Yes, I know it's Tuesday. And not the Tuesday after Labor Day. Due to a schedule mess-up with the carpet cleaners (who were supposed to come last week) we started today. Yesterday we were invaded. That said, however, The List is complete to my satisfaction, and we started school today in a sparkling clean house with all my little duckies in a row.
In the next week or so I plan to blog a bit about the materials we've chosen this year and why. Making the change from Classical Conversations to Tapestry of Grace has been a huge decision, and one that deserves some attention here. Many have read my "Coming Full Circle with CC" posts and this change is an extension of those thoughts. CC was a very important part of bringing us to where we now are, and as any homeschooling family can tell you, the needs of the students change--one program that works great one year may not fit at all the next. Stay tuned.
That said, here is our curricula for this year, first for Molly who is now 6:
Tapestry of Grace, Lower Grammar
The Phonics Road
MUS Alpha
Apologia Botany
Pathway Readers
The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
French
I Can Do All Things (Art)
Piano
For Matty, who is now 10:
Tapestry of Grace, Upper Grammar
The Bridge to the Latin Road
All About Spelling
Getty-Dubay Cursive Italic Handwriting
MUS Epsilon and Zeta
Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals
Khan Academy
Apologia Botany
French
Feed My Sheep (Art)
Piano
Hi Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI just happened to stumbled upon this post as I was searching for info about Classical Conversations and I see that both of your children are learning French. Do you mind if I ask why you chose French instead of Spanish or Chinese or Latin for a foreign language? I love the French language - I took 4 years of it in high school, had several French exchange students stay with us, and my sister now lives in France and is married to a French man. I would love to teach my girls French as it is relavent in our lives, but wonder if it will be relavent for them in the future. It seems like Spanish, Chinese, and Latin seem to be the popular ones to teach these days. I would love to hear your thoughts about this! Thanks!
Hi Amanda, thanks for the question! I had the kids start with French for one very simple reason, and that was that I could teach it to them. I had 8 years of French in school, so that was my foreign language background. Since then we have backed off of French study and my son is now learning Latin. I have never studied Latin, but in doing the lessons with him find that I know many of the answers. He asked, "How do you know this?" and all I said was, "French." I really think that studying Latin and a really good English grammar program are going to pay dividends in learning any language. Strangely, I also speak Chinese, and learning that was helped by having a good grammar foundation. French of course didn't help much with that. :D Nothing will be wasted, and Spanish is super, super easy to pick up after studying both Latin and French, as it's an easy language anyway. I say go with what you like and realize that you don't have to teach your kids everything. They can always pick up what interests them later. Lay the foundation and have fun.
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