Curriculum 2013-14

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I have avoidance (also known as procrastination) issues.  I made myself a list of things I need to get done before school starts, in twelve days, and now I'm blogging instead of working on it. 

That's okay though, right? 

Right.

Plus, I've been wanting to do this post since I finally ordered all our curriculum a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect weapon of procrastination.  I'm glad we got that straight.

I wanted to give you my take or review of how each curriculum works for us (or how I hope it'll work for us if it's new this year), but that would make this post LONG, so I thought I'd write a separate post for each curriculum we use and link this post to them.  It's going to take me a little while to write about each one, so if you don't see a link on a subject, it's because I haven't gotten there yet, but I will so check back!

Makenna is entering new territory this year, she's an official middle schooler (that's 7th grade around here)!  Or at least she will be in twelve days.  Last year she did some of her subjects with her younger brothers and one of our biggest changes this year is that, while we'll be covering the same subjects, she has her own curriculum. 

This means we're trying out a few new things, so hopefully it'll go well.

Spelling: Spelling Workout - she's finishing up her last workbook and then we'll move on to vocabulary.
Vocabulary: Vocabulary From Classical Roots
Grammar: Rod and Staff, Building Securely
Writing: Writing With Skill and Creative Writer

History: History Odyssey - Early Modern

Science: Mastering the Periodic Table, CHEM C2000

Logic: Mindbenders and The Art of Argument

Math: Teaching Textbooks - Pre-Algebra

Art: Edgenuity - Digital Arts, she'll also be doing a tour of some of the masters with her brothers as we work our way through Confessions of a Homeschooler's Greatest Artists series.

Foreign Language: Latina Christiana II

Physical Education: Family Time Fitness

Music: Piano lessons and we'll be doing another Confessions of a Homeschooler course, this time her Greatest Composers series.

About half her curriculum is new (slightly scary on its own) and although I did really good the first few years paring down so we didn't get overwhelmed, as I look over her list, I'm thinking I failed this year.  She's got a lot on her plate, so we'll see how much adjusting (and paring down, although hopefully not much of that) I end up doing after the year starts.

Ben and James are in 3rd and 1st grades and do almost all the same curriculum.  For things like Math and Language Arts, they're on different levels, but it's still the same curriculum.

Spelling: Spelling Workout
Grammar: First Language Lessons
Writing: Writing With Ease
Handwriting: Zaner-Bloser

History: Story of the World - Early Modern, we'll start a U.S. geography tour with Confessions of a Homeschooler's Road Trip USA.

Science: REAL Science Odyssey - Chemistry

Logic: Mindbenders

Math: Teaching Textbooks - Math 4 (Ben) & Horizons - Grade 1 (James)

Art: We'll be working our way through Confessions of a Homeschooler's Greatest Artists Series.

Foreign Language: Prima Latina (Ben only)

Physical Education: Family Time Fitness

Music: Piano (for Ben), Confessions of a Homeschooler's Greatest Composers series.

There's less new here, but it's an increase in curriculum and time for both of them compared to last year. I'm debating starting more slowly by adding curriculum as we go, or maybe just not having them do as much (as far as activities go) for the first while, but there's a part of me that just wants to jump in and see if we can swim. 

What do you think?  How's your curriculum planning going?  Are you all set for your new year? 

Happy planning,
Leah

I linked this up on a blog hop with i Homeschool Network, check it out for lots more curriculum ideas!