I’ve had a few people ask me what curriculum I’m using this year. These are my three main curriculum choices for the year. I have selected some supplemental curriculum to go along with these, but this is what we will be doing on a daily basis.

Cowgirl and Princess are seven and going into second grade, Tank is 4 and in preschool, Monkey is 18 months.

The Family School by Latter-Day Learning. We are using this for all the kids. The subjects covered are: Art, Geography, History, Literature, Music, and Science. I bought the online subscription in the spring when they were offering a discounted price. I wanted plenty of time to look it over before the school year started. I’ll admit, I didn’t spend as much time reviewing it as I originally intended, so we’re just jumping in. There were a few things that I liked about this curriculum.

• Teaching subjects from an LDS worldview.
• The one-room schoolhouse format allows me to teach all grade levels at once, with individual assignments for each grade. So I can teach one lesson to everyone and then use the different resources to make sure that everyone is getting exactly what they need at their level.
• The price. I did get mine at a discount, one that they offer every spring. There are pros and cons to a monthly subscription rather than a one time purchase. For this particular curriculum I felt that the monthly subscription was a good option. (If you would like to give it a try you can use this link and you will get $30 off your first month and I will get $5 off my monthly subscription!)
• Foundations. There are 5 foundations lessons that are taught each year at the beginning of the school year that are intended to lay a foundation of good habits to build on for the rest of the year.
• I can teach my lessons from my tablet, there is no need to print everything. There are some things that I prefer to have printed out and I thought that I would not like the online format, but I have found the lessons to be very well laid out and easy to follow. I teach my lessons from my tablet and print out any handouts or assignments.

So far I’ve only taught the first lesson, and reviewed several others, but I really have liked everything that I’ve seen so far and I’m excited to use The Family School for the rest of the year and see if we still like it.

The Good and the Beautiful by Jenny Phillips is the Language Arts curriculum that I’ll be using for A and M. I printed out one course book and one handwriting book for each of them and had the books spiral bound.

• There are worksheets within the curriculum, since I printed and bound the books my girls just write in the books. This way everything stays together and we have a record of what they’ve been learning.
• I love the Handwriting books, at the bottom of each page is a space for them to draw or color after they’ve finished the handwriting on the page.
• The curriculum is very low prep, it really is one that you can just open the book and begin teaching. There is some prep work at the beginning – assembling the mini books, cutting out phonics and sight word cards, printing the activity pack and cutting out all the pieces – but once that’s done, everything is ready to go.
• There is a FREE PDF download of levels 1-5!

Saxon Math We love Saxon!

• Manipulatives are used in most of the lessons from Kindergarten through third grade. I have found that using manipulatives to teach math skills helps the younger children to understand the concepts better and grasp what is being taught. The pieces can be put out for kids to play with between lessons and they end up doing math without even knowing it!
• Lessons are very easy to follow. Very little prep required, the lesson begins with a list of materials needed and anything that needs to be done or gathered before the lesson begins.
• Math concepts are built line upon line. The lessons build upon each other, and there is lots of review to make sure children truly understand and remember what is being taught.