Pathways Academy: 2011-2012 Curriculum

****This was previously published by me on 31 Rubies****

Can I share a secret with you? I am like a child on Christmas morning when it comes to purchasing new curriculum. Even though, as my husband said a few weeks ago while I was frantically browsing vendor websites, curriculum was becoming a four letter word in our home. I knew exactly what I wanted in my mind, but just couldn't find it in a pretty little package on any website.

But then we attended the annual NC homeschool convention and all those curriculum vendors were set up just for my browsing pleasure. I was in paradise. Now, silly me went to the convention with plans of not buying anything while I was there. I was just planning to "get some ideas". I got some ideas all right..and came home with a backseat full of shiny new books!

I knew that we wanted to make some changes in curriculum for next year, mainly for Science and Social Studies, but didn't really have any plans to switch our Phonics and Math. That was before I learned to value of cost comparison. In my opinion being loyal to one vendor is silly if you can find the same material by a different company at a cheaper price. We ended up switching all of our curriculum. I'll let you know in a few months if I still think this was a good decision.

Here's what we decided on:

Math- Horizons 1st grade

Phonics & Reading- Horizons 1st grade

Science- Purposeful Design- Level One (We struggled with finding a science curriculum, but once we found this one, we were in love! I highly recommend checking it out!)

Spelling- Modern Curriculum Press-Spelling Workout Level A

History/Geography/Social Studies/World Religions- We are going to be doing a year long study of people/places of the world. We have pieced together our own lessons for this, but found some awesome books to use. A few of them are from My Father's World, a couple are from Usborne books, and some we found at a used book stand. My husband will be the primary teacher for this subject, but we are all looking forward to it.

Language Arts- Weekly Reader Publishing- Daily Language Practice Grade 1

Bible- Day By Day Devotions: 7-minute character growing devotions for kids by Karyn Henley

Read-A-Louds/Unit Studies: The Little House on the Prairie Series, Charlotte's Web, Shiloh, and Sarah Plain and Tall.

Art and Music will accompany most of these subjects, so I don't have a specific curriculum for those. Maybe next year.

And to keep it all together...or as my husband says "a planner for your planners". Yes, I have an addiction to buying planners. I LOVE this one. It has absolutely everything I could want in it. The Well Planned Day. If you haven't already bought yours...you should!