Saturday, August 4, 2012

Our Curriculum 2012-2013

Make sure you check out my blog each Monday in August I will be participating again in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

This week is Curriculum Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop.

What I am supposed to use curriculum?????????  If you follow my blog you know that we are very, very eclectic and borderline unschoolers. We don't really use a set curriculum and the majority of what we use is FREE!!!!

We do A LOT of unit studies so the majority of our "curriculum" comes from two resources the library and internet. The kids decide what they want to learn about each month as their main unit study, they picked out their books at the library and I gather the other learning resources. Our unit studies will cover science, geography, social studies, history and sometimes more. For example we learned about Lions and Africa earlier this year. During our unit study we learned about lions, Africa, deserts, pyramids, African music, African tribes and we even learned to speak Swahili.

Unit Study Resources:

Links to many of the FREE resources we utilize can be found on my FreeBEE Fridays posts each week.

Here are links to a few of the internet resources we utilize for our unit studies:
-Currclick - lots of great resources many are FREE others are reasonably priced
-The Happy Scientist - great science experiments
-Arvind Gupta Toys - more awesome science experiments
-YouTube Videos
-Schoolhouse Teachers - lots of amazing resources - read review here
-Timeline of Classics - comprehensive timeline E-book with valuable resources broken down by time period - read review here
-Wonder Maps - map program with every kind of map imaginable - read review here

Books:
We have quite a book collection of our own most to these books were either won or picked up at library book sales.


Some of my favorite books are from Apologia, Master Books, Usborne and Kingfisher.

So that pretty much leaves Math and Reading which I do feel need to be covered further outside of our unit studies. And a couple other things like Foreign Language, Physical Education and Character Training.

Math: (we are still trying a few products to find the right one)
-A+ Tutor Soft - I have a feeling this is the one we will be using but I am waiting for the 1st grade program to be completed which will hopefully be by the end of the month. (Use coupon code KUBSAVE at check out to save a min. of 10%)
-Learn Math Fast - check out our past review
-Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy (currently reviewing this workbook)
-Practical Math - playing store, cooking etc.
-Critical Thinking Skills - Logic Workbooks
-Dice games we purchased from Summer Book Company

Reading:
-Reading Kingdom (currently reviewing and loving it)
-Reading Eggs - read review here
-Various early readers - like Bob Books
-Have Fun Teaching - we also use this website for our unit studies as well
-Spelling/Vocabulary City

Rowyn is also still working on learning his A,B,C's so we will also be utilizing various resources from 1+1+1=1Homeschool CreationsConfessions of a HomeschoolerTwo Teaching Mommies, School Sparks.

Additional History:
-Founders Academy - live online history classes

Foreign Language:
-Speekee (currently reviewing and loving it)

Character Training:
-We Choose Virtues - read review here
-Howard Wigglebottom

Physical Education:

-Family Time Fitness - read review here

Keyboarding:
-Keyboarding for the Christian School - read review here

Art:
-Artistic Pursuits - read review here

Miscellaneous:
-Coindexter Club - financial learning
-Pen Pal Kids Club - writing and geography

Other Learning:
We take lots of field trips check out our Homeschool Journeys Google Map. We do lots of fun crafts. We explore nature and geocache. We do community service projects – like Alex’s Lemonade Stand. And we play games.

If you want to read more about our homeschool method visit So You Call Yourself A Homeschooler to read my post on Eclectic Homeschooling.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look inside my cluttered mind! 


**And again make sure you check out the past FreeBEE Fridays posts because it is virtually impossible for me to share all of our curriculum resources in one post.**


*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies or field trips.

3 comments:

Mary said...

Isn't it great to be able to work in the free stuff from reviews? I am loving that. Great line up!!

Stef Layton said...

goodness - I LOVE YOUR LIBRARY! Can we come school with you?!


linked to your post today!

Lauren Mirecki said...

Library is right! That's enough to make any homeschooler jealous :0) You're doing a GREAT JOB pulling together your own curriculum!

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