2013/2014 Fourth Grade Curriculum Choices- New Adventures

This year I decided to seek out the help of a guide. I am all about making sur that if my child has to go back to public school that he is on or above grade level.  So when I saw Selena's Curriculum Choices 2013/2014... she sparked a new adventure to find a guide to use I choose Making the Grade Everything your 4th Grader Needs to Know.  The greatest thing about this Book is that it has actual lessons...  ah-ha I can slip in a lesson in a workbox a few times a week.  Make sure that you also visit Selena's Review of The Core Knowlege Series that she is using to have a clear path.  I'm considering purchasing the Kindle Series for that series due to space and budget. 

2013/2014 Seventh Grade Curriculum Choices- The Final Cut

I'm overly excited about the upcoming school year.  We have moved things around a little.... I finally have an office space and today it is clean and organized! Yeah me....
Now to share with you this summer long hunt for curriculum for four children.  I will begin with the oldest.  My seventh grade son.  He will be making leaps and bounds.  The thing I love most is that he helped pick things out that he is interested in.  I love homeschooling.  So peak below to see how I am homeschooling him for close to free.... with the exception of ink, paper and a lot of hours of searching.  The money I save will allow me to place them in local extracurricular activities. (The actual textbooks are books that we have already or will borrow from library.  I did purchase a few... Amazon is great I always have a save for later cart)

What's In My Home School Binder?

Welcome to all of you who are coming here from Colorful Bloggers Network!

It's almost time for the new school year to start and I just finished with most of my planning. I have created a binder to keep me organized and focused.  I will share more about how I'm using this note book at a latter date.  For now Let's talk about what's in my homeschool binder.

First of all I went and got a  2" binder, two packs of five count tab dividers and grabbed my  Dymo Personal Label Maker.  Then I collected all of the various free organizational and planning tools that I've come across over the last few months.  I narrowed it down to what I would actually use and keep up to date.  I didn't want a book full of pages that I may or may not use so I have a "custom" binder.  In addition to my great FREE FINDS I created documents as I needed them. 

So take a look at whats inside my Homeschool Binder:

School Sparks: Ignite Your Child's Success in Preschool, Kindergarten and Beyond

2013 Curriculum the Journey Begins

As the New Year approaches, I have been working diligently to compile a curriculum for my four Shining Star Students.  I have only spent about $60.00 on curriculum.  Since I’m starting in the middle of the school year, I decided not to purchase complete curriculums. I am utilizing many of the free online resources. In addition I’m  staying close to the  Common Core  Aligned  Standards since my kids are coming out the school  system and plan to reenter  in high school (that is the plan for now).

My homeschool approach will be a mixture of school at home, unit study, notebooking and online studies.

Each month we will do a thematic unit where each child will create a notebook with everything related to the theme.  Our bookshelf will reflect the theme. For the month of January our theme is Animals of the World and our February theme will be African American History. We will vote for March in January and so forth.  My 3^rd and 6^th grader will have a Language Arts Four week every other month on a suggested reading book.  For January the 3^rd Grader will read Because of Winn-Dixie and the 6^th grader will read Touching Spirit Bear.

To view there complete curriculum for the second semester of the 2012/2013 school year, click here