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Planning next year’s curriculum already?

Okay, so I realize it may seem a bit early (it’s April while I’m writing this) to be planning our curriculum for next year already, but I want to make sure I have time to really analyze what is working for us this year and what we want to change, and then to research anything we are changing.

Most of what we are using this year such as our language arts and science are working well for us and we are planning to keep the same. But there are a few places where we are making changes, math for instance is one of those subjects that we have been okay with this year, but feel like we still need to do some tweaking to find a better fit.

If you want to see what we used this year check out this post: 2018-2019 Curriculum Choices (Grades 3 & 6)

So let’s dig in and see what we plan to use for next year!

Language Arts

Let’s start with language Arts, including reading, writing and grammer. Last year we used the LA courses from The Good And The Beautiful by Jenny Phillips. I absolutely LOVE these LA courses! They are wonderfully written, and I know that there won’t be anything “questionable” in the reading. They are also beautifully illustrated with full color images spread throughout the pages. There is the option to purchase just the pdf version of the levels (most of the lower levels are actually FREE to download) but I prefer to order the printed version. It comes nicely bound and I don’t have to worry about how much paper and ink it’s going to take to print out. The printed versions are actually really reasonably priced and it results in one less thing for me to organize.

The LA courses are organized into levels rather than grades so they won’t necessarily always line up with your child’s grade. Next year we will be using level 3 for Miss E, who will be in fourth grade and Mr. J will be using level 6 for seventh grade. We will also be purchasing any novels that go along with each level.

We will also be using the handwriting books from The Good And The Beautiful as part of our Language Arts as well. I like that these books give them a little extra practice with the neatness of their writing, they also introduce cursive writing, which is something I feel is important for my kids to learn. Sprinkled into each books are little “creative breaks” where they get to color or draw something to break up all of the writing. Mr. J isn’t a huge drawing fan, so this isn’t a big deal to him, but Miss E LOVES to draw and color!

Math

This year we have been using Math Lessons for A Living Education from Master Books for both Miss E and J-man. When I asked them what they wanted to use for next year (we’ve used JumpMath and Teaching Textbooks in the past) both said they want to keep using Math Lessons for A Living Education. Miss E will move on to Level 4 while J-man will use Principles of Mathematics Book 1 (teacher guide and student book) as that is the next step after level 6 which he is finishing this year.

Science

We will continue to use the various science units from The Good and The Beautiful that we are using this year. We are enjoying the simplicity of the units and the beautiful images included. There are so many topics to choose from with many more on the way!

Social Studies / History

We are going in two directions with social studies this year. We will be studying general history, but also using Canadian specific social studies lessons.

For general history lessons we are going to use History Year 1 from The Good And The Beautiful. This will be our first time using her history curriculum, but it looks awesome! It even includes a board game and dramatized audio recordings.
For our Canadian Social Studies we will be using Courage and Conquest: Discovering Canadian History from NorthWoods Press. We have been using some of her Canadian history books the past few years and I enjoy the way they are laid out with simple, easy to follow lessons. We originally planned to use this book for the later part of the 2018-2019 school year, but we just didn’t get to it as we have been moving slowly through our other curriculum. So we will be moving it to the 2019-2020 school year instead.

French

J-Man has been using DuoLingo for his French lessons and will most likely be continuing with this. He seems to be liking it and it’s FREE, which is always a plus! Miss E doesn’t need to start a language course until grade 5, but I may give her the option of using DuoLingo this year too if she’s interested.

Music

We will be continuing with the Ukuleles we purchased last year. We’ll also be utilizing one or more of the Music lesson/unit studies from Schoolhouse Teachers.

So now that you know what we will be using next year, let me know in the comments what YOU plan to use!