Our Curriculum Choices 2014-2015

Guess what time it is? SCHOOL TIME! I can't believe the summer is almost over. The above picture is from Box Day. It's always so exciting getting the new curriculum in the mail. Today's blog post is all about our curriculum for the 2014-2015 school year. Caleb will be in 3rd grade and will be using My Father's World Exploring Countries & Cultures. Rebekah will be doing all the geography, science, bible, art and music with him as well (with a few adjustments for her age). I am so excited to be doing this year of world geography with an emphasis on missions!

I want to try recipes from each country we'll be traveling too, so I bought this book:

Caleb will be using Singapore for math.  Last year he finished half of 2A, so he'll be finishing 2A and then I purchased 2B and 3A.  (I don't expect him to finish 3A this year.)

For Language Arts, I decided to go with a new curriculum that My Father's World created, Language Lessons for Today, 3rd Grade.  It is very similar to Primary Language Lessons, which we used last year, but it is more modern and, I hope, easier to teach.  If Caleb was my only child, I would have just stuck with PLL, but I know I'll use this updated version at least 4 times!  I also bought a Kid's Dictionary.

 

Did you notice that we are using all of My Father's World's suggestions? I believe that they have spent much more time and money researching curriculum than I ever could. I trust their opinion and have decided to use their recommendations until they no longer work. So far, I have been pleased with everything. So, for spelling, we're switching to Spelling Power. I'm a bit apprehensive about this switch (from Rod & Staff), but I'm going to give it a shot. I love that I can use it until high school!  I also bought the Activity Task Cards to make it more fun.

I also decided to have them start learning how to type. They both will be using this game. We've already tried it and like it a lot. Caleb does very well with it. Rebekah has great accuracy, but goes too slow, so the game doesn't advance her to the next level, which upsets her. I think I will have Caleb do it at least once a week when I need to work with Rebekah. Rebekah can play as she wants to.

Speaking of Rebekah, she'll be using My Father's World First Grade! Because she'll be following along with Caleb in Exploring Countries & Cultures, we'll be skipping the science and art from 1st grade. I did buy the art cards though to do all together during snack time.

We've also found a few fun things at the Dollar Tree and our favorite thrift store as extras. At Dollar Tree, I found word search books with phonics. On the "long e" page, there are words that use the long e sound in the word search. I plan on having Rebekah do these while she's waiting for me to finish with her brother.  I also bought a regular word search book for Caleb, and a coloring book for Joshua. The Shuffle stories cards were a fun find! There are three different colored cards. They can pick one from each color and put them together to start a story. I'm hoping these help with creative writing.

Here is a big workbook for 1st grade that Kevin found for Rebekah. This is purely for fun for her. I will not assign pages from this book, but she'll be free to do it while I work with Caleb.

I found this drawing book at the thrift store for 50 cents! It will just be extra fun for us. Maybe I will use it to help Caleb start a story.

My mom gave the kids a subscription to National Geographic Kids (Thanks mom!). This will fit in perfectly with our study of animals in science. I plan on including this magazine in our book basket every week.

Now for Joshua. He'll be using the toys from My Father's World's Toddler Package (I also have a few of the Preschool toys). I won't be doing anything formal with him this year, but he has several plastic boxes with these toys (and others) that he can pick from during school time. I also have a pencil box ready for him with crayons, colored pencils, glue, scissors, and regular pencils. My goal is to just keep him busy and feeling like he's part of school. (And hopefully out of trouble!)

Well, that is all our curriculum for this year. Next, I'll post pictures of how our space looks this year and how I've organized everything. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Homeschooling!

Linking with: A Mama's Story

Green Ombre Rose Cake (Wedding Shower)

I made this cake for my soon to be sister-in-law! Her wedding color is clover green. I think the cake was a bit brighter than that, but it went beautiful with the flower arrangement my aunt made! I followed directions for making this rose cake on i am baker. I also looked on Pinterest for ideas and found this Aqua Ombre Rose Cake as well as many others like it.

The day I made this cake, I just happened to be going to dinner for my friend's birthday. So, I used left over cake and frosting and made her a little birthday cupcake!

Conversation Jar

Have you ever heard of a conversation jar?  It's a jar filled with questions to ask each other during dinner. Questions like "If you could be any animal, what would it be?" Or "What is something that makes you happy?" I found the idea, and the list of questions to print on the Kids Activities Blog. My kids colored the back of the paper to make it colorful. Then we just folded the strips in half and stuffed them in the jar. It's a fun way to get to know things about your kids, and to share stories with them about you that you wouldn't have thought to share.

Have fun sharing with each other!

Up-cycled Girls Dress - Bed Sheet & Ladies Skirt

Love this dress! In it's former life, it was a bed sheet and a ladies skirt, total cost: $2. Love up-cycling! I used one of Rebekah's dresses as a pattern for the top (an old blue knit bed sheet). It was a jumper, so I had to wing the sleeves. I made them much bigger than I should have. I thought it would be a complete flop until she put it on. I call them butterfly sleeves! I joined the bodice and the skirt together, no hemming necessary. It needed a tie, so I pulled out some wide pink ribbon from my stash. I think this dress will grow with her and hopefully she'll get two summers out of it!

Altering Girl Clothes

I love thrift store shopping!  I found 3 dresses and 2 skirts for Rebekah, but needed to do a bit of altering on a couple. The blue dress pictured above is perfect as a play dress, made out of knit fabric. The waist was much too big though. I was able to sew a white ribbon (already had it) to each side to make a tie. Perfect! Now it will fit much better!

Another skirt that was too big. The problem we always seem to have is if it fits in the waist, it's too short. I'm so glad I can alter clothes for her! On this skirt I just added 2 darts to make it smaller. I can easily take the darts out with a seem ripper once she grows, so this should last a long time. (Well, if she doesn't go play in the mud with it...)

One more. This is an old red skirt that I made Rebekah for her 3rd birthday (with a matching doll skirt). Yikes, it still fits her and she still loves wearing it, but it's much too short now that she's almost 6! I had some cute pink and red lady bug fabric already in my stash that I used to lengthen it. Do you think it'll fit her for another 3 years?!

Eraser Stamped T-Shirts For July 4th

The kids and I made these eraser stamped shirts for the 4th of July parade.  I found the idea at Cutesy Crafts.  I opted for dark blue shirts instead of white because my kids are so messy!  I showed them the pictures online and then I let them paint them by themselves.  I really like Caleb's creativity!

I only had acrylic craft paint.  After some internet searching, I decided to mix it with hair conditioner and use it.  It did turn out a bit crunchy, but none of the kids complained.  I haven't washed them yet, so I'm not sure how it will be after a wash.

This was a fun, easy project.  I was hoping to get pictures of all 4 of them lined up, but Matthew was sleeping when we got to the parade so that never happened.  I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Letter From President Obama

One of the things suggested in our curriculum for the last week was to write a letter to the President. You can see Caleb's letter to the President on this post: Week 34 MFW Adventures & K. About a month later he got a packet from the White House! It included a letter from President Obama, a picture if him, 2 cards with pictures of their dogs, a map of the White House with an interview with the President, information about the artwork hung in the White House, and an activity paper about the White House garden with stickers! No matter what your opinion is about the current President, it's still really cool to get a letter from him!!!

Here is the address if you'd like your child to send a letter:

President Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500