Our homeschool, Aslan’s Academy, started the 2012-13 school year last week. I often have people ask me what homeschool curriculum we use, so this year I’m going to get organized about sharing it with you!
Before I begin, I want to be honest and say that this is not an exhaustive list. We use a lengthy list of resources, but these are the main ones in each category.
Bible
My children are quite active in the AWANA program at our church, so we spend a lot of time on Scripture memorization and talking about what the verses mean and how they apply to our lives. We also read from the Bible together and have looked for a Bible study that would allow us to dig deeper in a kid-friendly way.
We found that with Grapevine Studies. We’ve been “stick figuring” through the book of Esther this summer and are close to finishing it up. We’re already looking forward to choosing our next study.
We still use our Child Training Bible regularly to get the right perspective on our attitudes and actions. There is no substitute for seeing what God’s Word has to say about a subject. By the time we finish reading and discussing the verses on a topic, we’re all in tears, praying and repenting together.
Reading / Language Arts
We have stuck with certain publishers for these subjects for a few years now. They work for us.
Math
- Christian Light Education
- Spectrum Math
Science / Social Studies
We use a lot of resources for science and social studies, but these are a couple of the big ones for this year:
- Answers in Genesis
- A Child’s Geography: Explore His Earth by Ann Voskamp
To go with our studies in these areas, we’re doing a lot of notebooking this year. We’re using NotebookingPages.com as our primary source for templates. Some are free, and even more are available with a membership. 
Character Training
I long to be more intentional in working on character traits with the kids. We all have areas where we can improve our attitudes and actions, and I finally have great resources to use to do that! (Yes, they have worked on my heart too.) This year we’re using We Choose Virtues products! Even though we’re only a week into our school year, I can already see what an asset these are to our homeschool. We’re currently working on being more diligent.
There are lots more resources I could mention, including websites the girls practice skills on regularly and activities that Princess Roo does to strengthen her skills in the areas where she needs additional assistance. That would make this post way too long, so I won’t go into all of that now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! You might just inspire me to write another post about all of that!
Special Note: CurrClick is giving everyone 5 freebies! Just click on the graphic below to visit iHomeschool Network and get your free products!
Linking up with:
Jennifer, I always look forward to reading about your year….and I remember when we both sat and chatted for hours a few years ago trying to wrap our mind around ‘what to do’…..Love the name ofyour academy…we’re coming up with a new name!
Thanks, Rebecca! I do remember that conversation. I’m glad God has provided us both with great resources that work for our children.
Our name came out of reading the entire series of The Chronicles of Narnia last year. We love it!
Looks like a great list of curriculum! Will this be your first year using A Child’s Geography: Explore His Earth? I was looking at it for my younger kids. Would love to know what you think of it!
Yes, Joy. This is my first year to use A Child’s Geography. I’ll have to let you know what I think of it after we’ve used it for a while. It looks great, but we haven’t used it heavily yet.
We love using Notebooking Pages’ products for homeschooling as well. It makes everything a bit more memorable for my seven children when they have notebook pages to flip through at the end of each study.
Come on over to see our curriculum plans for this year: http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/curriculum-for-seven-kids-2012-2013.html
Thanks for stopping by! I’m headed your way now.
Sounds like a fun year! It makes me remember the days when I had easy planning– only planning for 2 or 3 children and before high school was upon us. Those were the days…
Enjoy it!
Thanks, Connie! I’m definitely going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Whohooo! Ready for another year!
Love ya!
Kelly K
Yes, indeed! Good to “see” you again. <3
Neat plans for your year!
hope that you will pop by to say hello at my blog and Pinterest too.
Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama
http://pinterest.com/f5th/
Sunrise Learning Lab
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-school-year-right-around-corner.html
Thank you! I’m heading that way now.
Hello Jennifer,
I just came across your Blog and so far I am loving it! As I was reading, I came across the photo of your child sitting in a school type desk and it brought me back to when I was a child in school. Seems like only yesterday sigh…
Our curriculum list isn’t very long. We mainly use online programs like Time4Learning, Spelling City, etc… I also like to do Unit Studies on stuff that my kids are interested in
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, Keri!
I know what you mean about the school desks. We work everywhere—on the floor, the couch, at the kitchen table, in our school room…. I remember having to have “clean out” days of our desks because my teachers got so frustrated with the mess spilling out of all those desks!
I have used Spelling City but not Time4Learning. What are the advantages of T4L? I have considered using it with my younger daughter. I’m not a big unit studies person, but I’m slowly moving that direction. We’re going to be doing a lot of notebooking this year.
Hi Jennifer,
I noticed that you use Wilson Reading system. My daughter has dyslexia and looking for a reading system for her. I heard about Wilson Reading system but we’re not certified to teach it. Do we need to be certified or find a certified tutor to for this program to be used successfully? Thank you for your thoughts on this.
Gita
Gita,
I am going to send you an e-mail to the address you left with your comment.
Jennifer
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Hello Jennifer,
I totally understand where you are coming from! At first I didn’t think I would like Unit Studies either, but after I did a few, I loved them! What I liked was how I could teach both of my children who are several years apart at the same time ( I just adjusted expectations for their age ). For instants, my kids just got done watching this cool documentary about Mermaids called,” Mermaid’s the body found”. Since they liked it so much, I just took it a little further and had my oldest do more indepth online research about mermaids etc… The I had her write a report about the documentary she had watched and what she discovered with her addition research and of course she also included her thoughts about if she believed that they could be real. Plus, I then had her paint a mermaid picture. With my son, I had him tell me what he thought about the documentary. We then went to the library and read some story book about mermaids. He also painted a picture of a merman, he said I am Not a mermaid ( He drew himself as if he were a merman)
As far as Time4Learning? I personally think the advantage they have over regular book style curriculum is that they have made learning entertaining. I know that for my children this is what makes them want to get online and do their school work.
The reason I signed my daughter up with T4L (in the 1 st grade, she is in the 5th grade now). She was not able to read very well and I knew I had to try something different ( I had been using Abeka for 2 yrs at that point). I wanted something online because she loved playing games on the computer and when she would watch TV she could recite word from word so I thought she must be very visual or need something that isn’t boring. That is when someone on a forum suggested T4L to me. Well, within a few months she was starting to read alot better! It has taken a few years, but we just had her year-end evaluation and she is officially reading at her grade level :_)
Now, with my son, he has been with T4L from the start. He did Pre-K the last 2 years and now he is Kindergarten level.
Some of the other things I really like about this program is that it is month to month, no contract. It also allows you to access 3 grade levels at once. I have always felt that our children need that freedom to learn at their own pace. Another thing I like is that it does all the grading and it keeps all the records for you. Which is so nice for us tired mommas . Time4Learning also has a money back guarantee, but they also offer a free month of service if your willing to do a review on your blog. So, what you could do is just contact them and tell them you want to try them out and you will give a review for them.That way you can see for yourself if it will work for your family with out losing any money.
I hope this helps
Thank you for all of the great information! I really appreciate the time you took to type all of that out for me.
I’m doing something similar to your unit studies with notebooking. It worked well for us last year too. We all saw the same information, but I had higher expectations for the older and lower for the younger—based on age and ability levels. It made it SO much easier for me than trying to prepare multiple science and social studies lesson plans. I also like that we can all work on the “same” thing together!
Thanks again!
Your are very Welcome
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We love We choose Virtues
We use Oak Meadow Print Currirculm for all 3 of our kids Tessa 15,Evan 12, and Dylan 10. All 3 take arts classes at the local community center on weekends. Tessa takes a Watercolor Painting Class, Evan takes a Digtial Arts Class and Dylan takes Grade 5 Creative Fun. All 3 kids take piano lessons starting at age 8 plus Tessa takes flute lessons as well and Evan is starting gutiar.
Wow! You’ve got a busy group! I love that they can do the arts classes at the community center. It sounds like you have a very artistic and musical home.
I am a 15 year old homeschooler and I love Christian Light Education. I do everything from there.
It’s good to hear that you still enjoy Christian Light Education! I had wondered how well it worked in the upper grades. My daughter enjoys it so much that I hate to think about switching her when she gets older. From your comment, it looks like maybe I won’t have to!
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