Our Curriculum Choices for 2014-2015

We finished school this year the very end of April.  Ahhhh!  One of the LOVELY things about homeschooling!  We start August 1st, and don't take many holidays, so we get done early.  Even living in Tennessee where there is a mandatory 180 school days, we STILL were able to be done the end of April!!  Love it!

Anyway, once we end, I take a week or so off, then my mind turns to the coming year and what we need, changes that need to be made, etc.  We used Switched on Schoolhouse this past year, and for the most part, it just didn't work that well for us.  We'll be using a bit of it this next year for a couple of kids, but then SOS will be gone forever for us.

This year I will be homeschooling grades K, 7, 8 & 9, so that's going to be interesting!  To be honest, I'm a little more nervous about the kindergartner (my very "effervescent" child!) than I am my high school freshman! lol  With the three oldest, we used Rod & Staff for the first two grades and they are very strong readers.  When my two oldest were in about 3rd and 4th grade, they tested post high school in reading!!  Obviously, this curriculum has something going for it, so we are using it with our youngest this year.

  We only do math and phonics/language/writing in K as far as "curriculum" goes, so that will help as we get in the swing of things.

Our biggest change this year is that we are moving to Tapestry of Grace!  I am sooooooo excited about it!!  When I first started homeschooling, I knew little about the curriculum out there and didn't feel like I could "teach", so stuck with more independent learning type curriculum.  On top of that, my health wasn't the best, so I would be exhausted by late morning to midday.  All of that coupled with tight finances kept us from experimenting too much.  I ran across TOG a year or two ago, and liked what little I saw, but saw the price and just moved on.  There isn't time to tell you how everything came about, but God definitely moved and we are starting TOG this year!  It's been amazing to look back over the past week or two and see how He orchestrated everything to get us to this point.  I prayed specifically for a nice, used copy with some of the extras that were out of my price range and He supplied over and above what I asked for!  God is so good!!  I really feel His leading in this, and hope I am up to the challenge.   I have started taking Plexus and am slowly feeling my energy level rising (and I'm sleeping through the night--something I haven't done in YEARS!), so I have high hopes that we're going to have a wonderful school year!

My 9th grader will be doing Algebra I from Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum, Biology from ACE (with supplements for lab, etc), Writing with Ease, Health from SOS and Easy Grammar Ultimate.

 My 8th grader will be doing Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, Easy Grammar Plus, WWE and SOS Science. 

My 7th grader will be doing SOS math and science, Igniting Your Writing and Easy Grammar Plus.  Of course, the oldest will all be doing TOG, and I will be doing read-alouds to the little one to include her.  She won't officially start TOG until next year.  I can't wait to see what God does with all of us this year!!