2014-2015 Curriculum What We Used, and How That Worked Out For Us

Now that we've wrapped up school and started our summer break, I'd like to take a minute to share what we used this past year, and how that worked out for us.  Some of the links in this post will be affiliate links.

What we used this year:  
Our base curriculum was My Father's World, year 3, Rome to the Reformation.  This comprehensive "box" curriculum covered Bible, Literature, Vocabulary, History, Geography, Science, Music, and Art for both my 5th grader and my 8th grader, learning together.  This was the spine to which I added Math, Language Arts, and enrichments.

From Rome to the Reformation:
I still love the idea of teaching history chronologically.  I do think that MFW is heavy in some areas and light in others.  For example, we got a lot of Egyptian history, but very little of any other part of Africa.  Their coverage of Central and North American native cultures was the briefest of skims, which is disappointing, when there is so much fascinating information they could have covered.

I liked the book How The Bible Came to Us.  It did a nice job explaining the origins of our current Bible.  It's geared toward a younger age group than the Apologia books we enjoyed so much.

Science was biology one semester and astronomy the other.  My boys enjoyed Apologia astronomy more a lot more than The Body Book.

We did a lot of supplementing in Art this year, which I loved.  The books included in MFW-RTR are God and the History of Art.  These are used more than one year in the My Father's World 5 year cycle.  We liked the first year better than this one.  I feel like the drawing assignments passed my boys' abilities and interests this year.  We had several days where we read the history and skipped the project.

Things I added:
Eli started the year using CTC Math, but ended up switching to IXL.com instead.  Jack used Lifepacs from Alpha Omega for his math.

For language arts, we did some journal writing and both boys used Spelling You See again this year.  I'm delighted with SYS, and have already purchased this for all 3 of my students for next school year.  Jack did a few Word Building paces after he finished his SYS book, to finish off the school year.  We also used The Nose Tree, the Fix-It Grammar book we reviewed from IEW at the beginning of the year.  I like this one a lot.

We reviewed another ARTistic Pursuits book, which we had lots of fun with, and also Home Art Studio, which I fell in love with because it's so easy to "teach," being a DVD.  We'll be using another Home Art Studio DVD next year.  One of the nice things about doing so much art this year is that there is only one item on the supply list that I need to buy.  We already have all the rest!

Some of our fun "extra" projects this year have been making mosaics, stained glass windows, and sheilds.

In addition to the literature in MFW, Jack and I have really enjoyed the Gannon & Wyatt books.  They're about homeschooled twin teen boys that travel the world and have adventures.  We got the Ireland book as soon as it came out and read it aloud together.

In Summary:
We had a great year!  As we cleaned out the boys' binders last week, it was fun to look back at all the things we'd learned.  It would have been neat to have the Exploring Ephesus DVD during Week 11, when we studied Paul's Missionary Journeys, but even getting it late in the year, it was fascinating to see the places we'd read about.  From Roman times to the Protestant Reformation is a lot of history.  My favorite parts were castle times, and the how invention of the printing press came at the perfect time to fan the spark of discontent into the flame of the Reformation.

You may also be interested in what we'll be using next year.

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Apologia Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal

You know how sometimes something is just perfect timing?  Right about the time we started getting out more, we also got the opportunity to review the brand new Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal from our friends at Apologia Educational Ministries.

Our family used to do a lot of field trips, and we've really gotten away from them the last few years.  I recently realized that while the older kids remember our field trip days, the younger kids were either too little, or not here yet, so they haven't experienced the thrills of Monterey Bay Aquarium, the California Missions, Sutter's Fort, and other fun and educational trips we've taken.

We've really enjoyed the Apologia products we've tried out so far, from their iWitness books line to their very popular science textbook series, and this exciting, hot-off-the-press resource did not disappoint.


The field trip journal contains helpful tips for preparing for your field trips, and inspiration to get you started on your adventures, including several interesting field trip destination suggestions I wouldn't have thought of.  I'm looking forward to planning some of these excursions now that school is out.

In addition to pages dedicated to recording specific trips, there are also pages for recording past explorations.  One of these two page spreads contains a map of the U.S. which is just begging to have the states you've been to colored.

The Specific Trip pages are my favorite.  They have places to record the date and time of the trip, the location, books read in preparation or after the trip, places to attach a map or brochure, a picture or drawing box, and space to record what happened and what you want to remember about that specific trip.

We decided to make ours a family journal, rather than belonging to one person.  I had Hannah fill out one spread for the Farmer's Market trip we took, and Eli did one on Big Truck Day.  Both boys wrote about our trip to the County Fair.  We even glued event logos in our book.

One of the cool things about Apologia products is that you get more than just the physical book.  In their science books, this is online access to dozens of links to further your studies on a particular subject.  For the field trip journal, it's a huge list of links for field trip ideas, maps, field guides, all sorts of resources!

I love this book because someday we'll be able to look back through it and remember places we've been, memories we've made.  The kids will be able to see, in their own words and their own handwriting, special events we shared.

Another really neat feature of this spiral bound book is the My Special Spot pages.  The field trip journal guides you through choosing a spot in nature and visiting it in each of the four seasons to observe and document the changes.

There are also pages available for prompted drawings and whatever-you-feel-like drawings.  The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal and a good set of colored pencils are two things you won't want to go adventuring without.

This fun keepsake sells for $22.  You can connect with Apologia on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or G+.  You can read what other Crew families have to say about the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal by clicking the box below:

Color Gallery Acrylic Paint Set #colorgallery

We've done countless art projects this year, and it's always fun to try out new supplies.

New supplies like Color Gallery Acrylic Paints.  We received this lovely, 12 piece set for review purposes.

We did a project that allowed us to get a feel for mixing these paints and showcased their vibrancy.

The boys and I were able to blend them with ease and create their own hues.

Eli has been more interested in painting lately, especially airplanes.

I like being able to let Jack play with nice quality art supplies so he can experience the differences between watercolor, tempera paints, and acrylic paints.

If you're interested, there'a a little video showing how I painted this ice cream cone using  Color Gallery Acrylic Paints.  Color Gallery also makes chalk markers.

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#FreeToBe About the Business of Summer!

School is OUT!  That means fun is in session!  And with fun comes... messes.  Summer is about drippy ice cream cones, Slurpees, playing at the park, spitting cherry pits, sidewalk chalk, finger painting, and more.

I'd rather be enjoying the sunshine with my children than worrying about stains, so I leave that to all free clear laundry detergent.  With Oxi on board, I don't have to worry about pre-treating every little spot.  The mighty pacs are super convenient, so I can switch laundry loads and get back to playtime in a jiffy.

all free clear is the #1 recommended detergent brand by Dermatologists, Allergists, and Pediatricians for sensitive skin. It's tough on stains yet gentle enough for the whole family. Plus, it's safe for use in standard and HE machines. It rinses clean and has a gentle, hypoallergenic formula. Powerful Clean. Gentle on Skin.  all free clear is also 100% hypoallergenic.

You can connect with all free clear on Facebook, and I have a great coupon so you can be #FreeToBe about the business of summer, too!

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Our Week - with a Special Visitor

We were blessed to have Annaliese spend a few days here before her next big adventure!  She arrived Friday, and we all went out to dinner with Grammy and Carl.

Jack and Eli and I made Lego candy this week!

We used silicone Lego molds and candy melts.

Jack was naming all the guys as he popped them out of the mold.  We love Lego mini figures around here.  

We also made a few plain bricks.  They weren't very tasty.  I think we'll try again with real chocolate.  

This week, Eli assembled the world GeoPuzzle, as a geography refresher.  He will be taking Geography in classroom school next year, and has forgotten some of what we learned in our ECC year.

I saw cool kites on Zulily and got Eli an airplane one.  He's been trying and trying to get it up in the air, but it hasn't been windy enough.  I think we missed the best kite weather.

Brayden will be hanging out with us more, as Heather is going to be taking a class soon.  He is enjoying the big kids being out of school so they can play with him.  Sam adores Brayden.

Goofy boy showing off his mad glue stick skillz.

In science this week, we worked on the Moon Dance box from Groovy Lab in a Box.  We learned that Neil Armstrong's footprints are still visible on the moon and why that is.  These are great boxes, and my boys always look forward to digging into them.

It's funny; I set up activities for Katie, and the big kids want to get in on the action, too.  After seeing the multicolored rice at Big Truck Day, I decided to take a leap and mix all of our rice colors together.  I'm glad I did, the kids have really been enjoying it!

Eli built several new K'nex creations this week, including this Space Shuttle.  He's discovered online directions, and it's really opened up a lot of new possibilities for him.

Of course, one of the best parts of this week was just spending time hanging out with Annaliese!

We don't see her very often since she moved about 2 hours away from us 2 summers ago.

But now, we'll be seeing even less of her, as she's moved all the way to AUSTRALIA!  She's off to be a nanny for a year.  Should be quite an adventure.

One morning, I dropped Annaliese and Eli off at Color Me Mine so they could paint together.  Since she wouldn't be here when the items were finished being glazed, I suggested that she make something for Paul for Father's Day.

It will be nice to have a bit of her handiwork here to enjoy.

All the kids will miss Ese, of course, but Jack was particularly sad to see her go.

Somehow, I missed getting a photo of all 4 of my girls together.  When we went out to dinner, I got Annaliese and the little girls, but Brianna was at the end of year banquet for band.  When I took this picture, Hannah was at school.

It's pretty amazing to watch my kids grow up and travel the world.  My big boy is in the Middle East right now, and my big girl is Down Under.  We've been checking out the time zone map to see what time it is where they are versus where we are.

Katie is doing well with Hannah's transition back to school.  It helps having Brayden here to play with, I think, but even on the days when he's not here, she's doing okay.

I had some Chinese music playing in the background, and she asked if it was Chinese.  When I said yes, she asked if she could play with her China blocks.  She can't quite assemble the dragon puzzle on one side yet, but she did match the word pieces and 3 parts of the tail on her own, so I imagine it's not far off.

Seeing Katie with her blocks inspired Jack to get out the world map blocks.  I'm impressed that he can do this puzzle by himself!  It's a challenge.

The high schoolers are out for the summer.  Jack and Eli got to clean out their binders this week.  We've done our last grammar lesson and wrapped up pretty much everything except review work.  Hannah goes to school through the end of June, and then she'll be done, too, and the real summer vacation will start!  I can't wait.


Linking up with Vibrant Homeschooling, Home to 4 Kiddos, and:

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