2012-2013 Curriculum

I really wanted a place to write down all of our curriculum choices for this coming school year and thought right here at my Homeschool Journal would be an obvious choice - so here it goes!

2012-2013 Vogt Curriculum

Nathan, Aubrie and Lexi (Kindergarten)

This year will be low key and FUN!  My goal is to have them LOVE learning and to not even realizing that they're "doing school".


For their base curriculum, I have decided to use Five In A Row.
Five in a Row provides students with a unit-study approach to early education based on outstanding children's literature. Together, the three volumes of Five in a Row provide 55 lesson plans covering Social Studies, Language, Art, Applied Math, and Science in a way that causes children to fall in love with learning.

Enrichment (scripture/church studies)
Daily Scriptures
Memorizing the Articles of Faith
Learning more Primary Songs
The Friend

Phonics/Reading:
Hands on games and activities for letter and sound recognition including online sites that I have found (for Nathan) Many of the ideas will come from ideas that I've PINNED
Letter of the Week and corresponding activities (for Nathan but the girls will probably do them as well).
Bob Books (for Aubrie and Lexi)
Consonant Digraphs
Rhyming Eggs
TRI drills

Foreign Language:

Muzzy for Spanish - I picked this up from our local library :)

Workboxes:

I will have a system of 12 rotating boxes for the 3 little ones to choose from to be engaged with while I am attending to and teaching the older boys.  Example of items in the boxes:
Puzzles
Animal Figurines
Books
Play doh
Assortment of Art Supplies + Paper
Puppets (both hand and finger puppets)
Blocks
LeapPad Readers
Dry erase markers for the whiteboard
Legos
Beads and Lacing Cards



Ben - 4/5th grade

As I've researched Five In A Row, I have become very impressed with it's concepts and thorough outlines for each subject that is integrated within the chosen books.  After lots more research and prayer, I (think) I have decided to use the same Core Curriculum for Ben - Beyond Five In A Row.  This is their curriculum for kids ages 8-12 where chapter books are used (2 fiction and 2 Non fiction for each of the 3 volumes in the series) and Social Studies, Language/Grammar, Art, Applied Math and Science are all integrated with the selected reading.

Enrichment (scripture/church studies)

Daily Scripture Study
Scripture Journaling
Memorizing Articles of Faith
Scripture Memorization
Why? Book 
Friend Magazine

Math:

Times Tables the Fun Way - we started this the end of last year and will continue on with it.
Math U See - for Multiplication and then move on to the Division Book
 LOTS of hands on Math games to reinforce what he's learned
Sir Cumference Living  Books  (our library carries these!  yippee!)
Lots of Living Books including 2x2=Boo  (all from the LIbrary)

Reading:

In addition to the FIAR book readings, he will select and read 40 books that fall into certain genres (based off of The Book Whisperer <-- excellent read!). Oral presentations, unique book report projects or simple Notebooking pages will be done for accountability.
A-Z Reading Comprehension

English/Grammar:

Shurley English
A-Z Reading

Social Studies:

In addition to the FIAR history/SS lessons, I plan on doing a Unit Study on the 2012 Election

Science:

Before deciding upon FIAR, I had thought we'd go through THIS Science Book.  It's actually an awesome book that embeds science in a story of  hilarious misadventures of 3 kids.  Lots of corresponding fun "experiments" to do as well to solidify concepts taught.  I'm thinking we still might do this OR we'll wait until next year (since it does say that the book is geared for 6-8th graders (I actually checked this out from the library towards the end of last school year and did a few chapters with Ben and he really enjoyed it - as did I!)

Health:

Hygiene
Healthy Eating

PE/Fitness:

Football 5X's a week from August - October
Clubhouse Gym 3X's a week from November - March
Outside Running/Activity from April - July 

Electives:

Scouts
Typing
Life Skills
Budgeting
Character Building 

August and Seth - 10 grade

Enrichment (scripture/church studies)

Daily Scripture Study
Scripture Journaling
Memorizing The Living Christ (we're 2/3 finished)
Scripture Mastery Memorization
Why? Book 

Math:

Math U See Geometry (August)
Math U See Algebra 2 (Seth)

History:

Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire - lecture Style taught by dad weekly
CNN Student News (daily)

Language Arts:

Daily Grammar
Reading 40+ Books with accompanying oral reports or advanced Notebooking Pages
A-Z Reading Comprehension
A-Z Reading
ACT Vocabulary
ACT QOTD
Easy Grammar
Writing Portfolio and HERE is the link to the assignments

Novel Writing (for August)
The Five Facts of Fiction (downloads - curriculum - English)
Techniques for Creating Dynamic Characters
NoNoWriMo

Science:

Apologia Chemistry

Foreign Language:

German Immersion Level 1 - Seth
German 2 - August

**the rest of this post will be finished soon**

Additional Resources I want to have all in one place:
Writers Corner - This is a 3-part series that encourages young writers to follow through with the story-writing process.
Teaching Students to Read and Write Short Stories - This is a thorough downloadable guide to teaching short story writing to high schoolers, from brainstorming to editing and publishing.