Our 2012-2013 Homeschool Curriculum Choices

We will be back into the swing of things starting July 23rd. We're starting a bit earlier than usual to allow for me to take time off in September to have the baby and readjust to very little sleep, which I haven't had to experience in well over six years. I know that many homeschoolers are currently shopping around trying to choose the best curriculum for this year or trying to replace something that didn't work last year. Here's our list of what we're using this year and why.

Main Curriculum:


Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. 

This is the curriculum I actually purchased to use last year, but shelved it after a few weeks. It includes all of the plans for our social studies, reading, spelling, and Bible. It covers all subjects, but I am only using those three as written and being a bit more eclectic with everything else. I like the Charlotte Mason approach to learning, and Heart of Dakota implements a well-laid out lesson guide using Charlotte Mason's philosophies.

Math: Saxon 2

This is a switch over from Singapore Math. While I agree with everything everyone says about Singapore teaching mental math and how to think through math problems, my daughter needs a bit more drill than that curriculum offers. After researching tons of math programs, I decided to try Saxon this year for 2nd grade. It seems to have the repetition needed and still includes the hands-on activities that make math engaging. Whether we will stick with it or not remains to be seen. I think math is one area we may switch around a bit to make sure each year "fits" just right.

Science: God's Wonderful Works by CLP, 101 Cool Science Experiments, Nature Study


God's Wonderful Works comes with HOD's curriculum, but instead of following the schedule in HOD we will be going through the text systematically. I also purchased the test booklet offered by CLP. We will be dedicating Friday to science experiment day using 101 Cool Science Experiments. Wednesday will be nature study day utilizing free nature printables I find online and her nature notebook.

Language Arts: A Reason for Handwriting T, Rod & Staff Grammar 2


This is our last year of formal handwriting lessons, and I've chosen to continue with ARFH using the T book which starts with print and finishes up teaching cursive. I like the simple lessons and how it integrates Bible verses for practice. Rod and Staff was chosen because it's the curriculum used by HOD, and I found very few negative reviews. It's simple, to the point, and seems to really teach the basics of grammar that is very much lacking in the public schools today. Spelling is integrated into the HOD curriculum, so I don't have a separate program for this subject.

Social Studies: American Pioneers and Patriots, Stories of the Pilgrims, Boys and Girls of Colonial Days


All of these texts are integrated into the HOD curriculum, and we will be following the activities and lessons as written in the lesson guide.

Reading: Various Book Titles Recommended by HOD, Explode the Code 3-4, Phonics Pathways, Reading Pathways


We are continuing with Explode the Code because it's great practice that reinforces what we learn in Phonics Pathways. We will finish up with Phonics Pathways by December, if not earlier, and with Reading Pathways shortly after that. Avlyn really took off with the phonics instruction methods of Phonics Pathways combined with the extra corresponding practice of Reading Pathways.


Art: Deep Space Sparkle Website





I love this website! I spent a couple of hours browsing the site and designing up to 30 weeks worth of lessons. We are starting this year with color theory. The blog author is a public school teacher, but her website is so full of examples and organized so well that it's really rather easy to find art lessons you can use from kindergarten and up.

And that's what we're using for 2nd grade this year.You can see what other families are choosing at: School Days Gone By Link Up  Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschool Freebie of the Month - Magazine download

Have you ever seen or read about a magazine and wondered if it was any good? I know that I have, but I often skip on subscribing unless I can see a sample issue first. Some speciality mags are hard to find at the local bookstore, so I do sometimes wonder if I'm missing out on a really good publication. This month's freebie is from Owl Kids. This company publishes three youth-oriented magazines for kids aged 3-13 and allows you to download an entire issue from each magazine. This is a great way to get an idea of whether or not this would be a good addition to your homeschool. We live in Missouri, so we get a free copy of a MO. nature magazine each month that my daughter really enjoys reading. Enjoy and happy homeschooling!

How to Save Money on Homeschooling Curriculum

With this being the first year that we've bought a prepackaged curriculum, I just realized the investment we would be making would require some budgeting. During my research, I saw packages for over $1,000 or for as little as $300. My goal was to see what I could get for $200, the amount I'd probably spend on school clothes for the year.

I knew that I needed reading, math, language arts, spelling, handwriting, phonics, history, and science as the core for first grade. Since Avlyn will be 7 in December, I will need to keep a record book and portfolio of her work that covers the basic subjects. I researched, read, looked at samples, prayed, and finally decided on what to get. If I purchased everything direct from the publisher I would spend around $465.00 But by looking at used curriculum and discount sites I spent exactly $245.56, over $200 less than buying from the publisher and not much more than what I was hoping to spend. Here's a breakdown of what I did, all paid prices include my shipping costs, too:


We decided to go with the Heart of Dakota curriculum. This curriculum is Christ-centered and offers everything needed for a full year. While I like most of their choices, there were some things I wanted to change. If I had purchased the entire curriculum from HOD, it would have cost me $305 - still very affordable, but even more over my budget than necessary. Also, I didn't need some of the elements in the package and didn't want one of the choices included. So I was off to mix and match and save.


Heart of Dakota - I purchased the economy package and added the science text for $121.37. This gave us all of our history, science, and the teacher manual which is definitely worth the money. The publisher recommended a certain emerging reader set that they sell for $65.33. I went on Amazon and searched for every title. I found every book for a reduced price and most were available for free shipping, making my emerging reader set $43.36  The curriculum also requires read aloud books in certain genres throughout the year. I chose not to purchase any of those and just waited for my teacher guide to arrive. When it did, I found the book list in the back and noted that at least one title from each genre is available at our library. Since these take a couple of weeks to go through, it's not really necessary to have all of them available when school starts for us. The company sells those books for around $50, our cost $0.00.


The next step was to find our math. HOD offers Singapore Math as the option. After much prayer and research, I chose to go ahead with Singapore over Horizons math. Now I could have purchased the workbooks needed directly from HOD, but they don't offer a reduced price on it unless I buy the entire package, which I wasn't doing. Now the HOD curricula only recommends the workbooks for first grade, but being that I'm new to Singapore Math and teaching math in a different way than I learned, I really wanted the textbooks and home instructor's guides that are available. So I was able to find both textbooks and the first home instructor's guide on Ebay for $23.00. I purchased the two workbooks from Christian Book Distributors for 20.97, making my math curriculum a total of $43.97. Had I purchased it all directly from Singapore, I would have spent around $70. I am waiting to see if I need the 2nd instructor's guide before purchasing it.


I wanted to get A Reason for Handwriting as our main writing curriculum. HOD does offer copywork as their handwriting program, but I thought A Reason For fit my daughter better. We will probably do HOD copywork the second half of the year. From the publisher the workbook is around $15. I went on ebay and got the workbook and the teacher guide good for K-6th grade for $12. If I had purchased both of those from the publisher it would have been $47.50.


We still need to work on phonics next  year and I've chosen Phonics Pathways. The 10th edition just came out and the publisher wants $40.65. I went on Amazon again and found the new edition for $24.86.


Price Breakdown:


Heart of Dakota  original price of wanted items: 241.76     paid price for wanted items: 121.37

Singapore Math   original price: 69.60     paid price: 43.97

Emerging Reader books   original price: 65.33    paid price: 43.36

A Reason for Handwriting   original price: 47.50    paid price: 12.00

Phonics Pathways 10th ed.   original price: 40.65    paid price: 24.86


Original Pricing Total: 464.84    Discount pricing total: 245.56

Total Savings: 219.28

I could have saved even more money had I been patient enough to wait for our particular curriculum from HOD to go on sale through the message board. I've seen the teacher guide on sale for pretty cheap, but I was eager to get my hands on it, and I do like to support the publisher somewhat for all their hardwork in creation of the curriculum. Hope this breakdown helps you see how I managed to save over $200 and still get everything I needed for first grade. Happy homeschooling!