Our Homeschool Daily Routine and Curriculum

Can you believe that we are now in the SECOND week of the new year? What I also cannot believe is that I’m already thinking about what materials we are going to be using for NEXT school year! I mean, we aren’t even half way yet really…but if you are a homeschooler like me, you know you are already evaluating what you are doing now and thinking about what to do next year. Today I thought I’d share what we are actually using successfully this year. In other words, what does our daily routine look like with the subjects and materials we have? Over the course of this week (and perhaps even into next week), I will be talking about the different things we are doing in our day.

To start with, here is an example of our daily routine. The things that we do every day are completed before lunch, while the things that vary by day are done after lunch.

Take Reading Skills to New Heights with Workbooks from Reading Eggs {Curriculum Review}

My #1 recommended reading resource for elementary aged children is Reading Eggs. This online reading program well deserves their multiple awards and it's hard to think that you could improve on the program--until I discovered the 200 Essential Reading Skills workbooks created by Reading Eggs to expand their reading curriculum. For the last several weeks, we have been reviewing 200 Essential Reading Skills for Third Grade, a 36-week comprehensive curriculum and I'm eager to share my review with you.
About the Product
200 Essential Reading Skills for Third Grade is based on the multi-award winning reading program Reading Eggspress (geared for grades 2-5). With 200 pages of assignments based on comprehension, spelling, and grammar, it’s like getting three books in one! This is a comprehensive 36-week curriculum geared to build the key skills students need to succeed in reading. When combined with the online Reading Eggspress lessons, this program is an incredibly strong boost to language skills! In fact, with Reading Eggspress, your student can improve reading skills in just 15 minutes a day!

Friday Favorites: Favorite Homeschooling Essentials {5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement}

If you talk to any homeschooler about their homeschooling experience, they will always have their FAVORITES to rave about. It may be a favorite curriculum, favorite website, or favorite school supply. So it’s my turn! Today I am going to give you three of my favorites in each of those categories—will one of YOUR favorites be on the list? Join me as I share with you some of my Favorite Homeschooling Essentials for Friday Favorites as we conclude our 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop this week!

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

Favorite Curriculum

This is the one that I am asked about ALLLLLLLL the time. I have soooo many favorites, but I will share three of the ones that I bring up time and time again in curriculum discussions.

Take-a-Look Tuesday: Exploring Benefits of Multi-Age Curriculum {5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement}

If you have multiple children that you are homeschooling, you may find yourself going crazy creating schedules for everyone. Most families use customized curriculum for each student to make sure they get what they need for grade level work. While this is a great path and one that I've been taking for a few years, I have decided to try a different route this year. Even though my boys are 4 years apart (grades 3 and 7 this year), we are going to be using the SAME curriculum for both boys. Yes, we are going to be working with curriculum meant for multi-ages this year! I am hoping that this will actually make our days LESS stressed and flow much easier. Are you curious how this is going to work with an elementary student and middle school student? Read on my friend as I discuss the Benefits of Multi-age Curriculum in today's Take-A-Look Tuesday edition for the 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop!

Exploring Apologia Astronomy with A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks {Product Review}

We have been working to complete the Apologia 2nd Edition Astronomy curriculum before we dive into our official start of school next week. We are on our last chapter, so the end is near. Throughout the time we have been using the curriculum, I have had each boy using the student notebooks by Apologia that coordinate with the topic. But the boys were kind of getting bored with them by this point. When we were asked to review the A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks, and I discovered there were lapbooks to go with the Apologia Curriculum including a coordinating one Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy (2nd Edition) Lapbook, for our text we were almost finished with, I hoped it would be a low key way to wrap up our study--besides, we LOVE lapbooks!

About A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks is a company that is devoted to providing quality hands-on materials to bring more fun into the "mundane" when it comes to curriculum. This is done through their creation of lapbooks!

What are lapbooks?
Think of it as scrapbooking your way through a subject. When you are done, you can share your knowing through hands on records of information in the form of little mini-booklets--these can be done through, through drawing, dictating or writing! These mini-booklets are then attached (glue or tape) into file folders. Perfect to keep a record of the time spent learning a subject, and able to pull it out for referencing at any time in the future!

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks carries a WIDE variety of lapbook templates--from standalone lapbooks on popular subjects, to materials that coordinate with popular homeschooling publishing companies like Apologia, Classical Conversations, Diana Waring, Geography Matters and more!

One of the most popular series are the lapbooks which correspond with the best selling Apologia Young Explorers science curriculum.

We were given the Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy (2nd Edition) Lapbook (instant download) to work on with my two boys age 7 and 11.

Our Thoughts on the Product

We aren't strangers to lapbooks and are VERY aware of how much time and prep typically goes into getting one of these ready. One of the things that I appreciated right off the bat, was that there was never more than one mini-booklet per page for this lapbook AND I could print it all on white paper choosing color or b/w ink. For this particular review, I didn't use my colored file folders, as I have a COSTCO size box of the plain manila colored ones ready for use--even had three pre-folded and ready to use!

I appreciate that I can download this file and save it to a flash drive to keep out of my computer hard drive. It's also in pdf form so very easy to use. Now, as I said before, we were already nearly completed with the Astronomy course, so it was silly to start at the BEGINNING to use the lapbook. So instead, I used the lapbook pages that coordinated with the last two units of our astronomy book, beginning with Lesson 13.

The astronomy lapbook is very very large--requires 14 file folders--using about 1 per unit. The first page of the lapbook download simply gives you a list of materials and directions on how to put the lapbook together--specifically how to fold the file folders.

I skipped ahead to the unit we were on, and scanned the lapbook portion that went with it. I like to note what mini-booklets I can print in b/w and what would work best in color--this saves me ink! Next, I simply go to the printing!

In the past, we've always done SEPARATE lapbooks for each boy--but THIS time I decided to try out doing a collective lapbook with each boy being responsible for a mini-booklet. This not only spreads out the work, but keeps them from being overwhelmed with the cutting/writing.

BEST DECISION EVER!!!

I have a boy who loves making lapbooks, and one who does not like them--but BOTH were satisfied with turning this into a joint lapbook--each contributing his share.

Because we already owned and had been using the Apologia student notebooks that went with our Astronomy, I simply used them to SUPPLEMENT the lapbook. Doing the mini-booklets in the lapbook, over the lapbook elements included in the notebook. THIS WORKED PERFECTLY!

We have been able to simply continue our routine using the Astronomy course. The lapbook pages are clearly labelled at the top with the parts of the unit they coordinate with...for instance, Lesson 1 has a lapbook page that has this direction at the top:

Cut out this piece and hamburger fold on middle line. (There will be a tab sticking out. Do not cut off) Fold tab up and over to keep booklet closed. (Like a matchbook) Glue into folder. Read Think About This and Navigation, pages 17-18. Inside the booklet, explain about navigating with stars, a compass, and a GPS.

This tells me that the information for inside the mini-booklet are on pages 17-18 in the text under the sections labelled as directed. So I will read that to my boys and they will then use the mini-booklet to explain about navigating with stars, a compass, and a GPS as directed.

See? It's like a study guide too!

Using the lapbook pages as a guide, we completed 2-4 lapbook elements each of the days we worked on it. And because we created a joint lapbook, we completed it more quickly!

Supplies needed?
Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy 2nd Edition Text
File folders--colored or plain
Your printer w/color and b/w ink
Printer paper
scissors
glue/tape
stapler/brads
pencils/pens/markers/crayons

That's it. Nothing weird or unusual.

Here are some photos of our completion of the TWO full lapbooks we have done so far--and we are in our third as of today.

Recording Star Classifications

Adding in the Dwarf Planet vs Planet Comparison

Lesson 14 Part 1 Lapbook almost completed

Cover of the Lesson 14 Part 1 Lapbook

When these are done, I will be able to store them easily for future reference if needed. If we had done the ENTIRE book with lapbooking, I would have 3-hole punched each folder and put them together in a binder to store.

I highly recommend this lapbook. It is available in instant download ($15)--which means no need for shelf space and print as you go. It is probably the MOST open and go lapbook I have ever done. I can say that because I have done a LOOOOOTTTTTT of lapbooks from many different companies. This one took the absolute least amount of time to complete. Period. The boys were able to cut everything themselves because there weren't weird shapes or thick paper. There was minimal coloring and not a lot of writing either. It worked perfectly in conjunction with the student notebooks we already had--and I would probably use them WITH the student notebooks for any further Apologia science. I feel they are each valuable and while you don't NEED to do both--yes you could do only this in place of the student notebooks, or only the student notebooks without this--I think they compliment each other perfectly.

The main con is that you need a reliable printer. And if you wanted one lapbook per student, you will be spending more on paper and ink than I did. By choosing to print some booklets in b/w instead of color, I was able to save some money.

I will take a moment to add that IF YOU WOULD RATHER HAVE IT ALL PRINTED ALREADY--there is an option from A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks to PURCHASE a printed copy of the lapbook for $35.00 (plus shipping). If you don't have a reliable printer or can't afford the paper/ink, this might be a good alternative for you.

Want To Know More About A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks?

Over the last several weeks, we have been using the Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy (2nd Edition) Lapbook from the collection of Apologia Curriculum lapbooks created by A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks. You have seen how we have used them, but there were several other lapbook topics reviewed by our homeschool review crew--including some that coordinate with Classical Conversations! I hope you will visit the anchor post to learn more about what A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks offer!
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You can find A Journey Through Learning on these social media platforms:

* Facebook * Twitter (@AJTL_lapbooks) 

* Google+ * Instagram  

I am happy that this product worked well for us to finish our astronomy curriculum. It showed me that lapbooks work best for us when they do them as a team to share the work. Now we are eager to move on with our new science curriculum for 2017-2018!

2nd and 6th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2017-2018 School Year (5 Days of Back to School Blog Hop)

Welcome to the first day of our 2017 5 Days of Back to School Blog Hop! Today's topic is all about CURRICULUM! I can hardly believe I am saying this, but this year I will have a second grader and a...gulp...MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT! How did that happen? Sigh. These boys of mine. Just won't slow down! As I share our choices this year, I will make notes about why I picked each selection to briefly give you a clue as to why it works for us--or maybe why we are going to see if it will work. The main thing about my curriculum choices is that I reserve the right to THROW THEM OUT if at any time they no longer work for us. Don't forget that when you are making your OWN choices. These are a plan, but if the plan doesn't work, throw it out and try something else!

Creating a Masterpiece: An Online Art Program {Curriculum Review}

Our family loves art. We love doing arts and crafts and trying new mediums. But when it comes to creating from scratch? Nope. No can do. My boys can sketch quite well--vehicles that is. But birds? Beautiful Landscapes? Frameable Art? That would be a no. Enter our review of Creating a Masterpiece. This art program declares that no matter the age, students are capable of creating a masterpiece following the simple instructions provided by the teacher. As we reviewed the Monthly Plan to this program, I wondered if this was true. Could anyone--including my 6 year old create a masterpiece with this program? We dove in with both feet to find out!

About Creating a Masterpiece

Creating a Masterpiece is an online video instruction curriculum taught by master artist Sharon Hofer. Sharon teaches not only technique, but equips students with the skills to produce excellent results. The program was designed so that each student can move on and do their own individual projects. Because of the way it's filmed, it's just like sitting in one of Sharon Hofer's studio classes--but in the

Homeschool Curriculum Planning and FREE Curriculum Planning Worksheet

I have a plan to start back to FULL school and our new official school year in two weeks--the first full week of September. It's been so busy, I haven't even really had a chance to "officially" determine what each boy will be doing. They are still wishful thoughts in my mind. As I was looking at my curriculum filled bookshelf, I wondered if I needed to do up a form that would help me in my planning. Before lessons planning EVER happens. Because I mean...I need to know WHAT I am using before determining how I'm going to use it.

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

There are a lot of free printables and planners to help you with the lesson planning stage of homeschooling--I even created a weekly lesson planning printable recently. What there doesn't seem to be as much of, are documents for curriculum planning. You know...the "Oh I think I want to use Apologia Astronomy, but I might use Science Shepherd instead." And then you go and check out the cost and the best place to get it--but don't have a nice handy form to record all of that. So it gets "filed" in your memory, never to be seen again. Bwahahahaha.

Been there. Done that.

I have a challenge with this and I only have TWO students. I can't being to imagine trying to keep track of what curriculum is going to be for whom with larger families! 

There are planners that include pages for this kind of thing. The Hey Mama! Schoolhouse Planner and the Apologia Ultimate Homeschool Planner have them in some form or another. But sometimes you just want a quick sheet to grab and record that stuff on, right? And some planners just don't give you enough room to write your notes!

Fear not! I have designed some simple forms to help us all! I mean, if I use it for me, why shouldn't I share it with everyone?!

5 Mistakes That I Have Made with Curriculum {5 Days of Homeschool 101}

This fall will kick off our SIXTH year of homeschooling as we begin 5th grade and 1st grade with the boys. I cannot believe it's already been that long since we bravely (yet a bit anxiously) entered the world of homeschooling. I have learned so much over the last years and I continue to learn new things with every year forward. One of the areas where I have probably learned the most is in the world of homeschool curriculum. Today I am going to share a bit of a confessional in regards to my adventures in curriculum.

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

There are so many things that you learn as a homeschool mom, and one of the most important is in regards to curriculum. If you have ever tried to "look" at different programs, you will realize how VAST and numerous the selections for curriculum truly are. If you are like me, you will also find yourself making a lot of whoopsie's in regards to curriculum. So I wanted to give you the top five mistakes that I've made regarding curriculum for our homeschool.

When Your Curriculum Isn't Working {Homeschooling: Keeping It Real}

When you plan out your curriculum for your children at the beginning of the school year, you have big dreams! As you are stashing goodies away over the summer months, and ordering your new supplies, you eagerly think about all the great things you are going to be doing over the coming year. All the different subjects, all the different resources for each subject. And when they are all typed out and put into a "schedule" for the year, the list looks grand and mighty! As a homeschool teacher, I see it and go "Yes! Let's do this!" But what happens when come the end of December, things aren't going the way you had hoped? What if one of the curriculum you purchased isn't quite...working? Join me as I share about what's been going on in our OWN school year and how I answered that question when it happened to us, in my first post of the Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series!

The Problem

I began this year with a new adventure in teaching my youngest, as he was "officially" going to be working on Kindergarten curriculum. Over the previous year and summer, I thought long and hard about what we were going to do. I knew he adored doing school work. I knew that he was already "ahead" of the game having been sitting in on his brother's lessons for the last...well, since he was a year old. But I made my plan. I pulled out material that I had saved after Little Britches was done with it. I bought the curriculum I needed to go with it. I had it all planned out. You can read my post about the curriculum I had lined up for him when we started. I was sure it was going to be perfect.

As the year began, I could see that he adored school. Oh he BEGGED for more work. And as I suspected, he WAS ahead of the game when it came to all the Kindergarten basics. I made some minor adjustments and we kept on. As we continued, I discovered that something was...off. As I worked with him, I was noticing things that screamed out something loud and clear... 

Baby Britches has a different learning style than Little Britches. 

Oh this really isn't THAT big of a deal and really usually only needs a few adjustments. I mean, anyone working with kids understands that they all learn different. So it's not like this life altering discovery. No real big deal. But it is something that started making me look deeper in how we did school.

I discovered that the curriculum I had--the one that was oh so perfect for Little Britches back in the day--well, it just wasn't working very well for Baby Britches. In fact, he's not really making good progress at all when it comes to the reading aspect.

Yes, I know that reading comes when it's ready...but he is on the BRINK of it. He's ready for the keys to unlock the mystery of words....and we are working together to make it happen.

So what's the problem?

Well, I have learned that he is NOT an auditory learner (his brother is) and sounding out the phonics (Something I have always believed to be very important)...well it's not working very well. Hearing the sounds doesn't seem to be making it click in his head. He also has a speech issue we are working on, so having him duplicate the sounds I give him, can be super frustrating! We can go over blending a word...over and over...but he doesn't "hear" how it works.

However, once he SEES a word, he will remember it and can tell me what it is later pretty well. So for him, sight words are the name of the game.

--Can you guess his strongest learning style?? Yep, he's my visual kinesthetic learner.

Our curriculum (My Father's World-Kindergarten God's Creation from A to Z) isn't very sight word friendly. They have an incredible phonetic program and it worked fabulously with my oldest, who picked up phonics super quickly. (he HEARS it and gets it) But I finally (after 11 weeks!!) accepted that the reading portion of this curriculum, just wasn't working out for Baby Britches. He couldn't follow the letters to sound out the words. New words confused and frustrated him immensely--especially when they were similar with maybe only 1 letter different. Did I mention it also was difficult with his speech issues that we are still dealing with?

So what do I do????

Do I just push through? We don't have a big school budget. We invested in the program, and still have most of it left to finish. That's a big stack of worksheets and activities. Not done. Do you know how hard this is for me?? To think about walking away from it--left undone? And I don't really have anything on hand to go with his learning style, which means purchasing something new (with a budget that has already been used for the year).

The Solution

After thinking and praying about it. I decided that a change had to be made for his sake. I wanted to keep feeding his love of learning. I recognized that continuing to work with a program that was hindering and not helping him...just wasn't going to facilitate that! Fortunately, "Cyber Monday" happened when I needed it most. And one of my most favorite companies (Institute for Excellence in Writing) had incredible sales, which included (coincidentally enough) a complete reading and writing curriculum for K-2 (You can read reviews about the Primary Arts of Language [PAL] Reading and Writing Curriculum here).

This curriculum was totally different in style than what we were doing, but I saw pieces of things in the samples that resonated with me as working well with Baby Britches' learning style! Praying that the company would come through for us again, (they totally saved us with Little Britches for similar reasons)--I went ahead and purchased the product.

Now I owned TWO complete Kindergarten programs. Sigh.

I was so nervous. What if this one didn't work either? What do I do with MFW if this one DOES work? So much anxiety!

When the program arrived, I looked through it with a fine tooth comb. The more I read, the greater I became convinced that it WAS going to work. So I went ahead and did all the prep for starting the program and starting on the next Monday, I set aside MFW and we did the new Primary Arts of Language Reading and Writing Curriculum instead.

After just 2 days of using the program, it became obvious that this was EXACTLY what Baby Britches needed. So much progress just in two days--even showing up in his speech progress! It WAS the right move!

The new program is full of activities/games encouraging sight word recognition based on phonetic blends identification.
A perfect blending of sight word and phonetics--just what he needed!

Thank you, Lord!

But what about the MFW? What do I do with that now?

Well, Baby Britches actually took care of that for me. He wants to do it ALL!!!

What? Are you serious? 

Yes, actually I am. He asked me if he could still do his other letter program. He said he liked it and wanted to keep doing it. But he liked this story letter one too.

So what do I do?

Well, I said....

Okay!

You see, I am pretty sure that I can make it work. Now the PAL Reading and Writing is our core, and the MFW reading/phonics is our supplement! I can just pick the things from it that we want to do and leave the rest. We will still work through the thematic science and unit study that goes with each week...but the rest of the curriculum will just be bits and pieces here and there.

Remember--as I have already said several times--Baby Britches ADORES school and always asks for more! Now with a blending of these two curriculum, I can give him what he wants. AND if it gets to be too much, I simply drop the MFW. NO regrets.

Here is the thing...

When you find something new and different that does work, you shouldn't carry around regrets that your initial plans didn't work. Being able to make changes when things don't work...THAT is the beauty of homeschooling and being in charge of your own curriculum. You can cater it to fit every child. Trying things out until you find the perfect fit. So don't forget to be flexible and able to admit when something isn't working. Don't lock yourself into a..."we MUST finish this curriculum no matter what" or an "I can't not use it because I paid so much $$ for it!" mindset. That doesn't help your child at all!!!

Do you have an older kid that seems to be struggling with a curriculum? Include them in the decision! Have a heart to heart and ask him or her what they think they would change about it! How do they think they would learn better on that subject? Do you know their learning style? If not, maybe you should take a simple assessment to help figure it out! This will assist you in finding something that might match their needs better! There are SOOOO many options out there for every subject, that if you keep searching, I'm sure you will find what you need!

So what happens now?

Well, we are two weeks into the program and we are still doing great. I am still combining it with MFW and so far it's going fine. I know what he's willing to do and we just take day by day. Today we did part of a lesson and we will finish it tomorrow. Thankfully the PAL program is separated into sections, so it's very easy to stop and pick up later.

Just as I have always done, we will take it one day at a time and one lesson at a time...but so far, I can assure you that it was most definitely THE right decision to make. However, if at any time it doesn't seem to be working...well, you know what I will do!

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Thank you for joining me on the first part of the Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series. I am looking forward to having this be a continuous series over the next weeks, sharing some of the more "behind the scenes" sides of homeschooling, in order to bring encouragement to those experience similar situations. Homeschooling can be messy, and sometimes we forget that. So stay tuned as we explore this very fun and revealing series! The next installment will be appearing next week, as I discuss how we deal with the bad attitudes that can bring a day of schooling to a grinding halt! Yikes! This one is going to be brutally honest! So you don't want to miss it!

Our Kindergarten Curriculum for 2015-2016

This is the first year that I am "officially" teaching two students. Little Britches is in fourth grade and Baby Britches is officially a Kindergarten student. Now if you've been following my blog, you also know that Baby Britches has been doing oddball school things with me for the last two years, but this year, he wanted to do "big boy" school. So I embraced the request and put together an official Kindergarten curriculum for him...but unlike Little Britches did five years ago when we were just getting started, Baby Britches has a lot more "extras" and variety! New student...new plans!

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

It was rather difficult to make my final decision for Baby Britches first "official" year of school, but I have whittled it down to the following selections. I know that what we end our year with will probably be different from where we are right now, but these are in the plans for us as of now!

Our Core:

My Father's World- Creation A to Z

I love this program and I debated a lot about whether or not to use it the like I did with Little Britches. I wasn't sure that it would work for him, because he's been doing "school" for awhile and is beyond the basic bare bones beginning of phonics and math. But as I evaluated it some more, and pulled out our work from when Little Britches did it, I knew that I really wanted to experience the program again through new eyes with Baby Britches

Math:

Singapore Math: Essential Math Set A and B

Because Baby Britches can already identify his numbers, can count to 20, and can do most of what is part of beginning math for Kindergarten, I knew I wanted to get an actual math curriculum for him. He is totally different from his brother in how he does school, so I knew he'd be most likely a good candidate for Singapore math which I really liked--but Little Britches didn't. I found these Kindergarten level books to prepare him for Singapore 1A and we will be working with through them at HIS pace whether 1 page or 8 pages a day.

Language Arts:

First Start Reading

We reviewed First Start Reading earlier this year and Baby Britches did really well with it. I plan on using this program to go with the phonics that is part of MFW. He is so close to making the reading connection that I look forward to this year and seeing if we can make it happen!

Social Studies:

Expedition Earth

We will be doing this fabulous geography curriculum as a joint class with Little Britches. I am excited because I've eyeballed this program for a long time, and think it's going to be the perfect one to do together.

Story of the World-Volume 1

We will be also using Story of the World as our joint history class. We used this curriculum a couple years ago, but I am going to it back this year so we can do it for both boys. I have always liked this curriculum and I'm glad to be getting back to it. I plan on adapting it as needed for Baby Britches and we may do a lapbook to go with it. We are using the text and activity book for our class.

Health:

Horizons Health Set Kindergarten

This was another one that I reviewed earlier this year and we enjoyed it. I like what is included in the program and think it's a great addition to our year. 

Miscellaneous:

Super Teacher Worksheets

We are in the process of reviewing this product right now (will post 9/15), and I know that we will continue to supplement with it.

Visual Learning Systems

This is the science curriculum that Little Britches is using and I am letting Baby Britches sit in on it and do the projects. He's enjoying doing it with big brother. MFW has a great science portion, but I know he'll enjoy doing more with his brother.

ARTistic Pursuits

I plan on including Baby Britches in our once a week art project that we will do together. We have two of the ARTistic Pursuits books and I will be going between them for our lessons.

Various review goodies
As part of being on the Schoolhouse Review Crew, we will be having products to try throughout the year which I will cycle in and out, so I know we will be doing all sorts of other things as we go along!

So there you have it! It might look like a lot, but understand that each of these things only fills up a small part of the day and Baby Britches is a child that demands school! He gets plenty of play time, but because he wants to be doing school when his brother does school, I had to come up with something to make that happen!

Graphic Images designed by the fabulous Prettygrafikdesign

Horizons Kindergarten Health {Curriculum Review}

One of the areas that I am not teaching with curriculum right now is health. I want our introduction to health to be a gentle God centered approach--something a lot of programs do not have. I have been seeking out some ideas for this subject and I was happy to have a chance to review Horizons Kindergarten Health Set by Alpha Omega Publications.

Product Information

Alpha Omega Publications is a popular award-winning company, offering a full line of products including online, digital, student-paced, teacher-led and unit studies for Christian curriculum. A few of their more well known curriculum include: Monarch, Switched on Schoolhouse, LIFEPAC, Horizons, and Weaver. 
Our review team was given the opportunity to review several of the Horizons products including the following:
*Horizons Preschool for Three's Curriculum Set *Horizons Preschool Curriculum Set *Horizons Math Sets for Kindergarten, 1st Grade and 2nd Grade *Horizons Phonics & Reading Sets for Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd Grade *Horizons Health Sets for Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd Grade *Horizons Spelling & Vocabulary Sets for 1st grade and 2nd Grade *Horizons Penmanship Sets for 1st Grade and 2nd Grade *Horizons K-2nd Grade Physical Education

Because our family isn't using a health program yet, I opted to choose the Horizons Kindergarten Health Set with Baby Britches (age 5).

Included in this set:
Soft-Cover Teachers Guide
Consumable Student Workbook

The teachers guide contains 48 lessons and is recommend to be taught 2 or 3 days a week. This provides roughly 16-24 weeks of lessons depending on how fast you go through the program. The program includes information on body care, family, friendship, safety and more.

The program is geared for the Kindergarten grade level and retails for $23.00 USD.

How Did We Use It?

When the program arrived, the first thing I did was flip through the teacher manual to get an idea of what to expect. Everything was very clearly documented and laid out. One thing that really jumped out was that the program was geared towards a classroom setting, so I had a feeling I might have to make some adjustments to the activities.

Regular classroom activities in the lessons

I really felt the scope and sequence pages were very useful to see what was going to be covered in every unit.

This lays out the scope and sequence for K-8th grade Health program!

Every unit also had a few pages where it talked about the goals for each unit, the background for each unit, the new vocabulary for each unit, unit resources and lesson resources. I thought these were very helpful for planning to use each lesson.

The lessons themselves provided a section noting any preparation/materials needed, the objectives to be completed in each lesson and some bakground relating to the subject matter. The lessons follow a basic pattern:

* Introduce the Topic
This is done with just a generic discussion to get the children involved with answering. So it's usually a fun or easy discussion. A new vocabulary word might be introduced/used. Next, the discussion starts to gear towards the actual lesson and might incorporate a scripture, poem, story or song.

*Circle Time/Circle Activity
This is where you find more of the classroom lesson notes, as it has the teacher use a circle time to get the children to interact with on another relating to the lesson.

*Student Activity
This is usually either a page from the workbook or an arts/crafts. It includes a discussion relation to what they are working on.

*Closure
A summary of what the days lesson taught including any reviewing of new vocabulary, songs, poems.

*Related Activities
Every lesson has a list of related activities to match the lesson. These might be more crafts, more worksheets, more discussions, literature, or even field trips relating to what was learned.

Not every lesson has the circle time/circle activity and/or student activity, but there is always a closure and related activities that can be done.

There are 7 units included in this book:

*Unit 1: Knowing About Me and My Body

*Unit 2: Living in a Family

*Unit 3: Getting Along with Others

*Unit 4: Knowing My Body

*Unit 5: Taking Care of My Body

*Unit 6: Being Safe

*Unit 7: Preventing Health Problems

The units do not have to be completed in order which makes it very nice if you want to gear your child towards a certain thing. There are 4-10 lessons in each unit for a total of 48 lessons.

I decided to work through from the beginning. I knew that since we were on summer break, we would not be following a regular routine, so my goal was to use this program at least two times a week. Baby Britches enjoyed having school just for him and cheerfully began with me.

I will share some photos from unit 1: Knowing About Me and My Body.

We learned a new song about being unique...

Sheet Music was provided, so we learned it at the piano

We learned about fingerprints and drew a self portrait...

Self portrait...with lots of "freckles"

We met our new sock puppets Sal and Hal who introduced us to feelings...

Simple addition of buttons got these odd matched socks new life

Learning about our major feelings...

Masks made for the four main emotions: happy, sad, angry, scared

Working in the student workbook...

Reading some books about feelings...

Talk about sob fest...I cried...and then realized that there is a stalker factor in this book. Bwahahah

We continued into the next unit once our unit #1 was done. Because we stuck to about a 2 day a week plan, AND because we reviewed a lot. We completed 1 1/2 units (11 lessons).

What Are Our Thoughts?

Baby Britches really enjoyed it. He liked learning about the feelings and making the feelings masks most of all. One of the activities included talking about scenarios and holding up the feeling mask that you would feel if it happened to you. He really liked this. He also liked holding up masks to match facial expressions in the stories we read.

I think this program worked well for us. There WAS a lot of classroom related activities, but they were simple to either adjust for us, or skip all together. The related activities at the end of each lesson contained plenty of suggestions that could be used for homeschool, which allowed me to swap in new things. I appreciated having the lessons so well laid out in advance with the preparation and materials noted as well as the objectives. This gave me a great goal for comprehension.

While some people might not like it, I actually enjoyed adding in the sock puppets. Our family has imaginary "friends" named Mr. And Mrs. Hand that I do every morning with the boys, so adding their "neighbors" Hal and Sal was simple. The lesson gave me a guideline about the dialogue for the puppets and I was able to fill in the blanks to go with the lesson.

I really like the way that God is worked into the lessons. It is very subtle and not overwhelming, but every lesson directs the student to God and how He created us and loves us. I appreciated this since we are a Christian family. I appreciated the addition of the songs with sheet music and scriptures as well.

I loved the short lessons. LOL. Seriously though, the lessons were short and sweet, which is ideal for this age.

It was really nice that you could start with any unit, and/or do them in any order. I found this was great if I really wanted to touch on something relevant to anything else we've studied.

I think it was nice that the workbook provides extra things, but there isn't always a student activity from the workbook with every lesson. The first page doesn't even get used until Lesson 7.

Okay, any cons?
*Sometimes the lessons were almost TOO short. But this usually happened for us when the circle time activity wouldn't work for us.

*There was a lot of referencing to posters or resources of what children or families around the world looked like. It would be nice if there was a basic poster included for this. It was extra work to have to find what I wanted on my computer to use and I had to do it every time it was incorporated. Having a pull out page or poster would be a great asset.

*This is kind of random, but since it is a health book, I was a bit surprised that the girl riding the bike on the cover isn't wearing a helmet. It jumped out at me as soon as I saw it.

So, will we be using this curriculum in the future?
Yes! I think it fits our style very nicely and Baby Britches enjoys it. I plan on working it into our Kindergarten curriculum this year and we will pick it up where we left off when we start school back in September.

Would We Recommend This Curriculum?

Yes, actually I would. I think it would be IDEAL for a kindergarten co-op situation where you wanted to teach health since it is written for a classroom setting. But I believe that it is full enough to work for just a homeschool setting. There isn't too much book work and it is presented very much at a level for Kindergarten. I actually think that though you can purchase the 1st grade set, you could adapt this one for the next grade up--and it would even work for older preschoolers. It is a very gentle approach to health and body awareness which is perfect for what I would desire in a health curriculum at this age. I also appreciate that it is very reasonable at just $23 for the curriculum materials.

I am actually considering purchasing the 4th grade health curriculum for us to use this year for Little Britches as well, which tells you what I think about the program.

Want to Know More?

We reviewed Horizons Kindergarten Health Set by Alpha Omega Publications. You have seen what our thoughts were for this product, but what did others think? Did you know we also had people reviewing products for preschool, math, phonics and reading? Make sure you check out what others on my team thought!

Here are other ways you can stay up with what's going on at Alpha Omega Publications!

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I am so glad that this program worked for us. I am currently evaluating whether or not I want to invest in the 4th grade version of the same program to use with Little Britches, but I am definitely going to be adding in this Kindergarten version into our school year.

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop~ Day 3: What Picking Curriculum REALLY Looks Like in My House

It wouldn't be fair to have a Back to Homeschool Blog Hop series without me spending at least a day talking about curriculum. You know, like what I'm going to be using, how I'm going to be using it, who it's for, my goals...all that jazz. But guess what? I'm still undecided! You see curriculum planning isn't this need and tidy system in my house. Nope. It looks FAR from that, so in an effort to keeping it real, I'm using today's post to show you how MESSY curriculum planning can be...physically AND mentally!

Planning and picking curriculum at my house is NOT organized. It’s not something quick. It’s not something easy. It USED to be that way when we did an all-in-one curriculum—just order it, pull it out and go. But once we switched to a pieced together curriculum (starting in 3rd grade), suddenly things got a bit…overwhelming. Or at least it had moments. And this year—with throwing a kindergartner in the mix…it’s a bit more chaotic than usual. Okay. It's a LOT more chaotic.

An aspect of piecing a curriculum together that is the most mentally challenging is just the evaluating and weighing of all the choices. 

My oldest (age 9 1/2) enjoys independent work, hands-on work, and is an audial learner--preferably with a video attached. So I need to find programs that incorporate a lot of audio/visual lessons, limited reading, and quite a few chances for hands on stuff.

My youngest is a visual and hands-on learner who wants to do everything together. This means I can't necessarily use the same things as I did with my oldest--which means I have to go through everything I have AGAIN and evaluate it again. 

We also want to be together for subjects this year--so this brings another element of adapting material to be okay for a 4th grade level AND a kindergarten level. This brings its own set of challenges--but I know will be great once it's worked out.

Mentally, figuring out the curriculum for each child can be..well, overwhelming. That's why I pray about our curriculum so much before I even start sorting and planning it out. I ask God to put me in the direction I need to go that will provide the best for each child. And it has always worked out!

Okay--physically. Physically preparing for curriculum.

So what does it look like?

Imagine organized chaos...and that is what you will find in my house right now.

It looks like planning forms to work out a skeleton idea…

These help me make sure I don't forget something...most of the time. And I usually end up doing about three sets before it's finalized...ish.

It looks like piles of catalogs to see if I had marked anything interesting that we might use/need…

only a FRACTION of the pile I look through...a fraction!

It looks like a crate with file folders of subjects and unit studies to be better organized and filled to be ready to go…

Don't be fooled. This is crammed and in no way orderly.

It looks like a pile of geography curriculum to organize and prepare…

The materials for Expedition Earth which the boys will be using this year.

It looks like a bookshelf full of possible curriculum choices for the year…

This is about as orderly as it gets...and I promise it won't be staying this way when I'm done with it! LOL

It looks like a collection of USB drives, full of digital curriculum I need to look through and inventory…

Yeah. Like I'm ever going to have time to inventory these...

It looks like a big pile of chaos as I sort through our old Kindergarten materials to see what I want to use this year…

now THIS is organized chaos at its finest!

It looks like various websites of curriculum to be analyzed and weighed…will we use them or won't we?

Am I going to use Visual Learning Systems for Science this year? Still undecided.

It looks like a big binder that will become my right hand…

I read that first page every time I open the binder...

So there you have it.

Maybe my planning is like yours. 

You related to my photos didn’t you?? Ah, my kindred spirit!

Maybe your planning is the kind that is organized and systematic. 

I bow to your fine skills. Would you like to come plan mine?

The thing that matters is that come September 7th, it’s going to be decided, and ready to go! 

I think.

     I hope.

          Maybe?

Pray for me…

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Well that's day 3! I hope you will continue to check in this week for more of my posts during this Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! Now I encourage you to visit some of the other homeschool bloggers participating this week! You can find the full list on my anchor post...or you can try some of these lovely ladies:

Joanie @ Simple Living Mama

Aurie @ Our Good Life

Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind

Jenn @ Treasuring Life's Blessings

Kemi @ Homemaking Organized

Wendy @ Life at Rossmont

Katie @ DailyLife

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Kim @ Homestead Acres

Melissa @ Mom's Plans

Annette @ A Net In Time

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What does curriculum choosing look like at your house? Do you do it orderly? Or is it a bit more like my style?