First Day of School!!

Today was our first day of our second year of homeschooling!  

This year we have Dawson joining us since he graduated from CBCA last May.  We have switched most of our curriculum this year and we think we are really going to enjoy the new stuff.

Dawson is in seventh grade this year and will soon be a teenager :/  The curriculum we chose for both Dawson and Griffin is called Trail Guide to Learning - Paths of Exploration, which is a history based curriculum that encompasses everything except math and Bible.  It is a Charlotte Mason style curriculum which I think is going to work really well with Dawson's natural curiosity and also my laid-back personality.

Like I said, Griffin will be doing the same curriculum as Dawson, only at a fifth grade level, which is what grade he is in this year!

They have a lot of the same assignments, although Dawson often has extra work to do.  We decided not to continue with Switched On Schoolhouse for Griffin with the exception of Spanish and Health.  We thought that it would be a good fit for him, but it really wasn't.  He needs more hands-on learning and Trail Guide has that.

Reagan will also be doing Trail Guide to Learning with the boys.  It actually begins in 3rd grade, but it can be adapted for second graders.  Along with Trail Guide she will continue doing the Horizons curriculum for Spelling, Handwriting, and Phonics/Reading.

For math we will be doing Math-U-See for everyone.  I am so excited to start this because math is NO ONE'S best subject around here!  It uses manipulative blocks and a base 10 system to teach concepts, so that they will actually understand what they are doing as opposed to just memorizing facts.  It teaches one concept at a time and they cannot move on until they have sufficiently mastered the concept.  On the other hand, if they have mastered it they can test out of the material and quickly move to the next concept.

For Bible we are doing Kay Arthur's Discover 4 Yourself Bible studies for kids.  The first one we are doing is "How to Study Your Bible".  I thought that would be a good place to start :)  There are lots of different studies in this series and we hope to complete four of them this year.

So, I think we are going to have a great year this year.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to stay home and be my children's teacher.  God has been good to us!