We are finishing up our third week of our full homeschool curriculum for the 2014-2015 school year.  I blogged about my 2nd grade curriculum choices, so now I wanted to share with you what I will be doing with my daughter for her 4th grade year.

There is something about the 4th grade that really makes me feel like it’s time to buckle down and get serious about this education thing.  Sure, we were serious before, but more in the 3 Rs kind of way.  This year feels different.  I’m drawn to a very full, rich curriculum that covers all of the subjects in a way that will really engage her and where she can truly dive in to learn.

With my houseful of littles, my 9 year old 4th grade is the oldest.  Since I spend so much time taking care of the younger ones throughout the day still, I’ve made Grace’s curriculum much more student intensive and have tried to take a lot of the actual teaching off of myself.  This sounds lazy, but I assure you that I still spend a good hour or so helping her, answering questions, explaining concepts, and doing some one on one work with her.

Like her brother, she is able to track her assignments on Http://homeschoolskedtrack.com.  I’ve input what my expectations for her are for each day (Tuesday and Wednesday are lighter days due to our out-of-the-home commitments), and she is able to check things off as she completes them.

We also got a new computer for the kids because the CD-Rom drive doesn’t work anymore on my husband’s computer and our Chromebooks don’t have that option.  This has been helpful for their math program, and I’ve also put icons up on their individual start up screens (they each have their own) with direct links to their frequently used websites for school.

Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, but I highly endorse them because we’re really using them.

Our 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Math

Teaching Textbooks 4 (independently)

Language Arts

Monarch 4th Grade Language Arts (independently – I only have to grade a few things and explain a few concepts that she’s unfamiliar with occasionally.)

All About Spelling 1 (with me)  I suspect that she’ll finish this off quickly during the year and have already purchased level 2 to begin next.

She is also doing the 20 minutes of independent reading followed by writing 2-3 sentences in her response journal.  So far, she’s really enjoyed doing this and is reading more and more because she’s getting hooked on her books!

History

Veritas Press Self-Paced History (independent)

Science

Aha!Science (This is super cheap, just $15 per student per year, through Learning.com and only has a few experiments.  You can control how many, if any, that you want them to be assigned.)

Typing

Typing Pal (independently)

Electives

HomeschoolPiano (independently)

Easy Peasy Art – Modern (with her brother/independently)

Gymnastics and Dance once a week with other local homeschoolers

How It’s Working So Far

As with her brother’s school year, this is working out beautifully.  There’s a lot less pressure on me to be constantly present for both of them, but I know that every subject is being covered thoroughly.  She is loving most of the subjects and loathing others, just like any normal kid I guess.  The thing is, she changes her least favorite subject from one day to the next, so I think it’s more of a gripey kid problem than a curriculum issue.

She’s in this stage right now where she doesn’t really want to attempt things that she perceives as difficult.  It’s frustrating, but I make her keep plugging along!

Her very favorite subject is history, so I am fairly certain that I’ll be purchasing another course next year and having her and her brother complete it through Veritas Press since they offer sibling discounts!  She’s also really enjoying Teaching Textbooks, so I plan on keeping up with that, too!  What I love about that program is that I can purchase once and use for all of the kids.  It’s a great investment.

Homeschoolers, when did your school year start?