Not Back to School Curriculum Hop

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iHN Not Back to School Blog Hop

It’s that time of year again. The time for the biggest homeschool blog link up of each year. It’s the Not Back to School Blog Hop at iHomeschool Network. Starting today and then each week for the month of August the iHomeschool Team is hosting the link up.
The first week is the Curriculum Hop.

My philosophy is changing slightly this year but it’s mostly a moralistic decision rather than an actual change in function within the school. We are going to be a Bible based academy.
This philosophy will mean that Bible comes first in all areas of learning. Instead of incorporating Bible into each subject, I will instead think of it as incorporating each subject into our Bible based learning. It’s a subtle difference but will mean a lot to my heart and with prayerfulness the heart of my child.

Bible:

Bible Study Guide for All Ages
My friend Chelli has finally done a wonderful thing. She organized a listing of all of the lessons into chronological order. This study guide isn’t written into that order but teaches the Bible in an order which allows for teaching both Old and New Testament in a given year in a church Bible class setting. But, many Homeschoolers have discovered this wonderful resource that teaches children not only the Bible but also HOW to study the Bible. As an academy that teaches both history and Bible from a chronological standpoint, the fact that Chelli has organized these lessons for us is wonderful because now I can know what volumes I need to purchase and the time frame I need to buy it in.

History:

Mystery of History Volume 1.
This year I’m adding to our curriculum by using the supplemental collection. I’m so excited about this because Little Man is an immersion learner and this will allow him to explore further.

Math:

Khan Academy
We, both Little Man and myself are big fans of Khan Academy and it’s complete curriculum. We use it exclusively and love that it contains video’s for every concept from simple addition to trigonometry, then it has practice problems and builds learning through a rewards based system. As mom/teacher I love that it teaches to mastery and you are assured of this throughout the program. Because the designers are dedicated to seeing to it that children are both challenged and educated they make the use of this program completely free!

Science:

Apologia’s Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day
Little Man is very excited about this book. He requested in and even chose to school through summer so he could finish up Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, so that we would be ready to go for the new academic year.

Writing:

Write Shop, Book B
I found this when I went to the convention in Nashville. I am super excited about the approach this curriculum takes, because I think it will take some of the pressure of a blank piece of paper off of Little Man and put the lessons into a context more fitting to the way he thinks, at least this is my hope.

Literature:

Illuminations

I’m only using the reading and literature guides with this. I like how it incorporate literature into the historical chronological study that goes along with Mystery of History and since I’m coinciding that with our biblical studies it helps me to keep on track with literature of the same time periods.

Music Appreciation:

SQUILT

The more I read through this curriculum the more excited I get about using it. It is designed to teach our children HOW to listen to music and then to really begin to appreciate it for the beauty that it is rather than just learning facts about who when and where a song was written. I’m really looking forward to seeing Little Man learn to apply this to his mind.

Art Appreciation:

Harmony Fine Arts
This art program follows a chronological history approach to art. It allows the student to study arts through the ages. Since we follow a chronological Bible history approach in our homeschool I love that he gets to learn to appreciate the art of the time periods that we are studying.
A Simple Start in Art Pastels

I’m excited about both of these programs. I used Harmony Fine Arts last year and will continue to use it following along with my chronological history. I’m adding “A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels, art for all ages” because I have fallen in love with the use of chalk pastels and I want to instill that same passion into my Little Man. He already has a love for art so I want to begin to teach him to use various mediums in his projects and this is a good way to get started, because I think it’s pretty hard to mess up chalk pastels, so there isn’t too much pressure to get it right.