Our Curriculum

We just finalized our curriculum for the 2016-2017 school year. Jayden is officially entering 5th grade and Caitlin is entering 2nd. So far this is what we have lined up:

Jayden:

This year Jayden wanted to take a couple of online middle school courses offered at a charter school free to residents in our state. He chose to take science and Spanish. He started Spanish about 5 weeks ago and is doing very well. Science just started so we have nothing to report there. The comprehensive science course includes lessons in weather and atmosphere, earth's climate, the organization of living things, and cells and body systems.

Jayden will be doing Teaching Textbooks 7 for math. From their website: "Math 7 covers all of basic arithmetic, including fractions, decimals, and percents. The program also teaches a fair amount of geometry (e.g. how to find the area of a circle). Other topics include statistics and probability, simple graphing concepts, equations, and inequalities. There are even several chapters dedicated to math in the real world."

Jayden also decided he wanted to learn more about modern day history. He will be covering world history from 1850- present time using History Odyssey Modern Times. The curriculum includes activities, a list of required books to read, writing assignments, and it covers geography.

Caitlin:

Caitlin decided she wanted to try taking math online this year. I don't think she is quite ready for that so we compromised on a curriculum she can use on the computer. We went with Teaching Textbooks 3. It still uses the same spiral method of learning as Saxon (which we used last school year) but it gives her the independence she is looking for. From their website: These include whole numbers, fractions, decimals, dollars and cents, time, perimeter, area, temperature, the metric system, and bar and line graphs.

Caitlin will be learning chemistry in Science this year. We will be using the R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Chemistry curriculum this year. We love the simple layout of R.E.A.L. Science. There is a short lesson followed by a fun experiment. The best part is the material required for their experiments are often items that are readily available so we don't have to spend a ton of money trying to order things.

Using the American Girl books, Caitlin will be learning about history. We will be lapbooking our way through each set of books, along with doing crafts, making meals, and taking field trips that correspond with the time frame of the stories we are reading (if we can). She has two 18 inch dolls but is really pleading her case for her own official American Girl doll that looks just like her.

Caitlin will also be doing spelling with the National Treasures Spelling Book 3. 

Both children are continuing Bravewriter for language arts. As part of the "Brave Writer" curriculum, we will have dictation and copy work, as well as "Movie Monday", "Teatime Tuesday", and "Freewrite Friday". In addition to this, both children will be doing Growing with Grammar.

We are part of a book club that meets monthly, as well as a co-op that meets a couple of times a month. Each child gets to take three classes. Jayden has chosen to participate in another book club where he will have to read several books over the course of 3 months. He also chose a class called Enterprise City, where he will learn to do things such as write a resume and fill out a check. He and other students will spend two days "running a city", doing the job they are hired to do. His last selection is a creative writing class. Caitlin is taking a Spanish class, an elementary art class, and creative writing.Her art class will cover seven different artists. They will study their style of art and create their own masterpieces using these artistic styles.

Jayden is continuing with karate at a more advanced level. He gets to start sparring in September, meaning longer hours at the dojo! He will also be taking swimming lessons and continuing guitar lessons. Caitlin is also continuing with karate and will be swimming. She is part of a dance team that meets 3x a week as well as taking an acting class.

Of course we have various field trips and exciting things planned for this year! Stay tuned! :)