What We’re Using for Homeschooling This Year…
English Language Arts
Literature: Ancient History – 2 Days a Week
Two days a week Little Fox’s required reading time will include 15 minutes of reading a book from the following list, and then giving a narration of what happened in they story, which will be recorded in our English binder for the year.
Other required reading will be done the other days of week. Also, 45 minutes to an hour of free reading time will be built in to every day in addition to the 15 minutes from required texts. If you’re interested in more about our reading lists, check out this article!
- Ox, House, and Stick
- How Do You Know What Time It Is?
- Ancient Egypt National Geographic Readers
- The Egyptian Cinderella
- Selections from the Old Testament
- Tirzah
- Queen Ester
- Gilgamesh the King
- The Revenge of Ishtar
- The Last Quest of Gilgamesh
- Classic Starts Greek Myths
- Classic Starts Roman Myths
- Classic Starts the Iliad
- Classic Starts the Oddyssy
- National Geographic: Alexander – The Boy Who Conquered the World
- Fun With Roman Numerals
- … possibly others
Copywork and Penmanship: Daily
Little Fox will continue working on her penmanship skills through copywork. We will also be starting Shortcut to Cursive which is a free curriculum for teaching handwriting. We used Short Cut to Manuscript with her last year with great success, and she is excited to transition to some cursive.
Writing: (possibly)
I have acquired a copy of the Teacher’s Edition of Writing and Rhetoric Book 1: Fable. We haven’t decided for sure, but we may use some of this writing curriculum this year. This curriculum provides a chance to combine the classical method with creative writing. And it is more cost effective than the other writing curriculum I’ve heard highly about, Institute for Excellence in Writing. I am not 100% sold about using a writing curriculum outside of the writing that will be done for other subjects; however, writing and rhetoric seems to be an adaptable, high quality, classical option if we do decide to use it.
Vocabulary: 2 Days a Week
We started Daily Skill Building Vocabulary last year, and plan to keep going with it this year. The program is meant to be daily, however we are going to use it as a fun supplement two days a week this year. Little Fox was using it daily last year but we will be focusing on other things.
Grammar: 2 Days a Week
We started First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind in the fourth quarter of the last school year and ended up loving it. Because Little Fox is already able to write fairly well, we decided to move on from the oral lessons to the workbook exercises. So that means that this year we doing Third Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind.
Third Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind is a bit of a step up from First Language Lessons, but as long as we go slow and steady, I know it will be a good year for Little Fox. Normally I don’t bother with the optional enrichment lessons, but this time we are doing most of them to help the lessons sink in.
Mathematics:
Math Facts: Daily
For mathematics we have three components. The first of these is math flashcards. After learning her addition and subtraction facts, Little Fox started practicing various sets of those facts daily. She has a certain set for odd days, and another for even days, as well as sets for each day of the week. This way it isn’t an overwhelming amount of flashcards but she still gets frequent practice of the math facts she already knows. As she progressed I removed some of the most basic facts (+-0, addition under 10) and added some multiplication (x1, x10, and then x2) and division (mirroring the multiplication). I expect to add more multiplication and division facts to the math practice this year.
Math with Confidence: 4 Days a Week
Our second component to mathematical study is Grade Three Math with Confidence. Multiplication and Division are the main focuses of this year, though other topics are explored as well. We really love Math with Confidence lessons. It’s about 10-15 minutes of warm up and instructional time (with some math games and activities), and then Little Fox has another 10-15 minutes of workbook time.
Second Grade Math with Confidence was an absolute blast. (We both learned to add and subtract two digit numbers in our head). So I can’t wait to see what we learn this year. Although this year we are going to limit these lessons to four days a week to leave room for our third and final component.
Beast Academy: 1 Day a Week
The third component of our math this year is Beast Academy. Even though we are starting third grade math with Confidence, we are starting with level 1 (A-C) in Beast Academy in order to catch all the story and puzzles. And 1A has still been able to challenge Little Fox as we tried out some of it this summer (Although, of course, a lot of it is easy for her. That just means we can breeze through till we get to level 2). Beast Academy does recommend starting a level behind since it is a challenging program. We are using Beast Academy as a once a week supplement to work on critical thinking and appreciating math as an exercise in problem solving.
History:
Story of Civilization Ancient World: 2 Days a Week
This year we will be going through ancient history (as well as ancient literature). We will be reading from Story of Civilization: Ancient World and then doing a narration twice a week. Sometimes we might add drawings, or spend some time practicing with maps as well. We are not using the workbook that is offered alongside Story of Civilization, just the textbook.
Some history notebooking pages I put together are available for free here. Also I have a timeline with some saints, prophets, and patriarchs available here.
Science:
Biology: 2 Days a Week
Our main goals for science are to build a foundation of knowledge about the world, and encourage a sense of amazing in God’s creation. This year we are focusing on two realms of biology: zoology and botany. For texts we have an animal encyclopedia, as well as Foundations of Science: Plants and Foundations of Science: Animals. Again, we are just using the textbooks and no workbooks, and we are using the notebooking pages I have made for science.
Catholic Studies: Daily
Studying the faith is obviously the most important part of our lives, and a part of everything we do. However, for homeschooling purposes, we have selected a few things for curriculum.
First, we have chosen God with Us Grade One for Byzantine Content. We can use this about once a week and take a few breaks and still finish by the end of the year. Second, as Little Fox’s memory work we are using Tan Book’s Baltimore Catechism 1 and also St. Joseph’s Baltimore Catechism 1. The St. Joseph’s version has some great content for having lessons and discussions, but for the most part I like the format and translations in the Tan Books’ version. There are some exceptions, and I have taken to adding the St. Joseph’s Baltimore Catechism q and a bits that I like to the Tan copy in pencil at the relevant points.
Electives:
Ukrainian:
This year we are officially adding Ukrainian lessons to our day. Our plan is to use the Ukrainian Language Centre at the University of Alberta’s Nova 1 curriculum (which is due to arrive for us tomorrow). We want to practice writing and vocabulary at least 4 days a week, but a lot of what we do will depend on the actual curriculum. So I expect to change some of my plans once I see the curriculum and when we actually get started.
Piano:
For piano and music we are doing our second year of Music For Young Children, which applies very hands on methods for teaching note-reading and rhythm keeping.
Drawing:
This year we will start using Draw Write Now for drawing practice twice a week. Art is a low priority this year but we are keeping it in the mix!
The Byzantine Life
Getting ready for a new school year? Check out our First Day of Homeschool Year memory pages!
What curriculum are you using and loving? Let me know in the comments.
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