Skeeterbug is nine and in grade four this year.
Writing: I’m excited to be using Writing & Rhetoric from Classical Academic Press with Skeeterbug this year. Right now he’s in Fable and will move on to the next book, Narrative 1, when he’s done. Writing is not his favourite subject, but he’s doing well with this curriculum. I’m so happy with it, I’m just tickled pink as my Grandma would say. 🙂 On ‘off’ days he’ll do a lesson from Writing With Ease Level 3. An ‘off’ day might be when I don’t want to start a new W&R lesson at the end of the week, or we need a change, or I think he needs some more challenging dictation.
Spelling: Skeeterbug is continuing with All About Spelling, right now he’s in Level 4 and will finish it by the end of this term (which ends in September). I’ve already got Level 5 sitting on my bookshelf. It’s purple. It’s pretty.
Grammar: First Language Lessons Level 3. I looked at Level 4 but decided I wanted to be thorough and so started with the first level that had a workbook. Last year our grammar coverage was pretty light, only completing Grammar-land which only took up part of the year. This year we are covering a lot more. Sadly, I have discovered that my grammar knowledge is not even up to level 3. I’m learning right along with Skeeterbug. I love FLL because it lays everything out so clearly. And it’s scripted. Did I mention my grammar knowledge is sadly lacking? Yeah, scripted is good.
Handwriting: Skeeterbug is finishing up the last Handwriting Without Tears cursive book. Once he’s finished I’ll have him complete much of his work in cursive. Right now I am not requiring that, but I notice him doing some of it in cursive without my prompting. Yay!
Math: RightStart Math, Level D. This level has just the right mix of ‘easy’ and ‘spot on’ for Skeeterbug. For the ‘hard’ he does Singapore Challenging Word Problems, which are sometimes a challenge for me too. (Did I say that?) He also has a Dreambox subscription which is a fun way to reinforce concepts.
Science: The Elements by Ellen McHenry. So fun! We’re only on lesson two, but we’ll be getting on with it so that we can finish it this term.
Geography: We started the year doing Evan-Moor’s Daily Geography. I found that we’d often push it aside and he’d end up doing a whole week’s worth at once. Not necessarily bad, but it felt like busywork. So we’ve dropped it, and I’ve just ordered Legends & Leagues: South for him to try. I’m hoping it’s something he can do independently. He’s also done some map tracing, and labeling, and Geopuzzles, and online games.
Latin: Getting Started With Latin, very simple and effective. And it can be done independently, which is important to me since we have so many teacher-intensive subjects around here.
With his siblings:
Bible: Grapevine’s Old Testament Part 4, we’ll finish by the end of this term. After that we’ll probably switch to Picture Smart Bible for awhile. I’m sure we’ll come back to Grapevine at a later date.
History: Story of the World Volume 2: Middle Ages with heaps of readers and read-alouds. Skeeterbug is listening to the corresponding lessons in Mystery of History Volume II to go along with SOTW. (The list of corresponding lessons can be found here.) I plan to use MOH the next time we go through the Middle Ages, for now Skeeterbug will just listen to the lessons and read along in the text.
Art: Home Art Studio’s First Grade DVD, we do this fortnightly with friends. Yup, first grade. It works. He just follows the directions a bit better than the younger kids. 😉
Memory Work: Skeeterbug is memorising poetry, Bible verses, and a history timeline. I’m probably forgetting some things. Like typing. And unit studies. But this is our list of basics that we get to on a mostly regular basis.
Our other curriculum choices:
Our Curriculum: Grade One
Our Curriculum: Preschool
Linking up to the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop…
Note: no affiliate links in this post.
Hello from a fellow RightStart user! Hope you have a great year!
Hello! :waves: You have a great year too!
It is amazing what you don't remember years after school! My son is in the same grade, and this year for grammar we are trying Easy Grammar. (the name drew me in) Our geography is sadly lacking, so we are going with A Trip Around the World books and Geography Through Art. I enjoy reading your blog and your journey in your homeschool.