Our Musicianary Homeschool 2016-2017 (Part 1 - Curriculum)

As promised, I wanted to share with you my curriculum choices for this upcoming school year as well as some of our favorite school supplies, organizational tips, schedule, etc...  And rather than bore you with one super long Homeschooling post, I'm going to divide this into a few different posts over the next few weeks.

If you've read my blog for long, you have heard me talk about our homeschooling a bit.  (First here, then here and here and probably somewhere else too!)

While my approach, methods, and curriculum have changed many times over the 5 years that I've been homeschooling, my overall "philosophy" is the same - Every child is different, every parent is different, every year is different, every day is different!  Decisions about homeschooling are unique to every family and should be made by the parents, as they seek God for His direction for their family!  (It just doesn't matter what anyone else thinks!  There, I said it! ;) )

I started working on lesson planning for this upcoming school year in July.  By then I had our curriculum figured out and most of it ordered and on hand.  Below is a list of what I'm using for each of the boys.  They are each using the same curriculum for their subjects, but will be doing English, Math, and Literature/Creative Writing individually at their appropriate grade level.  We'll be doing all of the remaining subjects together.  My curriculum list is long, but many of these we won't be doing every day.  I'll cover our schedule in another post.

A Family of Musicianaries'
2016-2017 Curriculum Picks

English - ACE (Accelerated Christian Education)

Math - ACE

Literature/Creative Writing - ACE

Social Studies (Geography, History, Social Studies) -
Expedition Earth

Bible - Confessions of a Homeschooler 's Character Studies
(this will only cover the first few weeks, then we may use Easy Peasy or I might find something else . . . )

Science - Expedition Earth's Animal Unit (included with & coinciding with the EE curriculum) & Easy Peasy's Earth Science

Music - Guitar Lessons courtesy of Josh (aka my hubby, and T1/T2's Daddy) , Beginner Music Theory taught by yours truly, and  Easy Peasy's Ancient Music curriculum

Art - Artistic Pursuits Book 1

PE/Health - Easy Peasy, both even and odd years

Occ. Ed. - This will be determined throughout the year.  We're going to start by learning some basic house cleaning skills (don't laugh, I am not ashamed!) using A Slob Come's Clean's Ebook - Teaching Kids How to Clean.  During the year, Josh will be teaching the boys some practical tool and "handyman" skills.  And we'll be making a business plan and creating a small business later in the year.

Misc. - We're using a couple workbooks I found at Target for addition and cursive practice.  We'll also start our day with COAH's Cursive Daily Learning notebook.

I forgot to take a true "Before" pic, but this is soon after I started clearing out our school cabinet from last year's stuff and began sorting and organizing.  You can see I had just received a lot of our curriculum (the boxes and piles to the left of the cabinet).

This is after all of my lessons were planned, binders filled and prepared, workbooks sorted and organized, and school supplies bought and stored.  Despite the fact that the fruit on top looks exactly the same, these pictures are actually a couple months apart,  bananas & nectarines are just a summer staple! :)  In this picture, you can also see two of Thing 2's birthday presents, a Tasty Science Kit and a Grow Your Own Triops Kit ( my cute little Scientist! )

So there you have it.  That is what we'll be doing in our Homeschool this year.  I'll share more about our school supplies, daily schedule, my plan for making this work on the road, and some organization tips soon.  Happy Homeschooling! :)

* None of the above links are affiliate links.  I will not receive any products or compensation if you choose to purchase something through those links.  I just wanted to share the products that I like! :)