Year 4 Curriculum {NBTS}

It's week 2 of the Not Back to School blog hop being hosted here and at Our Worldwide Classroom.  This week we are sharing our proposed curriculum for 2015.  Don't forget to meet some of our amazing homeschool blogging families in Australia.

Our plan is to take 12 - 18 months with the following books.

Sonlight Core B

This year my aim with Nathaniel is to add in some more Charlotte Mason educational principles.  This is a learning journey for both of us as in the past I have followed Sonlight and the Well Trained Mind.  I really enjoy teaching / learning history chronologically so my aim is to complete Sonlight Core B this year and flow into Core C.


Readers

• The Beginners Bible
• The Bravest Dog Ever
• The Best Trick
• Little Bear
• A Fly Went By
• Owl at Home
• Hill of Fire
• Titanic Lost and Found
• Wagon Wheels
• The Big Balloon Race
• Mouse Tales
• Daniel's Duck 
• Nate the Great 
•  Greg's Microscope
• Amelia Bedelia 
•  Frog and Toad are Friends
•  Frog and Toad Together
•  Owl at Home
•  The Sword in the Tree

Read Alouds
Last year we did not get to most of our read alouds due to taking the scenic route and reading aloud a whole raft of other books so this year we plan on doing two read aloud periods a day.  In the morning doing Core B and afternoon Core C


 Fine Arts

• We will continue using The World's Greatest Composers by Confessions of a Homeschooler.
• The Classical Kids Collection Vol 1 & 2. These are produced by The Children's Group and cover the lives of eight famous composers.
• Classical Composers Monthly as a supplement to whichever composer we are studying.
• We will continue with The World's Greatest Artists Vol 1.  We have already studied Claude Monet {FREE Resource List} and will continue and learn about the other seven artists in the unit.
• We did Shipwrecked earlier in the year and really enjoyed it so we will work our way through Bible Stories by See the Light
• In an ideal world I would love to do some Hymn study too.  I have not settled on anything.  I think we might alternate Composer Study with Hymn Study.
• We will be meeting up with a family each week where we will continue to learn to play the recorder as well as work our way through drawing lessons from the Drawing Textbook.
• I am also in the process of reseaching the Charlotte Mason philosophy on the Fine Arts.
• This year we also intend on attending a few MSO concerts and a ballet concert.

Sonlight Core C

History
This year we will continue reading Story of The World Volume One and using the Activity Guide which goes alongside it.  Core B and C also do History chronologically so I will be consulting my manuals and using the recommended read alouds and spines from Sonlight.

Geography
 I haven't decided yet upon a resource to use.  Here are a few I'm contemplating using

• Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography
• A Child's Geography (Ann Voskamp)
• The Geography Book
• Geography Songs 

 I think we may continue using Expedition Earth: A Journey through God's World.

I would like to also complete  Trail Guide to World Geography  This particular package is my all time favourite.

I saw a review on Wonder Maps and really like the look of this program.  Have any of you used it or seen it ?

Math

•  We will play with Pattern Blocks and work our way through Patternables and Pattern Block Cards.
• We shall completeExploring Arithmetic 3 by Rod and Staff before switching over to Teaching Textbooks.
• CalcuLadder 1 and 2 These are part of the Learning Vitamins series.  I love these math drill work packs.

Logic

• Critical Thinking Activities
• We will be including Critical Thinking games this year. (Block by Block, Rush Hour, Blokus, Lonpos)

Science

For science we will choose books from our very well stocked home library this year and will be working through Exploring Creation with Astronomy from Apologia.  We will be using the Astronomy Junior Notebooking Journal.  Once we have completed this we will begin Exploring Creation with Botany.

For hands on Science we shall continue with Science Activities, Vol. 1 
Language Arts
Composition
We will be continuing with WriteShop Primary this year.  This program is an excellent way to introduce composition to reluctant writers and primary school aged students.



Spelling
Last year I began using Logic of English with Sir N and was really impressed with his progress.  This year we will continue our lessons with the goal of completing the program.


Vocabulary
This is not synonymous with spelling. We will continue to work though Spelling Workout starting with book B this year. I am also compiling a list of classical books we will be using as read alouds throughout the year ahead.

Grammar
I haven't yet settled on a grammar program.  I have two books I'm considering.  The first being English for The Thoughtful Child by Mary Hyde OR Karen Andreola's Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer.

Narration
This is something I want to focus more on this year with Sir N.  There are so many incredible benefits to the student in developing this skill.

Second Language
This year we will begin studying two other languages: Latin and French
For Latin I will be using two programs Prima Latina and  Getting Started with Latin
For French we will begin using  Rosetta Stone

No doubt due to our eclectic tendencies and as I learn more about applying a Charlotte Mason approach to our home education this will change.  I will update this list as I make changes to suit our learning.

Blessings
Chareen
This list is current as of 9 February 2015


It's your turn.
Looking forward to reading your plans for the year ahead.

Let's Wins a Sonlight Core Together!

When we started home educating in 1998 we started with Sonlight K.  We had the most amazing year of homeschooling.  Over the years we have used the following Cores, Language Arts and Science programs.


 

When the Sonlight Catalog arrives I spend a wonderful afternoon curled up on the couch with a cup of tea and read it to find all the new treasures they have unearthed.  It's my NUMBER ONE RESOURCE for twaddle free literature.

Sonlight are celebrating 25 years this year. They have a year long party happening.  You can find out about the events here: EVENT DATES.

 Along with this they are gifting us the chance of winning a FULL YEAR of Curriculum. So that means that if one of you wins the giveaway after entering through my referral link, I will win, too!

After you enter, you will also be given a referral link to share and if someone wins after entering through your link, you also win!

All YOU need to do is spread the word.  To read more click on the picture below or pop on over to MOM to MOM Curriculum Giveaway.



- See more at:
Mom to Mom Curriculum Giveaway
Here’s how it works. 
After you register for the Mom-to-Mom Curriculum Giveaway, share your personal referral link with all your friends on social media, your blog, email – anywhere someone can click your link.

When someone registers for the giveaway using your link, you’re BOTH now eligible to win. You can only win if you share. The more you do, the more opportunities you have to win.

Your friends who sign up will receive their own personal link that they can share with their friends, too.

When is the draw ?

• The selection of the grand prize winners shall take place on June 26, 2015. 
• The first winner will be selected from among the database of registered names that have been entered into The Giveaway. 
• The corresponding referrer who referred that selected winner will then be the second winner, no matter how many other people previously referred this second winner. 
• Each winner will receive their choice of one (1) Core Package or Full Grade Package for a specified grade level.

Enter here: SONLIGHT GIVEAWAY 

LETS WIN TOGETHER Blessings
Chareen 

The links to Mom to Mom giveaway contain a referral link.  When you use my link there is NO cost to you,  There is NO PURCHASE made all I receive is an entry into the Mom to Mom giveaway.

Win a full year of Sonlight curriculum - for you AND a friend!

Sonlight are celebrating 25 years this year. They have a year long party happening.  You can find out about the events here: EVENT DATES.

 Along with this they are gifting us the chance of winning a FULL YEAR of Curriculum for you and a friend.

All YOU need to do is spread the word.  To read more click on the picture below or pop on over to MOM to MOM Curriculum Giveaway.




- See more at:
Mom to Mom Curriculum Giveaway
The links to Mom to Mom giveaway contain a referral link.  When you use my link there is NO cost to you,  There is NO PURCHASE made all I receive is an entry into the Mom to Mom giveaway.

Meet my family

Sonlight is 25 years old and this year they are hosting a year long blog party.  It's been a while since I've posted about the family so I've decided to join in the fun.

You can meet other Sonlight Homeschool Families at the January Blog Party.

I am Chareen and I'm a South African born, New Zealander living in Australia!

I have been married for 23 years and home educating for 17 of those. I have home educated in New Zealand and Australia.  Our very first year of homeschooling was with Sonlight Kindergarten  in 1998.

My favourite time of the year is when the new Sonlight catalog comes out.  I spend a few days happily curled up on the lounge chair with a cup of tea and catalog reading and discovering all the wonderful new books and items available.

You can read more about my home education journey here: Timeline of my Journey.  These are some of the Sonlight Cores I have used during my journey.

 

I am passionate about supporting and encouraging homeschoolers, homeschooling and books as well as great encouraging fellowship.

I am also a homeschool curriculum review blogger and enjoy using social media to share my homeschool journey and you can find me on these platforms


Paul is my Zoo Keeper husband who has the amazing privileged of looking after serval at Werribee Open Range Zoo.  He is a passionate wild life photographer and you can follow his adventures on Instagram (@servalpaul) Paul is in the middle of self publishing a photographic bird guide book and will be blogging this year at Bush Tales by Paul

Tim turned 21 last year and is currently studying a Cert IV in Web Based Technology.  He has a long term goal of Game Development. At present he is also exploring his creative side via photography.  You can see some of his work on Facebook.

Jane is 19 and is working full time.  She graduated in 2012 with a Cert III in Children's Services.  Over the last three years she has also completed a Cert II in Retail and last year did Cert IV in Human Resources.

Nathaniel is the main feature of the blog.  He is 9 years old and loves to explore the world around him.  Sir N is passionate about all things in the film industry but his first love is airplanes and he is currently designing a Jumbo-class plane and E4D (this is an improved home theater system). He loves to develop products and is also developing the Solifuge (a new type of vehicle).  He helps me to review home school products.  One of his all time favourite things to do is to deconstruct items such as our old microwave and recently our old DVD computer drive.

To help celebrate Sonlights 25th year they are giving us the chance to win a full years curriculum.  You can read more about it here: Mom to Mom Curriculum Giveaway


- See more at: Mom to Mom Curriculum Giveaway
I'd love to hear more about your family! If you have a blog and have shared there please leave a link in the comments for me.  If you don't have a blog please tell me more in comments.  

Blessings
Chareen

This post is linking to

• Australian Not Back to School party
• Sonlight January Blog Party

Tuesday's Treasures 1-11 Little Britches Series

Little Britches
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 260
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1991
ISBN: 0803281781
ISBN-13: 9780803281783



IF I was only allowed to purchase one series of books for boys to read this would be the one I would choose. Cost wise they are a little more expensive but well worth the price.

The Ralph Moody Collection has been one of the most amazing journey's we have undertaken as a family.  My older two roses would sit waiting at the window for daddy to come home and when he arrived would race out to the car begging "Daddy PLEASE read to us!"

 In fact I suffered a sever lack of self control during this series of books and hid away from the children with one of the books reading to find out what would happen when my daughter found me red handed in the act and said "Mommy that's NOT fair!!!"  I can only use one word to describe this series and it's :BRILLIANT

My Father is an avid reader of historical non fiction borrowed these and enjoyed them.

Paul said he really enjoyed the sense of adventure and old fashioned simplicity of the books.

Other Books in the Series:

Man of the Family
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 272
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1993
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803281951
ISBN-13: 9780803281950

Mary Emma & Company
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 235
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5 1/4 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282117
ISBN-13: 9780803282117

Fields of Home
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 335
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1993
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803281943
ISBN-13: 9780803281943

Shaking the Nickel Bush
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 236
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5 1/4 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282184
ISBN-13: 9780803282186

The Dry Divide
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 230
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 X .5 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282168
ISBN-13: 9780803282162

Horse of a Different Color
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 272
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282176
ISBN-13: 9780803282179

The Home Ranch
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 279
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282109
ISBN-13: 9780803282100

Sonlight sell this as a Six Volume Set of books or  Eight Volume Set of Books.

One word of warning about the series is that some of the books contain colourful language.   I took a friends advice and simply took to the books with a dark texta and erased them.

These books are Mr Moody's memories of growing up in the early part of the 20th Century.  They illustrate amazing character and fortitude and the ability to get up again and again regardless of circumstances.

I can't remember the order in which to read these books.  When I am able to access my collection I will update this post with the order in which to read this series. I am really looking forward to when Sir N is around 12 years old to reading these out loud together.

Do you have any series of books that have stood out among your library ?

Blessings

A week in review

This past week we did week 3 in Sonlight Core A.  I was worried that I would be a little bored with the work as this is my second journey through this particular core with Sonlight.  I am pleased to announce that no I am not bored and yes I have been learning alongside my six year old. Together we have been exploring Ancient Egyptian culture, weather, poetry and The Boxcar children.  In fact Sir N so enjoyed The Boxcar Children so much he wanted me to read it out loud to him again.

Last week we read Tadpoles and Frogs in Science and when Paul was gardening this week he found a frog, he captured it for us so we could have a good look.

It always amazes me how these things just "happen" at the right time.  Our God is so amazing and knows just what we need and when we need it.  He supplies above and beyond our job is to open our eyes and see what He has provided.  It's all a matter of perspective I have come to realise.

We also started on our Abeka Arithmatic 1. I love the colour and simplicity of this book along with it's biblical perspective.

We also have a dove family living in one of our flower hanging baskets outside the kitchen window. The mom has hatched her eggs this week and we got to look at her babies.

Aren't they beautiful ? . 

We also started a crystal growing experiment.  This I am learning is a patience growing experience. 

One of the extras with Sonlight this week was practicing how to cut.  This is a skill that Sir N has not had much practice in so I dug out the Abeka Art Projects K4 book I had and we did some cutting out.  This was our first project on Monday.

And of course Sir N learned how to skip

I did not miss out this week.  I had a mini box day from The Book Depository.

Last year we read Jotham's Journey for Advent but I felt this book was a little difficult for Sir N and decided to put it away till he is older.  I have been surfing the book sites in hopes of finding a book for this years Advent season and discoverd the Advent Storybook and decided to give it a try.  I will let you know at Christmas how it is going.  We start this particular book on 1 December.  I know this is not strictly the first day of Advent but this little book is geared up to begin on December first.

So what adventures have you been up to this week with your homeschool ?

Blessings

To Label or Not to Label ??

I counted the other day and realised that I have been a Sonlight customer for thirteen years this year! Over the years I have collected a beautiful library of books courtesy of Sonlight.

 

Personally I have never wanted to label my books. Me put stickers on a book ? No I don't think so.

 

About three years ago I began feeling extremely frustrated with not being able to locate books I knew I had or finding them in the oddest spots on the shelf after hours of searching. In fact I was so frustrated that in desperation I finally gave in and ordered labels from Sonlight. I spent hours drawing lines, cutting strips and putting them onto my books then back onto the shelf. It has been well worth the effort and time investment that it took to do.

 

Now when I pick up a book I know exactly where it comes from and so do the rest of the family.

 

This is the process I use.

 

 

 I gather the books together that need labeling.These are the books I ordered to update my Core A a few of these are double ups.

 

 

• Next I grab the book lists from my Instructor Guides as well as the Book Label sheet from Sonlight.  As you can see I grabbed some scissors as I thought I would need these but Sonlight has pre-cut the book labels so it made the job of labeling soooooo easy this year. 
• Next I number the books on the book list and then I write the numbers onto the book label.
• I then attach the numbered label to the book

 

 

I have numbered the books because it makes it easier to put them back in the "correct" spot on the shelf and easier to locate when I need it while using a Core. This process has made storing and locating my books so much easier.

 

  

 

Here I put my Core A from 2011 and the balance of my Core K from 1998.  There are a few titles "missing" due to being in storage till the end of September but I shant be needing them till October.

 

 

This is a small shelf of books in the living area. This bookshelf holds a lot of memories for me.  It used to be in my parents home and hold our encyclopedia set which I really enjoyed using. My parents bought the shelf and encyclopedias as a wedding present. 

I decided to gather a range of books from Core P 3/4, Core P 5/6, Core A and a few others from the larger book shelves in the rumpus room and keep them in one handy spot, as I tend to forget what I have available. 

I will take you on a tour of my four big book shelves in two months time ! My family often tease me about my love of books. My dad blessed me with three custom made floor to ceiling shelves which he designed and made for me and a friend in New Zealand built me one for small paper backs. Enough of that till a later post. I can't show you at the moment as they are in storage.  My aim is to sort my collection and blog about it later.

  

How do you organise your library ?

 

Blessings