Scholastic E-Books $1 This Week!

We're so excited to see that Scholastic is offering their e-books for $1 again! Maybe you took advantage of this last time we posted about their sale, maybe you missed out and now is your chance! This offer is good August 20th through the 27th. These books can really save you some time. Because they're all in digital format, making copies for multiple children is super convenient. No need to scan or use a copier, just print off the pages you need!

Use this link: Scholastic Teacher Express $1 Deals

Our Boxes Came!

We were so excited to come home today and find 2 boxes waiting for us on the porch! I knew right away what they must be. Let me tell you, I placed both the Heart of Dakota and the Christianbook.com order on Tuesday and they both arrived today! That's with standard shipping. Pretty impressive! Natalie was very excited. Taylor on the other hand, was a bit disappointed. The boxes everything came in were not big enough to fit his entire body...

Looking through everything, I am pretty happy with this selection. Initially, I am a little disappointed that the Heart of Dakota teacher's guide is bound, rather than in a spiral or 3 ring notebook. I was hoping to put it into my own binder. O well, minor details.

Pictured above is an inside view of the Heart of Dakota teacher's guide, and below is a side view.

I had a quick feeling of regret for buying the complete Horizon's Math kit. My thought was, could I have made do without the teacher's guide and saved a lot of money? But, after looking through it, I think the teacher's guide is going to be a very nice thing to have (it includes answer keys, scope and sequence, assessment tests, worksheets, and daily lesson plans).

Being a very visual learner myself, I love that Horizons is colorful and visually appealing. My only gripe about the teachers guide, is that it too is not spiral bound and includes reproducible worksheets that will be a pain to copy. Horizons does offer these worksheets in an unbound format on their website for an additional $10, but I'd really appreciate a free PDF version since I did already purchase the curriculum!

None of the books are overwhelmingly huge. They are all lightweight and colorful from what I can tell!

Pictured above is the American Pioneers and Patriots history textbook we will be using (though the word "textbook" may be a bad word to use because I instantly think: dry and boring) This book is pretty small and colorful!

Pictured here is the Boys and Girls of Colonial Days. 

The God's Wonderful Works science book, pictured below, looks fun! I like the way it is set up, to cover earth science by focusing on the 6 days of creation and what God created on each of those days.

Pictured above is the Stories of the Pilgrims book.

Of course I will be adding in a stack of 20 or so, other early readers, biographies, and literature books to go along with this pile! I will refer in later posts, to the book lists I will be using. It's nice to know though, that this is my core. Everything that needs to be covered is right here. There will be days we only cover the basics. However, throughout the year I also hope to add in and enrich these core subjects with activities, stories and projects that will speak to Natalie's specific learning style, interests and gifts. After all, that is one of the best parts about homeschooling!

School this Fall

Well, the Summer is passing quickly, as it always does! I am trying not to stress over preparations for this coming school year. As many of you know, I was homeschooled myself from Kindergarten (back when it was practically illegal!) up through my highschool graduation. I have a great memory of my childhood and remember pretty clearly what curriculum worked well for my siblings and I, which books we loved and what books we despised. This knowledge has definitely given me a head start and extra confidence, but there are so many options out there and new publishers springing up all the time.



My oldest daughter is going to be 6 this Fall and will be working at the 1st grade level. I've pieced together a variety of books and activities for her over the past couple years to cover Preschool and Kindergarten level work. I've purchased a lot of stuff at Dollar Tree, library book sales, Costco and Amazon. Not to mention all the free stuff found on-line and in my mom's home library. She has tested at a 2nd grade reading level and 1st grade math level. Even though her birth date is on the line between placing her in Kindergarten or 1st grade, we'll proceed with first grade level curriculum. I feel that with her officially starting 1st grade, it is time to get serious!

I want to share my journey with you through the vast sea of curriculum choices. I haven't made any final decisions yet, but I wanted to share what I am currently looking into. Though I was homeschooled myself, this will be my first child starting out in homeschooling. I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old following behind her. I am also departing on this journey with a friend and her son who will be in 2nd grade. My hope is to find a curriculum that is all-encompassing, complete, with an easy to use teachers guide, lots of customization options and flexibility, i want it to follow the classical education and Charlotte Mason models, to be literature rich and use lots of stories that bring history to life, oh and I want it to be cheap! Am I asking too much? We shall see...

If money was no object, I would totally just purchase, without question, a complete package through Sonlight Curriculum. My family used this for years, and we loved it! But a complete package through them can cost $800+ dollars. You get A LOT of stuff for your money, but still, that's a lot of money. Their packages can also be used for multiple siblings at various grade levels, which helps cut the cost for families with multiple school age kids. Of course, the advantage I have that my parents did not, is the invention of ebay, craigslist and Amazon used books. No matter what curriculum path I choose to follow, I will always explore the option of piecing things together individually, be it used or discounted.

Follow my trail! Here is a list of the places I have stopped in at this week:

1. Cathy Duffy Reviews - Number one site for reviews! Buy her e-book for a complete list, some of her reviews are available free on this site
2. Sonlight Curriculum - Somewhat pricey, but a great curriculum that is super fun!
3. My Fathers World Curriculum - A top contender for this Fall
4. Heart of Dakota Publishing - An other top contender for this Fall
5. Calvert Homeschool - A serious education with live support and optional teacher involvement/assessment, but it will cost you over $1,000 a year. Not for me.
6. Christian Liberty Press - A basic package of everything you'd need, without a lot of extras. No reading books included. Uses basic text books, so it would be up to you to supplement with stories and activities to bring things to life. Not a bad price though; around $150 for younger grades, $200 for older students.
7. The Well Trained Mind
8. CBD: Homeschooling
9. 10 Tips

My main focuses is to find a good math and science curriculum that works well with my daughter's learning style, build a history program that is literature rich and works through time chronologically, then add in handwriting, spelling, Bible, etc. I want my friend and I, who has the son in 2nd grade, to be on the same page in history (literally!). To work through stories from history and read the same classic literature pieces, so that our kids have that continuity and we can team up for field trips and reports that support the period we are studying. I also want to lay the groundwork, so that when my two youngest children are school age, they can jump in on the same time period in history we are currently studying, only using their own age specific math, science, reading level books, etc.

 Has anyone out there used Heart of Dakota or My Fathers World curriculum? I am currently searching for reviews. Keep checking in and sharing insights from your own journey through curriculum choices!
~Sarah

My Top Picks

I was in the process of compiling a list of homeschooling resources for a friend, when I thought, why not utilize this for a blog entry? So here ya go, a collection of some of my favorites (just off the top of my head)!
 General Information:
Information Network for Christian Homes
Home School Legal Defense 
The Well Trained Mind

Curriculum:
Sonlight Curriculum
CBD Homeschool Store
Calvert School

Conventions:
INCH Convention - MI

Blogs:
Confessions of a Homeschooler
Living Life Intentionally

Educational Games:
Starfall
PBS Kids

Specifics:
Power Glide: French
Power Glide: Spanish
Key Curriculum Math
Apologia Science
Explode the Code: Phonics and Reading
Italic Handwriting
Saxon Math
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons


Must Reads: