This is definitely a pattern for us.
I shared our 2014-2015 curriculum in April of last year, and over the four months that followed, I continued to tweak and add to it. By the time fall rolled around, we had a VERY full schedule, one that took the big girls way too much time to complete each day.
We stuck to it for 6 weeks to be able to really evaluate what was realistic for us, but then I began to cut things, as I always do.
In the end, my list looks quite a bit different from the plan I laid out last year, and I’ve thought about cutting things further. I believe in the value of things like copywork and handwriting, and spelling and dictation, but I’m also leery of providing busy work that takes away from true, independent learning. Fortunately, those things don’t take long—and the girls are actually fairly enthusiastic about doing them—so I’m leaving them in for now.
Language Arts
kindergartener:
- Explode the Code (We tried Logic of English Foundations for the first time this year. I really like this program, but it is just not a good fit for my kindergartener, who is easily overwhelmed and not ready to write, so we’re going back to the workbooks we’ve succesfully used with the previous 3 girls.)
1st grader:
- Explode the Code
- First Language Lessons (Level 2)
- Rhythm of Handwriting Cursive
3rd grader:
- copying grammar charts
- handwriting
- copywork & dictation
- Spelling Plus (using Spelling City for practice and testing)
- WordBuild
4th grader:
- CC Essentials
- handwriting
- copywork & dictation
- Spelling Plus (using Spelling City for practice and testing)
- WordBuild
Math
kindergartener:
1st grader:
3rd grader:
4th grader:
History
3rd & 4th graders:
- Story of the World (3 & 4)
everybody:
- CC memory work and related books
Science
3rd & 4th graders:
- Academics in a Box (I wanted to make the monthly STEM boxes from Academics in a Box work for us, but I haven’t been disciplined about making time for them. We still have a few to work through, though, so we’re going to try again.)
everybody:
- CC memory work and related books
Geography
3rd & 4th graders:
- The Complete Book of Maps and Geography
- map games on the computer
Languages
4th grader:
- French, Duo Lingo
3rd grader:
- Spanish, Duo Lingo
3rd & 4th graders:
- Classical Academic Press’s Latin Primer A (online)
Bible
1st, 3rd & 4th graders:
- Daily Bible readings and SOAPing in their journals
Extracurriculars
kindergartener, 1st & 3rd graders:
- science & history enrichment class
3rd & 4th graders:
- Ambassadors, the drama our church puts on each spring
everybody:
- biweekly piano lessons
- individual ice cream & library dates with Dad
- American Heritage Girls
- A Year of Doodles (online)
- books, books & more books
Do you fall into the trap of adding too much and then needing to scale back? What’s the best curriculum decision you ever made?
