Heart of the Matter is hosting a Blog Hop and the first week’s theme is sharing your Curriculum Choices for the year…

Here’s the lowdown… forgive any repeats…

* Bible… Standard Publishing. This curriculum is pricey at around $100 (and I couldn’t find it second hand), but it come complete with a CD to sing along with, Activity Sheet pad, student workbook pages, and lots of ideas in the teacher’s guide for hands on learning.  I’m very excited about this Bible and hope that it will be one of both of our favorite subjects.

* Math… Abeka. I will be supplementing with some word problem/thinking skills activities as well as flashcards and games…  I’ve already made some file folder games as well as others that I hope will be fun. One thing that makes me a fan of Abeka math is their built in systematic review.  The constant spiraling back to review old concepts while introducing new ones makes this an appealing choice to me.

* Phonics... Abeka. Even though I’m doing BJU English, I am still a big proponent of Phonics. From what my sources tell me, 2nd grade is the grade that they truly master the phonics rules which in turn help them tremendously down the road in reading and in spelling.  With such BIG benefits, how can you scrimp on Phonics?

* English… BJU Press. I’ve taught this English for fifth grade and really enjoyed the layout. It’s schedule follows 2 weeks of grammar followed by 2 weeks of writing. I like how the writing is built in the curriculum and gives lots of step by step instructions during the writing unit.

* Handwriting… Abeka. We’ll also be journaling lots and lots as well as taking time for more copywork practice to work on improving her penmanship.  She will be beginning cursive handwriting by the third week of school which is very exciting for her.  :)

* Spelling…Abeka. I like the way the Phonics rules are built into the Spelling book tying Phonics, Spelling, and Reading all together.  Each lesson has review and practice exercises for reinforcements as well as great poetry to memorize at the back of the book.  I’ve already mentioned some ideas I have for additional FUN spelling practice like Spelling City and using magnetic letters on a cookie sheet.

* Reading… Abeka. I plan to supplement with some novels as well as regular supplemental reading fun.  I think we’ll start out with doing a read aloud with mommy using Beezus and Ramona.   It’s such an exciting thing to be able to share a favorite book from my childhood with my own child.  Hopefully, she’ll be a fan.  :)  We’ll probably see the new movie after we finish… which will probably be out on dvd by then.  :)

* Art… Abeka. I’m cutting myself some slack here with our new arrival coming shortly and going with the “paint by numbers” style of art workbook.  I would love for her to be able to join some sort of art group or something since she has shown such a big interest in Art, but I am trying to be realistic in my expectations  that with a 2.5 year old and a newborn in tow, I probably won’t be getting out all that much.  At least with this workbook, I feel fairly confident we’ll at least accomplish some  art this year.  She really enjoys the the step by step drawing projects and this book includes several of those…

* Music… I have borrowed beginner piano books from a friend and I am going to try my hand at giving Haylee piano lessons!  I know, right?  Could I be a glutton for punishment or what? It probably would be smarter to ease into things a bit at a time, getting used to the other subjects first before adding yet another thing to the agenda, but what would be the fun in that?

 
* History/Science/Health… Abeka… We’ll be starting by studying Our America…. These subjects aren’t considered as big of a priority in the primary grades (since your main focus is on the 3 R’s), and the Abeka books are fairly thin, but I hope to check out lots of related books at the library on the topics we’re studying for extra reading and review. I also am excited to try my hand at lapbooking what we’re studying in these subjects.  I already have some things printed and ready to start our first American themed Lapbook! These subjects will done one at a time… probably 2 or 3 times a week.

I’m also planning to do a “50 States Notebooking” project  for History too that we will work on Fridays through the year, as well as a Book of Centuries ongoing time line, but I’ll post more on those later…

Here’s the upcoming topics on the horizon for the Blog Hop…

 
Link up and share your curriculum choices!