Since we are having the baby arrive in the middle of November, I would like to start early to make sure we are not rushed by the end of the year. Here is where I am I am planning for school in the fall.

History for everyone. Christian Light Education (CLE) grade 4 Into All the World.

Science for everyone. Abeka grade 4 Understanding God’s World

Reading – Christian Light Education (CLE) grade 5 and grade 2

Language Arts – CLE grade 5 and grade 2 (this has vocab, spelling, and grammar)

Math – Sunrise Math CLE grade 5 and 2

Art and Music – Hopefully beginner lessons for our 5th grader, going through Meet the Illustrators and Authors, Art and Music from other countries (to go along with our History) Fundamentals of Graphic Language book(found this for the bargin price of $1)

Bible - Leading Little Ones to God for the younger 3 and Firm in the Faith for devotions for our oldest

Now for our 5 year old, he has been working on things this past year and I think he needs something more challenging so I am going to have him start a few first grade books and see how he does. We found a few at the fair. We will continue Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and his Beginning Letterbooks. We are going to go through HBJ Mathematics for math.

We will see if this works. Usually there are some changes being made. That’s what’s great about homeschooling. We can make it personal for each child, focus on character and bring the gospel in through all subjects and daily life.