2010-2011 Curriculum Choices

It's that time of year again.... Spring is springing out all over, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, young men's fancies turn to thoughts of love, and homeschooling parents start to think about the coming school year.  Whether it is with eager excitement or desperation, most of us have started to at least consider what we'll be up to in the coming months.

Here is our plan for next school year. Some of it I have already managed to wrangle through trips to 1/2 Priced Books, local libraries, and online sales - most I haven't yet.

• Core/History: Sonlight, Core 4 (Intro to American History, Part 2) - This will be our second year using a secularized version of Sonlight and and we've been very happy with it.  M. loves to read with a passion and this curriculum just feeds the beast! We've loved how well Sonlight works with the tangents we inevitably find ourselves on.

• Language Arts: Michael Clay Thompson LA Curriculum (Grammar Island)  - I've been reading up on this LA program and think it would work well for us. I'd love to hear from anyone who has used it.

• Math- Teaching Textbooks (Math 5) - M. absolutely loves TT and I've been really pleased with both the lack of drama surrounding math-time and his progress/retention.

• Spanish- Rosetta Stone   - This is probably M.'s least favorite subject at the moment and I'm always on the lookout for better options. At the moment though, we already have this curriculum so we're sticking with it.

•  Spelling- Sequential Spelling (Level 2)  - We LOVE this spelling curriculum and have had amazing results with it.

• Science- Otter's Science Curriculum (The Human Body) - I've looked at this curriculum repeatedly over the last few months and I think it would be a great fit for M.'s style.  Reading "real" books, watching BrainPop.com movies, and lots of hands on experiments would suite him well. It certainly isn't going to be cheaper than going with a boxed science curriculum but I am trying to find as many of the books as I can at 1/2 Priced Books and area libraries. Has anyone out there used this?

• Handwriting- Handwriting Without Tears (Levels 4 & 5)  - Wonderful experiences with HWT

• Geography- Trail Guide To US Geography  - M. absolutely loves anything related to mapwork and has specifically asked for an actual Geography curriculum for next so I'm hoping this fits the bill. Any other ideas would be thankful researched!

• Cooking- This is our made up curriculum brought to us by the amazing mind of Alton Brown and his show Good Eats (with a little help from yours truly!)   - More information on this coming soon!

 There are few subjects on our list that will be new to us next year and I'd love to hear about experiences/opinions from those who have experience with them.  Of course, all above mentioned curriculum will be secularized if necessary to fit our family's needs.

Thanks for taking a look and possibly sharing your .02 on what we have planned. Writing it down always seems to make it more real and as I've said before - I'm a sucker for a good to-do list!