What we are doing this year...

Here is a brief run-down of what specific curriculum we are using this year...

DS 10yo (5th grade)

Rod &  Staff 4 "Building with Diligence" ~  Last year, was the first year we had used R&S for English and I loved it... It is very thorough and DS learned so much from it...

Daily Grams 5 ~ we love using these, as they take less than 10 minutes a day, my son can do them independently,  and still practice activities and exercises that help with his  English grammar.

Teaching Textbooks 5 ~ this year I went with TT {we previously had used Abeka and Horizons, and a failed use of Saxon (DS hated Saxon) }... After using ALEKS some of the second half of last year, we decided that an online program was the way to go and TT provided the computer aspect with the built -in tutor, but without the cost of the online ALEKS program...

DD 7yo (2nd Grade)

Rod & Staff English "Preparing to Build" ~ This was a natural choice since we had great success with R&S for my son last year... DD had completed First Language Lessons and was wanting to use a book like her brother...

Easy Grammar 2 ~ These are perfect exercises that take less than 10 minutes to complete and compliment her R&S... Next year we will move into Daily Grams for her with 3rd grade.  But these are perfect for this year...

Abeka Math 2 ~ This choice was an easy one, since we used Abeka K and Abeka 1 for her, it was natural to move into Abeka 2... She loves the colors of the workbook and I love the ease of a scripted lesson... and the extra drill and worksheet make it a very thorough math program...

Combined Study:

Apologia "Exploring Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" ~ We chose Apologia, because we love it... It is something I can do with both kidlets, take little prep time, contains tons of useful information, and they really ENJOY it!! We use Apologia "Exploring Creation with Astronomy" and had a great time learning about what's "OUT" there...

For History~ I tend to do our own thing here... We use "Story of the World" and "Mystery of History" for a spine, but we use "LIVING BOOKS" as the core of our curriculum with lots of unit studies and what I like to call "Lap-a-note" a cross using notebooking with lapbook elements included...

There are several sources I use for unit studies... I love Amanda Bennett unit studies, Download N' Go, andHands of a Child...

And of course I love the ones that are FREE:

HomeschoolShare

The Homeschool Mom

Guest Hollow

Dynamic 2 Moms

E-Themes