I am a WINNER!

I found out I won TWO contests. Really? I know everyone says it, but this never happens to me. I never win anything.

I am giddy with excitement. I have to share about what I won.

As part of the Apologia Meet & Greet Blog Hop, Betty of Mom's Mustard Seeds posted a fantastic interview with Apologia author David Webb, one of the authors of the What We Believe series. I won a copy of the Who is God book and audio. Many thanks to Mom's Mustard Seeds and Apologia! This is our second year using the What We Believe curriculum, by the way, and we LOVE it.

As part of the Grateful Giveaways Back-to-School 2011 event, I entered, and entered, and entered at all the different sponsors, until I thought my fingers would fall off. But it paid off! Over at Life...Your Way, I won the iLuv MusicPac and iPad Case.

Many thanks to the bloggers and sponsors above!

2011-2012 Curriculum - What We're Using

This is what we're using for the 2011-2012 school year. All the kids have a couple subjects that we are finishing up or continuing from last year. As with most years, it is likely this will change, at least a little bit. If you have any questions about a particular curriculum or would like more info, leave a comment!

Big Boy, 7th grade

Teaching Textbooks 7, Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science, IEW's Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons, Mystery of History Vol 3 and the accompanying Companion Guide, Apologia's Who Am I? and accompanying notebooking journal, Balancing the Sword Vol 1, IEW's Fix It, Handwriting Without Tears 4^th grade book

About literature ~ I choose mostly historical fiction to go along with the time period we're studying, along with the occasional more random classic. He already finished Catherine, Called Birdy, then it was A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, right now it’s A Door in the Wall, and next is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (to go along with Fix It!). I try to make it all chronological, but sometimes I can't get hold of a book until we're well past that particular topic. It makes for a good review. We’ll also be tackling our first Shakespeare this year. Probably “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

About handwriting ~ He wasn’t taught cursive in public school, and I didn't have a chance to teach him when we first started homeschooling. Actually, It didn't matter to me, except we quickly discovered he couldn't read my lesson plans! So last year we started with HWT's 3rd grade book and this year it's 4th grade. Big Boy is professionally diagnosed dysgraphic and he loves this series, so I highly recommend it.

Princess, 3rd grade

Horizons Math, Answers in Genesis' God's Design for Life (we are starting with The World of Plants), Leading Little Ones to God, CLP's Studying God's Word book A (1^st semester) and Book B (2^nd semester), Handwriting Without Tears’ 2^nd grade book, CLP's History for Little Pilgrims (this will lead up to second semester, where we'll go more in-depth into American history, probably using a unit study).

Princess is dyslexic and receives private tutoring from another homeschool mom using Barton Reading System. It is all-inclusive and I don’t need to supplement, but…

I do. We also use Explode the Code Online because I paid for it, and she enjoys it; and Raz-Kids Reading, which she doesn’t enjoy as much as she used to (because it’s gotten harder), but still likes spending coins to decorate her Reading Rocket.

J, Kindergarten

Handwriting Without Tears’ Kindergarten book, his fave subject but also his most frustrating.

Keepers of the Faith’s Succeeding at Reading (we did Reading Readiness before that)

Bob Books Set 1-Beginning Readers

Leading Little Ones to God

Horizons Math I like this, but I’m taking a leap out of my comfort zone: We’re about to switch to Dr. Ruth Beechick’s method, which she outlines in An Easy Start in Arithmetic. She is a proponent of a more natural method that is determined by the child’s readiness and brain development. I’ve been reading the books for years but have been too chicken to move away from the workbook in math—my weak area.

The plan was to have J join Princess in Bible/devotion, history, and science. Based on the grade-levels of the curricula it should have worked fine. But J is just not interested. He sneakily made his way over to the Legos. And that’s fine with me.

Disclosure: Some of these are affiliate links, meaning I earn a little money if you purchase the item through my link.