End of year 2011-2012

Well it seems I ended my last post with our plans for the 2011-2012 school year and never did come back and share that!  We are currently finishing up with MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures.  It has been a good year, even though we got behind somewhat.  We are scheduled to finish out the year at the end of June.

We plan on taking July to catch up on some math and writing skills as well as put together a lapbook about Missionaries as a nice wrap-up to the year!

I am excited to be planning the 2012-2013 school year with MFW Creation to the Greeks program.  Sweet Potato will begin 4th grade!  Oh how fast they grow.  Cupcake has been tagging along with him since she was 3 years old.  She will officially be a 2nd grader in the upcoming year! 

We also have a new student this year!  Snickerdoodle has started My Father's World Kindergarten!

I ordered my upgraded 2nd edition Teacher's Manual and student sheets about a month ago, thinking we would start in July, but my sweet boy just up and decided he was ready to start.  Now!  So we have 6 days completed already.  He is doing great.  The pace is just so perfect for him.  He is a very active, wiggly boy!

So here is what my soon-to-be 2nd- and 4th-graders will be using with MFW's Creation to the Greeks:

Victor Journey through the Bible

Streams of Civilization, Volume 1

Ancient World

Celebrating Biblical Feasts

Ancient Egypt

Aesop's fables for Children (with CD)

The Trojan Horse

The Children's Homer

Genesis for Kids

English from the Roots Up

Dinosaurs of Eden

Pyramids

Archimedes and the Door of Science

God and the History of Art

Introduction to Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel - 6 CD set         

Patricia St.John - 3 book set

Both will use Math U See Beta, with Sweet Potato moving on to Gamma when he is ready. 

Cupcake will finish Rod & Staff Reading 1 and begin Rod & Staff English 2.  We used R&S Phonics 1 one year, then the Reading the following year, as I felt it was WAY too much to do all at once with a 5/6-year-old. 

Sweet Potato will use A Reason For Spelling, Level D, which looks great from what I've seen browsing through the books.  They do include a lot of extras like a themed story and even some writing and things that we will probably skip.

To round out his language curriculum, we will use Language Lessons for the Very Young 2.  These choices are both new for us, so I am hoping that they will work well for Sweet Potato and that he will grow in his knowledge and skills with them.






We will also continue our Keepers of the Faith club this fall, Lord willing!  We are completing our 2nd year.

Introduction

Welcome to Live, Love, Learn!  My goal is to chronicle our family's journey through homeschooling, and in doing so, I hope to encourage, inspire and entertain other homeschoolers.  I educated my oldest son, now age 19, from 6th through 12th grades and did a lot of learning in the process.  Now I am doing the fun stuff - Kindergarten and 1st grade! 


"Sweet Potato" is my 7-year-old son.  He is smart, sensitive and absolutely LOVES to read.  He is in 1st grade and also his first year of Cub Scouts. 


"Cupcake" is my 5-year-old daughter.  She is Mama's helper, a princess yet still holds her own with her 4 brothers!  She is in Kindergarten and also Keepers at Home. 


"Snickerdoodle" is my 3-year-old son.  He is a tough guy yet inquisitive, but has no interest in school unless it involves scissors and glue!


"Little Monkey" is our littlest son who just celebrated his 1st birthday!  He is content, delightful and a joy to the whole family. 


We began about 2 years ago with My Father's World Kindergarten with Sweet Potato and Cupcake.  It was sporadic and we never got onto a good schedule (my fault).  Just about the time I decided we needed to "buckle down" and "get serious" about school, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  So that put a wrench into things, natually.  Eventually I abandoned the curriculum and used generic Preschool and Kindy workbooks for awhile.  During this time, Sweet Potato learned to read, mostly on his own.  Once he was up to reading chapter books at age 6, I decided to scrap the Kindy curriculum and just start the 1st grade. 


We are currently using My Father's World 1st Grade as our base curriculum with all recommended extras like art and music.  Cupcake is working through Rod & Staff's ABC Series as well as following along with all the 1st grade topics.  When the ABC Series is finished, I am going to pull out all the unfinished MFW K units and go through the phonics portions with her so she gets that base knowledge of all the letters, sounds, blending, etc.  That should take us to the end of both curriculums around the same time and put us on track to start Adventures in My Father's World, with Cupcake using her own Math and LA.


So that's where we are!  I hope to post weekly about our homeschool adventures as well as Cub Scouts, Keepers at Home and anything else educational we get into!