Scaling back our 2014-2015 curriculum {again}

This is definitely a pattern for us.

I shared our 2014-2015 curriculum in April of last year, and over the four months that followed, I continued to tweak and add to it. By the time fall rolled around, we had a VERY full schedule, one that took the big girls way too much time to complete each day.

We stuck to it for 6 weeks to be able to really evaluate what was realistic for us, but then I began to cut things, as I always do.

In the end, my list looks quite a bit different from the plan I laid out last year, and I’ve thought about cutting things further. I believe in the value of things like copywork and handwriting, and spelling and dictation, but I’m also leery of providing busy work that takes away from true, independent learning. Fortunately, those things don’t take long—and the girls are actually fairly enthusiastic about doing them—so I’m leaving them in for now.

Language Arts

kindergartener:

Explode the Code (We tried Logic of English Foundations for the first time this year. I really like this program, but it is just not a good fit for my kindergartener, who is easily overwhelmed and not ready to write, so we’re going back to the workbooks we’ve succesfully used with the previous 3 girls.)

1st grader:

Explode the Code First Language Lessons (Level 2) Rhythm of Handwriting Cursive

3rd grader:

copying grammar charts handwriting copywork & dictation Spelling Plus (using Spelling City for practice and testing) WordBuild

4th grader:

CC Essentials handwriting copywork & dictation Spelling Plus (using Spelling City for practice and testing) WordBuild

Math

kindergartener:

Singapore Earlybird Math, A

1st grader:

Teaching Textbooks, 3rd grade

3rd grader:

Teaching Textbooks, 5th grade

4th grader:

Teaching Textbooks, 5th grade History

3rd & 4th graders:

Story of the World (2 & 3)

everybody:

CC memory work and related books Science

3rd & 4th graders:

Academics in a Box (I wanted to make the monthly STEM boxes from Academics in a Box work for us, but I haven’t been disciplined about making time for them. We still have a few to work through, though, so we’re going to try again.)

everybody:

CC memory work and related books Geography

3rd & 4th graders:

The Complete Book of Maps and Geography map games on the computer Languages

4th grader:

French, Duo Lingo

3rd grader:

Spanish, Duo Lingo

3rd & 4th graders:

Classical Academic Press’s Latin Primer A (online) Bible

1st, 3rd & 4th graders:

Daily Bible readings and SOAPing in their journals

Extracurriculars

kindergartener, 1st & 3rd graders:

science & history enrichment class

3rd & 4th graders:

Ambassadors, the drama our church puts on each spring

everybody:

biweekly piano lessons individual ice cream & library dates with Dad American Heritage Girls A Year of Doodles (online) books, books & more books

Do you fall into the trap of adding too much and then needing to scale back? What’s the best curriculum decision you ever made?

Scaling back our 2014-2015 curriculum {again}

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