Forgetful Momma

Secular Homeschooling in Canada

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Our Grade 3 Curriculum Choices

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The summer is almost over. Homeschool moms every where are thinking about what grade 3 curriculum they are going to use for their children in the coming year. I am no different, except that I know what we’ll be using for this coming year for grade one, and for grade five.

Grade 3 Curriculum Choices 2019-2020

Our Grade 3 Curriculum Choices

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

Science and History

I originally bought the Waldock’s Wizards and Wands for my oldest but Brookland, at eight, going into grade three, has decided that she likes Harry Potter and wants to do this along with her sister. I suspect it’s more about doing school with her sister. We will be doing the science Alchemy, Astronomy, Herbology, Potions, and, the science topic she is most looking forward to – Magical Creatures.

Math

This will be her first year doing Teaching Textbooks, and she is super excited, and so am I. I’m not a fan of math, I do not like math at all and I am happy that she’s old enough for TT this year. Which will also give me the time to work one on one with Gauge.

Language Arts Grade 3 Curriculum

This year we are using Grammar Galaxy: Protostar for the first time, and we’re excited to be using exciting short stories to learn reading skills, literary concepts, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, composition and speaking. Fun learning this year. Something we are doing a little more each year as I get more comfortable.

Social Studies

Social studies this year is all about Canada. In September and October in particular, we’ll be focusing on learning about past prime minsters as we come into an election.

Diana Bailey  has amazing resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. She has a Canadian History category. As well as a Canadian Social Studies category. I have a number of her resources that we’ll be using this year, as well as resources from the Canadian Homeschooler.

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Thinking Tree Books in Our Homeschool

Grammar Galaxy – Secular Language Arts Curriculum

Homeschooling Multiple Kids with Ease

Our Grade 5 Curriculum Choices for 2019-2020

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Everyone else is sharing their curriculum choices for the up coming year, and I want to too. Mainly because we are no longer using boxed curriculum. We are mixing and matching everything. One comment my girls both made after last year was that they didn’t like being told what books they had to read (language arts), not all the books were of interest to them, nor held their interest. This year we are changing it up and making it more interesting.

Our Grade 5 Curriculum Choices for 2019-2020

Our Grade 5 Curriculum Choices for 2019-2020

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

Science and History

A few months ago I found Waldock’s Wizards and Wands, a Harry Potter themed curriculum. I knew this would be perfect for my Harry Potter loving 10 year old, going into grade five.

We are going to be reading along with the suggested reading in the language arts, but that is simply because we love the books. We are planning to the science Alchemy, Astronomy, Herbology, Potions, and, her favorite science topic – Magical Creatures.

Austin loves history, she totally and completely gets this from her father, so Muggle Studies is right up her alley studying Medieval, Viking, Roman, and Egyptian history.

Math Curriculum

Teaching Textbooks. Done. It was the easiest choice of all the curriculum. She loved it last year, she excelled at it, why change what works right? She has to get a certain percentage on each lesson, before she does the next. For me, this is to make sure she is understanding the work. We work through anything she might need a little help on.

Language Arts Grade 5 Curriculum Choices

This year we are trying something completely new. We are using Grammar Galaxy Red Star (which is new, just out in June 2019). No boring text to read, instead exciting mission manuals. Short, comical stories teach concepts in a memorable way. Students discover the havoc that ensues when the evil Gremlin tampers with the English language. Parents or students read the text themselves, and at the grade 5 level, she’ll be reading it herself.

Vocabulary words are defined in the text. Discussion questions follow each lesson to check for understanding. Students then complete a corresponding mission in the mission manual that reinforces the concepts. Parents can provide as much help as necessary.

Red Star Language Arts

Social Studies

I’m only separating this from history because we will be focusing on Canada. In September/October we’ll be learning about past Prime Ministers for example as we will be at election time and they’ll be hearing about it. You can see what resources we are using for learning more about Canada in these two posts: Canadian Social Studies and History Options and Books About Canada for Your Homeschool.

Other subjects

(These are not required by Saskatchewan Home Education so I do not specifically plan anything for them.)

Art, will be added through our daily/weekly life. We are a creative bunch so I don’t worry too much about fitting it in. Plus the Waldock’s Wizards and Wands does include some art throughout.

Health is the same, it is a daily thing. We cook and bake together, we garden and such which covers this nicely. We talk about staying fit and active, which my children have no problem with, and they do know that this Momma exercises most mornings as well. We are really quite open about things.

Our Grade 1 Curriculum Choices for 2019-2020

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This is the last year that I get to write about grade 1 curriculum choices. I feel old, and I feel like our homeschool journey has only just begun at the same time. This year, Gauge who will be six in November will be doing more school, I’ll actually be planning for him rather than letting him go only at his own pace.

Our Grade 1 Curriculum Choices for 2019-2020

Just like in the past, I want to combine some subjects together, with the age gap between Gauge (5) and Austin (10) it is a little more difficult however.

Social Studies

We’ll be doing social studies together, yay! In September/October we’ll be learning about past Prime Ministers for example as we will be at election time and they’ll already be hearing about it, so this is the perfect time to go a little deeper.

You can see what resources we are using for learning more about Canada in these two posts: Canadian Social Studies and History Options and Books About Canada for Your Homeschool.

Math

For grade one math we’re using RightStart Math. I think it gives them a great start and it is fun, and at 5 or 6 years old, fun is important. We have used RightStart in the past with my girls.

Language Arts Grade 1 Curriculum Choice

This year we are trying something completely new. We are using Grammar Galaxy Nebula. No boring text to read, instead exciting mission manuals. Short, comical stories teach concepts in a memorable way. Students discover the havoc that ensues when the evil Gremlin tampers with the English language. There now flashcard packs available as well to use with this level.

Nebula is the first in a series of language arts texts for first to sixth graders, teaches: Reading Skills, Literary Concepts, Vocabulary, Spelling, Grammar, Composition and Speaking.

Science

I love science, in particular I love BookShark science to be completely honest. And that is what we are going to be using this year for Gauge’s grade one science. He did sit and listen to it two years ago when we went through it with his sisters so this is will be a fun “refresher” to go through again. It is hands on, not a lot of worksheets to do, and the books are great.

We aren’t going to focus on a lot for grade one. He’ll most likely listen to books his older sisters and I read out loud, and learn as they go along. He days will not be long, he is still young and play is the most important work for him.

Our Homeschool Curriculum Picks: Grades K, 2, and 4

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We’re getting excited to dive into our new curriculum and learn things in the coming school year. Austin is nine this year and working on fourth grade work. Brookland is seven, working on second grade work. Gauge will be five in November, and is excited to be starting kindergarten.

Our Homeschool Curriculum Picks: Grades K, 2, and 4

Our 2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum Picks: Grades K, 2, and 4

*I received BookShark curriculum for my kids in exchange for posts on how we use it. We love BookShark. This post does also contain some affiliate links, see my privacy policy for more information.*

Are you as excited for a new school year as I am? My middle child says she can’t wait to start up again, and I think, like me, she wants to start enjoying all the new books, the new pencils, and the other new things that I have stashed away for the upcoming year. I really like the routine of school. Summers are fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants fun, but the structure of our homeschool schedule is comforting.

Our Homeschool Curriculum Picks: Grades K, 2, and 4

Secular Language Arts – Curriculum Picks

Secular Kindergarten Language Arts

For kindergarten this year, we’re using BookShark’s Language Arts. I’m excited to use their language arts for the first time, and with all three kids at that.

This year Gauge will be working on more on learning letters and phonics through activity sheets, copywork and writing assignments, though I’ll be helping with those at this point, of course. Basically everything that we have been working on here and there will become more routine and put together into actual lessons instead of scattered. All our pre-K fun learning comes together here.

Language Arts Level 2 and Language Arts Level 2 Advanced

I have my two girls studying science and history together, using BookShark Level 2 this year. BookShark’s helpful customer service recommended that we use the language arts level 2 advanced for my fourth grader because it ties in with the history curriculum. I took side by side photos to show you the difference between the two for week one.

Our 2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum Picks: Grades K, 2, and 4

You can see that they’ll be working on the same concepts but with different words and different work, as well as reading different books. My fourth grader will be doing more reading alone this year while I read with her brother and sister.

Secular Science – Curriculum Picks

We loved using science level 1 so much last year that it was natural that we would continue onto science level 2 this year. We’ll all be learning about:

  • historical and mechanical technology (how things are made) which is going to trill my oldest and her need to know how everything works
  • geology
  • meteorology which I can’t wait for! We have some crazy weather here in Saskatchewan with hail, sun, and tornadoes occurring often in the summer months.
  • biology of plants, animals, babies and habitats – We’ll all be very into this topic!

Secular History – Curriculum Picks

This year we are using Reading with History level 2 because, again, we loved level 1 and I loved being able to read one book at a time to all my kids and having projects that we can work on together.

Having just a couple of subjects that we can all do together is a life saver.

This second part of Intro to World History is going to help us see how history has had a real impact on how we live today.

We’ll get to learn real historical answers to their questions such as:

  • Why did castles, knights and jousting tournaments fade away?
  • Why aren’t there very many Kings and Queens in the world anymore?
  • Why do we study Math and Science?
  • Why do people from different cultures tend to view the world so differently? – I’m excited about this one as Saskatchewan is full of people from different cultures, including us who are from the East Coast of Canada where things are a bit different there from here.

I’m not a history buff at all, but these are topics that I am really interested in diving into with my kids this year. One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that I get to learn along with my kids. When one of us has a question, we dive deeper into a topic and get to learn so much.

Our Homeschool Curriculum Picks: Grades K, 2, and 4

Secular Math – Curriculum Picks

We’re using RightStart Math level A and C this year. Using level A, Gauge will be getting a firm foundation of number sense through quantity recognition and visualization strategies using the AL Abacus.

RS2 Level A helps the child understand quantities based around 5s and 10s. This level includes addition and subtraction to 10, place value to the hundreds, and some basic geometry and measurement. Money and clocks are introduced.

Brookland will be using RightStart level C which continues to build on known addition and subtraction facts, works with 4-digit addition and subtraction and 2-digit mental calculations and introduces multiplication and fractions. We’ll also be working on area and perimeter, measurement, money, time, and basic fractions.

Austin is using Teaching Textbooks this year, level 4. You can read our review on that here. I’ll say she loves it, and I definitely love it. She really enjoys the independence with it, she can go at her own pace and being online she can work on it when we go to the library for the younger ones’ story time.

All these math programs can be purchased separately, or you can get them with your all-in-one BookShark curriculum as well.

Recommended Products for your Homeschool

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BookShark Science Curriculum

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Reading History – Learning about the World

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Math Review Level 4 Teaching Textbooks

Our First Grade Math Choice - RightStart Math 2017

Our First Grade Math Choice – RightStart Math 2017

BTS-Blog-Hop-Sept-2018 Curriculum

End of Homeschool Year Evaluation

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We are finished with our school year early this year. I’m almost a little sad because it was a really good year and I really want that feeling to flow into our upcoming year. We learned a lot this year, like what works and what doesn’t work at this time, and what we may need to change. Our school board requires a few work samples and a periodic log in for each child, which gives us a great chance to look over everything we have done through the year. I did a brief end of year evaluation of our 2017-2018 year and thought I would share it with you as well.

End of Homeschool Year Evaluation

End of Homeschool Year Evaluation

End of Homeschool Year Evaluation 2017-2018

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

The Great

This was our first year using a curriculum. I really wish we had used BookShark from the beginning, it’s been that great. So much easier than trying to juggle a bunch of workbooks and trying to find books on our own to go along with what we were wanting to learn about.

This year we used BookShark Science and Reading with History Level 1, it was great, our first time using BookShark, and my first time not having to plan any of the schoolwork. It was heaven! BookShark does all the planning so I didn’t have to worry about it, I didn’t have to stress, it was open and go, a homeschool mom dream.

End of Homeschool Year Evaluation

The Good

My kids did great with math, turns out it comes quickly to them, they get it from their dad. This year the girls used RightStart Math. While a bit more common core than I would like, it is repetitive which I love, they are able to get a great understanding of new concepts before moving on and continuing to use what they learned in the beginning at the end too, there is no learned it, move on and forget it happening.

We did end up turning to audio books for some of the read aloud books in the Reading with History curriculum, part I needed a break from reading, part my kids were tired of listening to me. Listening to them in the vehicle worked great, and made our drives a lot less boring.

 Our Lessons

I know it’s usually the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but there was nothing ugly about our year. Even with days where we had to just walk away from it all. I learned a lot about our homeschool needs and style. Such as:

  • I want the curriculum planned out for me
  • My kids are like a dog with a bone on topics they are interested in, the human body for instance went longer in our home than in the plans
  • They will blast through curriculum if I let them

I cannot wait to start to see what the next homeschooling year will bring.

Similar posts that you may be interested in:

BookShark is Secular Homeschool Curriculum

BookShark is Secular Homeschool Curriculum

RightStart Math - RS2 Math Set

RightStart Math – RS2 Math Set